Antique Apache Olla

Antique Apache handwoven pictorial polychrome olla woven with devil's claw, red yucca and willow. This basket features human and horse figures and various geometric designs. While there is some debate, it is thought that the Apache did not weave coiled jars, or ollas, for their own consumption, but rather made them exclusively for sale. Descriptions or accounts of ollas are not found in existing literature regarding early Apache ethnographies. It is thought that the practice of weaving ollas probably began shortly after the Western Apaches internment at San Carlos. The weaving of large, elaborately figured ollas is known to have begun a few decades before the turn of the century. After 1900, most Apache weavers were no longer making the large ollas. Polychrome ollas using red willow also began to appear after this time.

Circa: 1890