Container with lid

about 1800

Object PlaceMaine (Northeastern) or southern coastal or interior New Brunswick, United States

Medium/TechniqueElm bark, split root, black dye

Dimensions19.05 x 21.59 x 40 cm (7 1/2 x 8 1/2 x 15 3/4 in.)

Credit LineMuseum purchase with funds donated by a friend of the Department of American Decorative Arts and Sculpture in honor of Nina Fletcher and Bertram K. Little

Accession number1994.20a-b

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsBasketry

Collections

Americas

ProvenanceBy 1980, Bertram Kimball Little (b. 1899 – d. 1993) and Nina Fletcher Little (b. 1903 – d. 1993), Brookline, MA; January 29, 1994, posthumous Little collection sale, part 1, Sotheby’s, New York, lot 155, to Northeast Auctions, Portsmouth, NH, for the MFA. (Accession Date: February 23, 1994)

NOTE: A nineteenth-century label on the box reads: "This box was left / behind by the Indians when / they burnt the town of Medfield / Feb 21 1675. Mass / But one house left standing." The box, however, dates to around 1800, long after the event described.