96/106/1-4

This is a cylindrical knitting basket with a lid and two handles (now detached and stored inside the basket). The lid has a small circular hole in the centre through which the wool would be threaded. The basket is made from a mixture of materials, including cane, plaited straw or grass, and split wood which is possibly willow. The split willow has been passed through a roller to give a decorative ribbed/ridged effect. It is lined with pale blue silk. The basket was probably not made in England, and the materials may have originated in the Far East or France.

1 knitting basket with separate lid: good condition- handles have come off

MERL ‘Stakeholders’ recording form, December 2013 – Object number: 96/106/1–4 // Name of recorder: Bunty Ball and John Page // General construction method: Stake and strand for lid and base. Plaited sides. // Overall shape: Cylindrical // Materials: Split and ribbed willow (?), 5-element plait – straw or grass (?), 6mm cane, lacquered, and twine. // Base: 5 x 5, cross-stitched, 1 added to make 41 stakes. Paired with willow (?) skein. Arrangement of the base stakes – corner stakes to make the round lid and base. One corner has 6 inserts to make an odd number of side stakes, making 41 side stakes. // Sides: Ring of lacquered cane sewn before upset, cross-stitched. // Border: Rim of lacquered cane sewn to top. Internal rim/collar for lid fixed with metal pins. Willow skeins over a sheet of thing wood 3cm high. // Handles: Detached. Two cane handles 10cm x 6cm. Wrapped in lapping cane, lacquered, and decorated with orange thread. // Lid: As base, but with brass (?) eyelet for wool. // Dimensions: Height 27cm x diameter 11cm // Anything else to note about this particular basket: Fixtures – loop and thread fastener. Hinge missing. // Anything else to note about this type of basket: See 67/65, 67/76, 67/60, 79/99 for baskets with this ridged stake effect – all of which have 4 ridges, while this basket has 5. Flat strips of ‘wood’ (? willow) put through a ‘mangle’., MERL Handwritten Accession Form (Museum of English Rural Life) – ‘Recorder: JMB // Date: 19.6.97 // Description: A tubular knitting basket with lid and lined with pale blue silk. The two handles have become detached and are stored inside the basket. // Materials consists of some cane (handles) and maybe cane or split willow at ends. The plaited straw woven into the sides could be of far eastern origin or French. // Dimensions: Length: 27.0 cm Diameter: 11.0 cm // Associated information: Probably foreign but exact origin uncertain.’

Basketry, stake and strand, Basketry, plaited

Bichard, Maurice ()
Ball, Bunty (Recorder)
Page, John (Recorder)