Reed Basket

From the collections of PVMA • Digital image © Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Assoc. • Image use information

About this item

Featherbeds were essential to providing warmth during the cold winter months, but needed to be stored during the summer when only the straw mattress beneath was used. In the spring the featherbeds were aired and then tucked away in large baskets or trunks, or rolled up under the rope bed until the fall, when they were refreshed with new feathers or down, searched for bugs, and brought back into good use. This basket was made of reeds, natural fibers that could be easily bent into graceful shapes. At 40.5″ in diameter, this baskets looks a big like a gigantic dish, another popular basket form.

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Details

Item typeContainer
Household Objects
Basketry
TopicHome Life, Household Items, Furniture
EraColonial settlement, 1620–1762
Revolutionary America, 1763–1783
The New Nation, 1784–1815
National Expansion and Reform, 1816–1860
MaterialPlant Product
Process/FormatWoven
Dimension detailsDiameter: 40.50 in Height: 21.50 in
Catalog #1990.621
View this item in our curatorial database →
Reed Basket. Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, American Centuries. https://americancenturies.org/collection/1990-621/. Accessed on December 6, 2024.

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