Tutsi Agaseki or Ibeseke Basket

A wedding gift, in Rwanda, was not wrapped. It was woven.

Among the Tutsi, the agaseki or ibeseke is a lidded basket made by women, its very fine coiling a mark of skill and refinement. Such baskets held small valuables and were given on occasions like weddings. This 20th-century example, coiled from plant fiber, rises ten and a half inches. A steep conical lid tapers to a slender point above a cup-shaped body and a small flared foot. The coils are a warm terracotta, with stepped black triangles scattered over body and foot.

A spire in basketry. Mind the tip.