Coiled basket with rattlesnake design,

ca. 1910

A reaction against the industrially manufactured, often shoddy furniture and decorative arts of the mid-nineteenth century ushered the simplified, handmade forms of the Arts and Crafts reform movement into prominence. Among its most innovative practitioners was Charles Rohlfs, whose hand-carved tall back chair with an organic, tendril-like back and elaborately worked stretcher is exceptional for its design and execution. Weaver Kitty Johnson’s coiled basket with a stylized rattlesnake motif, made around the same time, also exhibits expert craftsmanship, and her wares were avidly sought by Anglo-American collectors. While similar baskets traditionally featured abstract designs, Johnson was encouraged by Anglo promoters to incorporate naturalistic motifs to appeal to customers who, in a problematic expression of anti-modernism during a time of increased commodification, preferred to maintain a characterization of Native Americans as bound to nature.