Gurage Bread Basket with Lid & Carrying Strap

Bread in Ethiopia is not a side dish. It requires a proper vessel.

Covered baskets have long kept and carried bread in Ethiopian households, and the Gurage are well known for their fine basketry. This lidded example, early 20th century, is broad and low, about eleven inches across, with a deep body and a fitted conical lid rising to a small opening at the peak. Concentric coils show faintly beneath the dark, glossy, almost black surface, and stitching runs along the rims. A long, worn leather strap loops around the body.

Burnished by age and use. Lift the lid, in spirit.