Sold For $250
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Jack Kerouac's personally-owned and -used round woven lidded basket, measuring approximately 5.75˝ in diameter and 2.75˝ tall, decorated by hand in red and green pigments in an alternating pattern. In very good to fine condition, with some wear and fading to the paint.
Accompanied by a letter of provenance signed by John Shen-Sampas, the executor of the estate of Jack Kerouac; Shen-Sampas is the son of John Sampas, who was Kerouac’s brother-in-law and literary executor.
Photographs of Kerouac’s desk, as well as the preserved state of his final residence in St. Petersburg, Florida, document a working environment characterized by visual and material density. His writing surface was crowded with religious icons, family photographs, papers, boxes, and assorted personal objects, suggesting that these items were not peripheral but integral to the atmosphere in which he wrote. This simple, hand-painted basket is representative of Kerouac's aesthetic and attraction to functional, utilitarian objects.
