66/53/1

A picking knife is a tool used by basketmakers to pick the ends off the withies as a basket is made. This is one of several picking knives given to the Museum by Emily Mullins, a Reading basketmaker. It has a round wooden handle which fits the palm and steel blade which has been worn down to a sharp slant. Part of the inscription is missing, although it was probably made in Sheffield.

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: KNIFE (picking) // Acc. No.: 66/53/1–2 // Group: CRAFTS. WOOD BASKETS // Neg. no.: 60/8979 // Place of origin: Berkshire // Period in use: Pre-1965 // DESCRIPTION // Materials: wood, metal/brass and steel // Shape and construction: The blades have been worn down with use to a sharp slant. Rounded handles fit the palm. // Dimensions: a) Total length: 7”. Blade: 2 3/4” b) Total length: 5” Blade: 1 1/2” // Use: For trimming the loose ends (picking) on a basket after it is completed. // Dialect names: // Distribution: // Additional notes:'

Sheffield

1965

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