Object number
64/198/1
Collection
Description
Deaccessioned. Please note that this object no longer forms part of the Museum of English Rural Life collection, and so cannot be accessed at our institution.
A picking knife is a tool used by basketmakers to pick the ends off the withies as a basket is made. This knife belonged to Mr W. Mullins, a Reading basketmaker, and is said to date from the 1860s.
Physical description
deaccessioned
Archival history
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.
Production date
1860-01-01 - 1869-12-31
Production period
1860s
Object name
Associated subject
Associated person/institution
External document
- L:\MERL\Objects\JISC 2012\60 series negatives\60_7778.tif - High resolution image
- L:\MERL\Objects\JISC 2012\60 series negatives\60_7779.tif - High resolution image
