63/208

This grease horn was used by Emily Mullins, a Reading basketmaker, to grease the bodkin, a pointed basketry tool for making holes. It consists of a curved cow’s horn filled with a mixture of tallow and sack shreddings – this would need re-filling about once a year.

1 grease horn: horn (cow)

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: GREASE-HORN // Acc. No.: 63/208 // Group: CRAFT. WOOD BASKETS // Neg. no.: 60/5039 // Place of origin: Reading. Berks. [Berkshire] // Period in use: 1920–1963 // DESCRIPTION // Materials: Cow horn // User: Emily Mullins // Shape and construction: A curved cow’s horn into the hollow of which is put tallow mixed with sack shreddings. One filling would probably last for a year. // Dimensions: l. 9” // Use: For greasing the bodkins. The user sat on the end with the open mouth ready to his right hand. // Dialect names: // Distribution: In general use. // Additional notes:'

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