[nb-NO]Object number[nb-NO]
63/164
[nb-NO]Creator[nb-NO]
[nb-NO]Description[nb-NO]
This travelling basket was used for transporting racing pigeons and could take ten birds. It is a very well-made rectangular basket, with a drop door at the front and a flap in the lid, both of which are fastened by means of a leather strap. It is made largely of buff willow, with cane ties and some bamboo stakes. A hessian liner is stitched on to the inside of the basket, and it has leather handles. The basket was made for the Museum by Emily Mullins, a Reading basketmaker, and was therefore never used.
[nb-NO]Physical description[nb-NO]
Basket: Buff willow, brown willow, bamboo, leather, hessian
[nb-NO]Archival history[nb-NO]
MERL ‘Stakeholders’ recording form, December 2013 – Object number: 63/164 // Name of recorder: Sue Kirk and Angie Tavernor // General construction method: Stake and strand // Overall shape: Square // Materials: Buff willow, bamboo, leather, hessian // Base: 2-year old brown sticks x 10 (4 are in pairs). 2 x bamboo outer stakes. Paired and slewed with 5-foot buff rods. Starts as a 2-rod slew, ends up as 3-rod slew. 3-rod pull-down wale on short sides. Varnished. // Sides: Scalloms. Back side from bottom to top [see diagram] – 5 rows of 5-foot buff willow 3-rod wale, started with tips; 8 rows of 4-rod slew using 4-foot buff willow; 1 row of 3-rod wale using 2 rods; windows with randing near the corner stakes; 1 row of pairing with 2 rods; 3 rows of 2–3-rod slewing; border of 4 rod behind 2. Short sides – both woven the same as the back [see diagram]. Front of basket [see diagram for details] // Border: Trac border, 4 rod behind 2 [see diagram for details] // Handles: Leather handle attached with brass rivet. // Lid: [See diagram] Lid is paired, then randed with 5-foot buff willow. Ends of the lid have 3-rod behind 1 border with 5-foot buff willow. Lid is randed up to lid flap, then row of pairing. The whole lid is nailed into the border, then also attached onto basket with cane ties – 2 on the sides, 3 on the back and 2 on the front. The lid flap is scallomed onto the base stake of the lid, which has been opened out with a spacer to give room for movement of lid and inserting scalloms. The 6 scalloms have been added from left to right and go on to form the final border. Lid is randed leaving a small hole for leather strap. // Dimensions: Top 59.5cm x 37cm. Front lid. 29cm x 27cm. Lid flap 15cm x 16cm. Height 33cm. Width 34cm. Length 55cm. // Anything else to note about this particular basket: Hessian liner stitched onto the inside of the basket, just below window. Very well made by a professional. // Anything else to note about this type of basket: –, 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 (travelling, pigeon) // Acc. No.: 63/164 // Group: LIVESTOCK // Neg. no.: 60/4710 // Place of origin: Berkshire. (Mullins) // Period in use: // DESCRIPTION // Materials: Buff willow. Cane ties. // Shape and construction: Rectangular hamper. Drop doors at one side & top.* // Dimensions: 22 x 14 [“]. Height 12”. // Use: For carriage of pigeons by the owner. 10 birds. // Dialect names: // Distribution: General // Additional notes: See S & P. [Basketmakers’ Lists of Sizes and Prices of Work] 1956. p.13–14'
[nb-NO]Production place[nb-NO]
Silver Street [Reading]
[nb-NO]Date[nb-NO]
1963
[nb-NO]Object name[nb-NO]
[nb-NO]Material[nb-NO]
[nb-NO]Technique[nb-NO]
[nb-NO]External document[nb-NO]
- L:\MERL\Objects\JISC 2012\60 series negatives\60_4710.tif - High resolution image
- L:\MERL\Objects\Baskets\63_164_cob.tif - High resolution image