Leaves and teeth

This basket is beautiful, tiny (just over three inches tall), and presumably not for everyday use, what with the teeth and all. It comes from the tiny micronesian republic of Nauru, known more recently as a tiny oasis of environmental devastation, tax-shelter hijinks, internet crime, etc. Basket (Egadakua), pandanus leaves, shark’s teeth, fiber, late 19th-early 20th century, Nauru, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York :: via the Met’s Artwork of the Day feed