Not a Navajo weaving
Not an Arapaho basket
Not hand-coiled or pit-fired pottery
The textile had nothing to do with American Indian weavers.
The basket was likely fashioned in Pakistan, borrowing design motifs from Southwestern American Indian basketry. Below is such a basket made in Pakistan.
Multiple pieces of pottery were slip cast (meaning a slurry of clay poured into a mold) before being fired in an electric kiln. This is problematic when pottery is sold as hand coiled as well as pit fired.
We’ll never know if the sources for these items intentionally misrepresented their identities or characteristics.
Bottomline: When collecting, acquire guiding books. Spend time in museums offering labeled displays. Take classes to build your expertise in judging not only what you are pursuing, but to enable your eye to recognize qualitative standout examples.
Fortunately this same appraisal client had some knockout Navajo weavings acquired from a different source. Each “wore” a tag identifying an extremely talented weaver.
Corinne Cain of SavvyCollector.com