Please Help ID Woven Basket Beaded with Orcas

[wagesea]

Hello! Greatly appreciate any info / help identifying this woven beaded basket. This was donated to a local charity thrift shop that I list things for. It is very intricately beaded , very high quality. I at first thought it may be from the pacific northwest native american tribes but now I think it resembles baskets from Bali. Do they have killer whales in Bali? lol.     Any help appreciated!

[maxine*j]

Not a Native American basket.  Although I can't tell you for sure where it's from, I'd say Bali is a good guess. 

As for orcas, killer whales, they live in all oceans at all latitudes. 

[debora_34_]

Bali is not known for beadwork.  This is described as a "Fully beaded Paiute Indian knob top gift basket. Cobalt, black, purple, gold, and white beads in geometric patterns and images of Orcas around the middle."  Perhaps you should so some research along those lines.

Debora

[maxine*j · Accepted solution]

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@debora_34_ wrote:

Bali is not known for beadwork.  This is described as a "Fully beaded Paiute Indian knob top gift basket. Cobalt, black, purple, gold, and white beads in geometric patterns and images of Orcas around the middle."  Perhaps you should so some research along those lines.

Debora

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I think that basket is misidentified.  As for beaded baskets from Bali, here's a photo from the famous Ubud Market, one of many photos of these hand-beaded baskets I found in this Google image search:

https://www.google.com/search?q=Bali+beaded+baskets&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjMoa299vTfA...:

COLORFUL BEAADED BAKSETS - UBUD MARKET - BALI

[maxine*j]

Someone bought this beaded basket with orca as Native American, later learned it was from Bali:

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/bali-native-hand-beaded-orca-basket-152974546

[all_fakes]

As others have said, this is not a native basket from the Northwest.  I'm not an expert on baskets from outside the Northwest, but I certainly would advise that anyone thinking of buying any supposed native basket should do their research: check online catalogs of import baskets; visit museums and galleries that feature the type of basket you are interested in; talk to people who are experts.

An excellent book for anyone thinking they want to buy Native American baskets is Art of the Basket, Traditional Basketry from Around the World, by Bryan Sentance. 

This book includes many types of Native American baskets, but also includes baskets from around the world that are often mistaken for native American.

And of course, there are baskets from Africa and elsewhere that intentionally imitate Native American styles.   Unless a person is familiar with those imitations, I'd advise a great deal of caution.

[wagesea]

I saw the same thing when I was researching thats what led me there. And because of the bright colors

[wagesea]

I disagree as I have come across many similar in my research. Maybe not well known but there are many hand beaded baskets similar to this one.

Thank you for the excellent info and photo. That gives me another direction to look anyway.
Much Appreciated!