64/153

Emily Elizabeth Mullins (Manufacturer)

This clothes basket was made for the Museum by Emily Mullins, a Reading basketmaker, and was therefore never used. It in the shape of quarter of a cylinder so that it could fit into the corner of a room. It has a wooden base with sides and lid of buff willow and two cane handles. Baskets likes these were used domestically to hold clothes and linen waiting to be washed.

1 domestic basket: wood ( buff willow and cane); 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: Basket (clothes) // Acc. No.: 64/153 // Group: DOMESTIC. CLEANING. LAUNDERING. // Neg. no.: 60/5953 // Place of origin: Berkshire // Period in use: // DESCRIPTION // Materials: Buff willow, cane, wood // Maker: Emily Mullins // Shape and construction: The shape is a quarter-section of a circle to fit the corner of a room. Bottom wood. There is a foot 4 rows wale & two body wales 6 & 5 rounds between them a band of French randing. The rest is slewed. The cover drops in & there are 2 small cane handles. Border: 4 beh [behind] -2. Varnished. Cover S [sticks]: 9 // Dimensions: Height 27 1/2” Side of top 15” St. [number of stakes] sides 10. Front 15. CS. [corner sticks] 3 // Use: To hold clothes & linen waiting to be washed. // Dialect names: // Distribution: General // Additional notes: see S. & Pr. [Basketmakers’ Lists of Sizes and Prices of Work] 1956. p.57. 1945. p.50'

Silver Street [Reading]

1964

Wood, willow, buff, Plant fibre, rattan

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