Basketry Bowl with Handle

A dark woven bowl with one swooping lip and a stubby handle.

This rattan basketry bowl with handle dates to the 20th century. Coiled and woven rattan bowls are common across tropical Asia, where the material is gathered from forest palms and prepared by splitting, scraping and soaking before weaving. A shallow, deep-brown bowl of tightly worked weave whose rim sweeps up higher on one side. A short rough stick handle projects from the opposite edge, and the surface is darkened and slightly scuffed around the base. It is 8 inches wide, 10.25 deep and 5 high.

Lopsided on purpose, which is the best way to scoop.