Basket lid made of coiled grasses. The lid is a round, flat disc with some plaited grasses at the centre to form a handle.
Finely made coiled baskets such as this are known in Sierra Leone by their Temne name, shuku blai, and used to contain valuable possessions. They are usually made by women.
These objects are only a part of our collections, of which there are more than 350,000 objects. This information comes from our collections database. Some of this is incomplete and there may be errors. This part of the website is also still under construction, so there may be some fields repeated or incorrectly formatted information.
The database sometimes uses language taken from historical documents to help research, which may now appear outdated and even offensive. The database also includes information on objects that are considered secret or sacred by some communities.
If you have any further information about objects in our collections or can suggest corrections to our information, please contact us: enquiry@horniman.ac.uk
