Object number
68/88
Collection
Description
A beating iron, also known as a ’shop iron’ or ‘hand iron’, is a tool used by basketmakers for tapping and beating the weave of a basket to close it up, and also for cramming down the last stakes of a border. This beating iron consists of a short iron bar with one edge double the width of the other (for use on coarser work), and one end double the width of the other. It has a dual purpose as the ring at the end enables it to be used as a commander, a tool for straightening and bending thick willow and cane. It came from the workshop of Emily Mullins, a Reading basketmaker.
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
1968
Object name
Associated subject
Associated person/institution
External document
- L:\MERL\Objects\JISC 2012\60 series negatives\60_9714.tif - High resolution image
