Modern Basketry

MODERN BASKETRY Since about the middle of the i 9th century the character of basket-work in England has been greatly modified. The old Eng lish cradle, reticule, and other small domestic wares, have been driven out of the market by cheap goods made on the continent of Europe, and the coarse brown osier packing and hampers have been largely superseded by rough casks and cases made from cheap imported timber. This loss has, however, been more than counterbalanced by the production of work of a higher class, such as finely made chairs, tables, lounges and other articles of furniture; luncheon and tea-baskets and similar requisites of travel. In addition to the foregoing the chief categories of English manufacture are : vegetable and fruit baskets, transit and travel ling hampers, laundry and linen baskets, partition baskets for wine, and protective wicker cases for fragile ware such as glass carboys, stone and other bottles. Wicker shields or cases made from cane pith, for the protection of shells, have been introduced by the English military authorities. Some evidence of the above mentioned developments is afforded by a comparison of the wages lists of the London Union of Journeymen Basketmakers issued in 1865 and in 1916. The former consists of 87 printed pages; the latter of 164 pages.

A Handicraft.

No machinery is used in basket-making, and every stroke made has a permanent effect on the symmetry of the whole work and no subsequent pressure will alter it. Wages in London vary from 5o/– to 70/–, skilled cane-chair workers from is to .£6 per week. The Basketmakers' Company is one of the oldest craft gilds of the city of London and still exists. Em ployment is given by the London Association for the Welfare of the Blind to a number of partially or wholly blind workpeople, who are engaged in the making of some of the coarser kinds of baskets ; but the work, which bears obvious traces of its origin, is not commercially remunerative, and the association depends for partial support on the contributions of the charitable, and on supplementary sales of fine or fancy work produced under ordinary conditions and largely imported. The materials which are actually employed in the construction of basket-work are numerous and varied, but it is from certain species of willow that the largest supply of basket-making materials is produced. (See OSIER.) Willows are roughly classed by the basket-maker into "osier" and "fine." The former consists of varieties of the true osier, Salix viminalis; the latter of varieties of Salix triandra, S. purpurea and some other species and hybrids of rougher texture. For the coarsest work, dried unpeeled osiers, known as "brown stuff," are used; for finer work, "white (peeled) stuff" and "buff" (willows stained a tawny hue by boiling them previous to peeling). The rods are used whole for ordinary work, but for baskets of slight and finer texture each is split into "skains" of different degrees of size. "Skains" are osiers cleft into three or four parts, by means of an implement called a "cleave." They are next drawn through an implement resembling the common spokeshave, and in order to bring the split into a shape still more regular, it is passed through another implement called an "upright." The tools required by a basket-maker are few and simple. They consist, besides the foregoing, of a shop-knife for cutting out material; a picking knife for cutting off the protruding butts and tops of the rods after the work is completed ; two or three bodkins of varying sizes; a flat piece of iron somewhat narrowly triangular in shape for driving the work closely together; a stout pair of shears and a "dog" or "commander" for straightening sticks. The employer supplies a screw block or vice for gripping the bottom and cover sticks of square work, and a lapboard on which the workman fixes the upsetted bottom while siding up the basket. This is the full outfit. A common round or oval basket may, however, be made with no other tools than a shop-knife and a bodkin. On the continent of Europe shapes or blocks are in use on which the fabric is in some cases woven.

How Baskets Are Made.—The technicalities of basket-mak ing may be easily followed by a glance at the illustration here re produced by the courtesy of the Society of Arts.' It will be seen that the "bye-stakes" are merely inserted in the "upsett," whereas the stakes are driven in at each side of the "bottom-sticks" and pricked up to form the rigid framework of the side. When the "bottom-stick" and "stake" are formed of one and the same continuous rod, it is termed a "league." If the bottom is made on a hoop the butts of the stakes are "sliped," i.e., cut away with 'See the report of a paper by T. Okey published in the Journal of the Society of Arts, Jan II, 1907.

a long cut of the shop-knife, and turned slightly round the hoop; they are then said to be "scallomed" on. The chief strokes used in constructing an ordinary basket are : the "slew"—two or more rods woven together; the "rand," rods woven in singly; the "fitch," two rods tightly worked alternately one under the other, employed for skeleton work such as cages and waste-paper baskets; the "pair," two rods worked alternately one over the other, used for filling up bottoms and covers of round and oval baskets; and the "wale," three or more rods worked alternately, forming a string or binding course. Various forms of plaiting, roping and tracking are used for bordering off or finishing.

An ordinary oval basket is made by preparing the requisite number of bottom sticks, preserving their length greater than the required width of the bottom. They are ranged in pairs on the floor parallel to each other at small intervals, in the direction of the longer diameter of the basket, thus forming what may be called the "woof," for basket-work is literally a web. These parallel rods are then crossed at right angles by two pairs of the largest osiers, on the butt ends of which the workman places his feet ; and they are confined in their places by being each woven alternately over and under the parallel pieces first laid down and their own butts which form the end bottom sticks. The whole now forms what is technically called the "slath," which is the • foundation of the basket. Next other rods are taken and woven under and over the sticks all round the bottom until it be of sufficient size, and the woof be occupied by them. Thus the bot tom or foundation on which the superstructure is to be raised is finished. This latter part is accomplished by sharpening the large ends of as many long and stout osiers as may be necessary to form the stakes or skeleton. These are forced between the bottom sticks from the edge towards the centre, and are turned up or "upset" in the direction of the sides; then other rods are woven in and out between each of them, until the basket is raised to the intended height, or, more correctly speaking, the depth it is to receive. The edge or border is finished by turning down the ends of the stakes, now standing up, behind and in front of each other, whereby the whole is firmly and compactly united, and it is technically known as the "belly." A lid is con structed on the same plan as that of the bottom, and tied on with hinges formed of twisted rods ; simple handles may be made by inserting similar rods by the sides of two opposite stakes and looping them under the border to form rope-like handles of three strands.

In addition to willows many other materials are employed in the fabrication of wicker-work. Among the more important of these is the stem of Calamus viminalis or other allied species (the cane or rattan of commerce) which is used whole or made into skains. Since i 88o the central pith of this material, known as "centre cane" has been largely used in Great Britain and on the continent of Europe in the manufacture of furniture and other finer classes of work. About the same period plaited rush and straw, often coloured, came into use together with enamelled skains of cane. With splits of various species of bamboo the Japanese and Chinese manufacture baskets of unequalled beauty and finish. The bamboo wicker-work with which the Japanese sometimes encase their delicate egg-shell porcelain is a marvellous example of manipulation, and they and the Chinese excel in the application of bamboo wicker-work to furniture. In India "Cajan" baskets are extensively made from the fronds of the Palmyra palm, Borassus flabelli f ormis, and this manufacture has been established in the Black Forest of Germany, where it is now an important and characteristic industrial staple. Although foreign osiers, cane and wood splints are imported into Britain in large quantities, native willows still provide the best material and ware. Much skill is necessary in dealing with such unyielding material; long training and practice are required before well-planned symmetrical baskets can be made ; while the larger specimens demand both dexterity and considerable bodily strength. The willows, "osiers" (Salix viminalis) and "fine" (Salix triandra, S. purpurea and others) are treated in various ways to produce different effects. Coarse work such as a common hamper is made with unpeeled osiers, but for better work the rods are peeled, and for fine work they are split into three or four "skains." Contrast ing effects are obtained by boiling for a few hours before peeling. Except for the stiff pieces used for bottoms or lids, the rods are all soaked, some for a few hours, some for as long as a week, to render them sufficiently pliable to be bent in and out, and driven securely home.

The chief centres of English basket manufacture outside London are Leicester, East Leake, Newark, Basford near Notting ham, and Grantham. Large but decreasing quantities of light basket-work are made for the English market in Verdun, in the department of the Aisne, and in other parts of France ; and great quantities of fancy and other work are produced in Belgium, in the Netherlands and in Germany, notably at Lichtenfels in Ba varia, at Sonnefeld in Saxony and in the Black Forest. The im port and export values of baskets and basket-ware, and of willows and rods for basket-making, have been enumerated in the Board of Trade returns for the United Kingdom since ' 900, in which year basket-ware from foreign countries was imported to the value of L239,402. In 1926 imports reached f400,300. (T. 0.) See O. T. Mason, "Aboriginal American Basketry" Rep. U.S. National Mus. (1904, bibl.) , "Vocabulary of Malaysian Basket-work," Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., vol. xlv. 0908, bibl.) ; T. Okey, Art of Basketmaking.