65/21

Baskets - an exhibition of craftmen's work, Imagined Roots and Routes

Emily Elizabeth Mullins (Manufacturer)

This type of basket known as a 'Gypsy basket' would be used by street sellers for selling or ‘hawking’ their wares, mostly flowers. It is an oval basket made of white willow and cane with a twisted cross handle.

1 basket: white willow; cane

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 (Gipsy) (Emily Mullins) // Acc. No.: 65/21 // Group: MARKETING // Neg. no.: 60/5955 // Place of origin: Berkshire // Period in use: Present // DESCRIPTION // Materials: White willow. Cane bows, first round of upset & handle. // Shape and construction: Oval, randed, 5-behind-2 border & 18 bows of cane put into it. Twisted cross handle. 3 rounds upset. 3 top wales // Dimensions: Length 23” Width 14” Depth 9” BS.3. [number of bottom sticks] 6 St. [number of stakes] 36 // Use: For hawking anything, but mostly flowers. Used by itinerants & gipsies. // Dialect names: // Distribution: General // Additional notes: see Notebook I. p.96 (Nason. Canterbury)'

Silver Street [Reading]

Wood, willow, white, Plant fibre, rattan

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