What is this object? It’s woven out of some basket-type material. It has an opening in the middle with sharp point sticks going in making it look like a trap for a small animal, but it’s pretty flimsy and doesn’t really seem practical as a trap for anything hardier than a bird. There’s a large opening at the top, too. Is it just a decorate basket for something?
A Klein basket? 
I’m guessing a shrimp trap.
ETA: Or a fish trap.
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Lobster/fish trap, probably South-East Asian in origin. It probably had a removable lid on the top end, to get the critters out, that has now gone.
Looks like a fish trap to me. An old fellow used to use one similar for catching eels in the river next to my house when I was a kid.
Thanks! I don’t think we’ll be catching many eels, fish, shrimp or lobsters with this.
It does remind me of this lamprey trap.
A bunch of other lamprey traps from the Finnish-Swedish border.
My Dad used to go eeling. He used to borrow traps that looked sort of like that. And had a nasty looking forked spear.
Kitten trap.
Looks like it worked!
