66/41/1

Emily Elizabeth Mullins (Manufacturer)

Basketry sample shows the making of a base for a round basket using the stake-and-strand method. By Emily Mullins, a Reading basketmaker.
This basketry sample shows the making of a heavy base for a round basket using the stake-and-strand method. It is made of white willow and consists of eight sticks, four over four, paired with willow. It was given to the Museum by Emily Mullins, a Reading basketmaker.

1 basket base sample: wood (willow); good condition

Miss Emily E. Mullins (1906–1967) was a basketmaker in Reading. Her family were basketmakers for at least five generations. Her father, William Mullins, had no sons and Emily chose to become a basketmaker and carry on the tradition. She ran a basketmaking business in Bath circa 1926–1939, and moved to London in 1940 where she made baskets for the war effort. Later, she moved to Reading where she took over her father’s job on his death at Cook’s Dairy and Farm Equipment Ltd., a basketmaking firm founded in 1760 by John Cook. Cook’s had premises at Market Place, Reading, and the workshop was at Silver Street, Reading. The Museum has an extensive collection of baskets and basketmaking tools (approximately 200) given to the Museum by Emily Mullins. No correspondence between the Museum and Emily Mullins was found in July 2012, and it is assumed from scraps of information (e.g. a note on the Adlib record for 63/61 which said that the 63/ baskets were made by Emily Mullins for the Museum and were therefore never used, and a note on the Adlib record for 64/147 which said that Emily Mullins made numerous baskets for the Museum in 1964) that the baskets were made by Emily Mullins at Cook’s Silver Street workshop and the tools were used by Emily Mullins at the same workshop., MERL 'Catalogue of baskets' form – 'NAME: Base (Sample) // Acc. No.: 66/41/1–2 // Group: CRAFTS. WOOD BASKETS // Neg. no.: 60/8674, 60/8352, 60/8353 // Place of origin: Berkshire // Period in use: Pre-1965 // DESCRIPTION // Materials: 1) White willow. 2) Cane, the sticks have a diameter of 7/8” // Shape and construction: Round bottoms made by stake-&-strand method. 1) Has 8 sticks, 4 laid over 4, paired with willow. 2) A very heavy bottom made of 2 sticks crossing each other & 12 short ones laid in at intervals first paired with lapping cane, then with round & finally slewed with 2 round canes. The first 8 sticks are wired together // Dimensions: 1) 20” diam. 2) 18” diam. // Use: As examples of the construction of heavy round bottoms // Dialect names: // Distribution: // Additional notes: see 66/36'

Silver Street [Reading]

1965

Basket, base, Sample

Cook's Dairy and Farm Equipment Ltd. ()
Wright, Dorothy (Recorder)