Shopping Basket used in Glasgow in the first half of 20th Century.
This basket belongs to Jean Johnson (now of Arran), but originally belonged to her grandmother who used it for shopping from her tenement in Glasgow. It is a beautiful basket mainly made from willow with some sort of cord woven into it, possibly made from rushes, and a plaited edging around the border. The base was woven with strips of split cane and has now been repaired with string.
Base of shopping basket woven with split cane and repaired with string
Shopping Basket used in Glasgow in first half of 20th century
Jean herself is in her nineties now and her grandmother died in 1951 aged 80, so we could work out that this was used in Glasgow in the early 20th century. The basket is quite small around 30cm in length, and Jean thought this would be because the shops were always close by around the bottom of the tenements in Glasgow, and so it wasn’t necessary to carry much at one time. She thought the basket itself would have been bought in one of these shops. It has the handle going the length of the basket rather than across the width of it. Jean said it was more comfortable to carry this way.
