Vintage Tonga Binga Basket (48.8) workshop making every piece one-of-a-kind

making every piece one-of-a-kind

Vintage hand carved Ethiopian butter cup

with nearly the whole village working at the loom

This one has a crack on one side

used to honour the deceased — the rows of triangular chip-carved patterns and the two triangular cut-outs near the top represent the hips of a person

Vintage Tonga Binga Basket (48.8) workshop making every piece one-of-a-kindThese vintage handwoven baskets are the apex of the Bathonga people in Zimbabwe and Southern Zambia. The baskets made from the Ilala palm leaf start as a woven square and end up almost perfectly round. The pattern on the edging is referred to as snakes belly, as the pattern resembles the scales of a serpent. Palm fibres are died using tree bark to make fibres with different colours. These particular range of baskets are vintage originally used to