Cranberry Glass Berry Basket
Artist
Preston Singletary
(American (Tlingit), born 1963)
CultureAmerican (Tlingit)
Date2019
MediumBlown and sand-carved glass
Dimensions4 3/4 × 6 1/4 × 6 1/4 in. (12.1 × 15.9 × 15.9 cm)
SignedOn the base, the artist’s signature is incised into the glass in script: Preston Singletary 2019.
Credit LineGift of Virginia and John Hitch
Object number2021.21.2
Not on view
DescriptionThe smaller of the two baskets has a truncated conical shape with gradually tapering sides. It is blown from translucent, cranberry red glass with an opaque brick red lip wrap. The glass has an all-over raised pattern of small dots, gridded on the exterior surface to give the glass the appearance of a woven texture, as well as two small, stacked inverted V-shapes. Sand-carved geometric decorations (lines, triangles, rectangles with cuts, stepped lines) in opaque apricot-colored glass form a broad band around the exterior. The apricot glass began as an overlay, which was then sandcarved (sandblasted) to reveal the red glass beneath. On the base, the artist’s signature is incised into the glass in script: Preston Singletary 2019.
ProvenanceThe two vases were purchased by Virginia Hitch from Stonington Gallery in Seattle. They were selected by the Curator of Glass from available works by the artist, using photographs and the help of FaceTime video calls with the gallery, and in consultation with Virginia and John Hitch.Published ReferencesPreston Singletary’s work has been published extensively and collected by many major institutions (for example the British Museum, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Detroit Institute of the Arts, MFA Boston, Newark Museum, Museum of Art + Design in New York). The artist’s berry baskets are a particular favorite for collectors of contemporary glass and of Native American art. A collection of Singletary’s glass baskets are included prominently in the current traveling exhibition Preston Singletary: Raven and the Box of Daylight, which will also be shown at the Chrysler Museum of Art in 2022 (previously shown at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, the Wichita Art Museum, and the National Museum of the American Indian).
Unknown
late 16th - early 17th century
