63/204

Emily Elizabeth Mullins (Manufacturer)

This type of basket, made of white willow and cane, was used for sending vegetables to market. It is a rectangular hamper with a lid, attached with cane hinges and fastened with a metal bar and eyes. It has a twisted handle at each end. It was made for the Museum by Emily Mullins, a Reading basketmaker, and was therefore never used. According to Miss Mullins, this basket is like a laundry hamper but quicker and cheaper to make.

1 basket: willow, cane, metal

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 (Emily Mullins) // Acc. No.: 63/204 // Group: MARKETING. Vegetables // Neg. no.: 60/4873 // Place of origin: BERKS [Berkshire] // Period in use: PRESENT // DESCRIPTION // Materials: White willow & cane. Metal bar & eyes & binders on the cover. // Shape and construction: Hamper. Randed bottom & cover, slewed sides. Upset, bottom & cover reinforced with cane. Border 4-behind-2. 3 metal bundles at each end of the cover & fastening of metal bar & eyes. Hinges cane.* A twisted handle at each end. // Dimensions: Height 12”. Length 20” Width 15” BS. [number of bottom sticks] 8. LS. [leagues] 8. St. [number of stakes] 12.8. // Use: For sending vegetables to market. // Dialect names: // Distribution: // Additional notes: The maker said “it is like a laundry hamper but ‘more common’ i.e. quicker to make & cheaper.'

Silver Street [Reading]

1963

Wood, willow, white, Plant fibre, rattan, Metal

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