Trugs!

The basket buzz this month comes from the fabulous portrait photograph of HRH Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, taken by HRH Catherine “Kate” Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, which appears on the cover of Country Life magazine, released on July 13, 2022. 

Camilla is casually posed in her garden at Clarence House, sitting with what has been widely described as a 'basket of flowers.' This “basket” is oval/rectangular and is cradled by two attached wooden supports perpendicular to its base. It is made of light colored willow, longitudinal pieces which are overlapped and not interwoven. Another material, sweet chestnut, is used for the bail handle and the splint around the exterior rim. I did a lot of internet searching to find out more about this wooden container type basket. Writing for Woman and Home, Emma Shacklock describes Camilla as posing with “a basket of fresh cut pink flowers displayed in a trough alongside her.”  The use of the word "trough" here, instead of basket, is closer to the correct term for the Duchess's handled container.  The flowers are also named; Simon Perry's article in People tells us that the basket is “filled with pelargoniums, which are ready to be planted.” 

The name of the container was revealed by Mark Hedges, Country Life editor, quoted in a Newsweek article: "The photograph of Camilla is extremely traditional with the attributes of a conventional countrywoman including sensible knit cardigan, floral print dress and obligatory trug basket containing cut flowers."  

It's a trug! An old word, yet a new word for me for this form of container, generally described as a wooden basket primarily used to carry gardening supplies and produce.

According to "A Brief History of Mr. Smith's Trugs" https://www.sussextrugs.com/history/, heavy wooden "trogs" had been in use since at least the 1500s, but the development of today's trug dates to the 1820s and is credited to Thomas Smith of Herstmoneux, Sussex, in southeastern England. Smith made his trug, a lighter weight version of the trog, using Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa) and Willow (Salix coerulea), both prevalent in the Sussex area. Sustainability is important; the chestnut is coppiced, or cut back, to increase growth. Cutting it at a 45 degree angle lets rain water flow off of the cut, thereby preventing rot and allowing for new growth. Although willow still grows nearby, the boards used in trug making are obtained from the cricket bat industry, in which rejected willow pieces or clefts are recycled by the trug artists. Three willow trees are planted for each harvested tree.

A simplified explanation of making a trug begins with cleaving a sweet chestnut pole with a cleaving axe hammered into the end using a maul made of chestnut wood. The artisan sits then on a shaving horse and uses a draw knife to shave the chestnut until the desired size is achieved. Next, the chestnut is steamed and bent around a "former," a wooden form standardized to the specific style and size of the trug being made. The chestnut forms the frame, and the willow boards, which are also shaped using draw knives, are secured by copper tacks. Trugs vary in shape and size, but are made using the same techniques.

Craftsmen Caleb Pimm and Mike Harding sit on shaving horses and use draw knives and
trained eyes to shave sweet chestnut to the correct size needed to make a specific trug. 

A collection of formers on the wall of the
Cuckmere Trug Company, Thomas Smith's Trug Shop.

Where did Camilla get her trug? I traced it to Robin M. Tuppen, Proprietor, Yeoman Member of the Worshipful Company of Basketmakers, Thomas Smith’s Trug Shop, Part of the Cuckmere Trug Company, Herstmonceux, East Sussex.

In my email exchange with Robin Tuppen, he wrote, "I can definitely confirm that the Trug being used by Camilla is one of ours. This was ordered by Clarence House sometime last year and they sent a courier down to collect the Trug from us especially (so it appears) for this photographic session!  It is a Royal Sussex Garden Trug in Size No. 6."  

And this fine trug is not Camilla's first. In a web interview with Gerry Jones of Merchants and Makers, Robin Tuppen remarked: "Plumpton College presented the Duchess of Cornwall with a bottle of their homemade wine from their own vineyard in one of our ‘Cucumber’ trugs."  Tuppen also explained the trug numbering system, "with each number reflecting how many pints it holds, i.e. a Number 1 holds one pint, going up to a Number 8 which measured four gallons." 

Sussex remains the home of trug making, and Herstmonceux is the heart of it. True Sussex Trugs originate in Sussex and are made by several workshops (see https://heritagecrafts.org.uk/sussex-trug-making/). Many of the artisans belong to The Association of Sussex Trug Basketmakers, The Basketmakers’ Association, and The Worshipful Company of Basketmakers. Royal Sussex Trugs, such as Camilla's, are specifically from the Cuckmere Trug Company, Thomas Smith’s Trug Shop, each one signed and dated by the artisan and stamped as genuine.

A completed Royal Sussex Trug alongside sweet chestnut shavings.

"Our Trugs are called 'Royal' as our founder, Thomas Smith, sold some of his Trugs to Queen Victoria personally on the first day of the Great Exhibition in the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park [1851].  He was later awarded her Royal Warrant," according to Robin Tuppen via email. The Royal Warrant Holders Association defines a Royal Warrant of Appointment as "a mark of recognition of those who have supplied goods or services to the Households of HM The Queen or HRH The Prince of Wales for at least five years, and who have an ongoing trading arrangement." https://www.royalwarrant.org/.

On the Red List of Endangered Crafts, Sussex trug making holds "endangered" status, with fewer than two dozen practioners, from apprentices through master craftsmen. The craft's viability is affected by foreign competition and customers' "lack of awareness" of the differences between genuine Sussex trugs and imitations. 

Although imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, if one is looking for a genuine Sussex trug, one must look to Sussex.

-*-

With grateful appreciation to Robin Tuppen for technical review of this post.

Photo credits:

Top, HRH The Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla, photographed by HRH The Duchess of Cambridge,  Kate, appearing on the cover of Country Life Magazine and Thomas Smith's Trug Shop, East Sussex, in a photo collage by BBP.  

The other three photographs are courtesy of Thomas Smith's Trug Shop.

Dutch Paintings, International Baskets

A friend brought my attention to "A Messy Table, a Map of the World" by Jason Farago, a Close Read article in The New York Times dated May 8, 2022.  It brings together what I enjoy most about art history courses: the integration of art, in this case paintings, with interesting historical sidenotes. It is a brilliant visual presentation focusing on Dutch globalization, and is well worth a read.

Farago focuses on an oil painting by Dutch artist Willem Claesz Heda, created in 1635, "Still Life with a Gilt Cup." He explores other 17th century Dutch works featuring flowers and fruits, green glass goblets and luminous lemons. He delves into fascinating backgrounds, such as the Dutch trade network that brought such luxuries as peppercorns to the European table; Christian subjects; and painterly notations about light including reflections in glass, the sheen of metal, shadows in folds of napkins.

Some of the rare items featured in the various still life paintings "flowed along epic sea routes, part of a new world system that turned still life into a kind of mapmaking." Farago muses that the Dutch gained these exotic items through extensive trade, "at whatever cost to people and ecosystems you might never see yourself." In these days of awareness of colonization, his words leave much to ponder.

And what I notice about the images used in this article, of course, are the baskets. They are not the stars of any of the paintings, as usual, but they are present. The photos below are cropped details of the paintings, please visit the article in The New York Times to see the full images.

Left: 

This well-stocked kitchen includes a wicker basket with a bail handle holding vegetables and a duck. The shallow oval wicker tray with handles on the ends cradles fruits, vegetables, and a rabbit. The tray at the front left holding grapes might be a coiled basket; perhaps this is pottery. If I am able to someday go to the Rijsmuseum and can see the painting in person, then I will investigate this.

Joachim Bueckelaer, The Well-Stocked Kitchen With Jesus in the House of Martha and Mary in the Background. 1566. Credit: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

Right: 

The shallow fish basket held by the man, and large gathering baskets on each end, appear to be wicker plaited. There are two other baskets on the ground in front of the men's knees. One has vertical staves, which could be a Native American splint basket. The other could be a bark container with a flat lid, similar to a mocock, a birchbark basket often used for storing maple sugar among Native American tribes of the northeast. 

Claes Janszoon, Visscher View of Amsterdam. 1611. Credit: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

Right: 

Birchbark containers similar to that seen in Janszoon's sketch.  

As Farago's article recounts, the Dutch brought back items from far corners of the globe to the Netherlands. The Dutch were in the Americas in the early 1600s, prior to Janszoon's 1611 illustration. People would have had access to birchbark containers frequently made by a number of Native American peoples of the northeast.

Edward S. Curtis, Birchbark Baskets - Cree. 1926. Photograph in The North American Indian.

Left:  

The focus of this painting of Dutch daily life is on the woman's action of pouring milk. It's also a classic still life, with bread, a tankard, and crockery. A wicker bread basket is in the foreground. 

A more interesting basket hangs on the wall in the background. It is rectangular in shape with outflaring walls and side handles.

Johannes Vermeer, The Milkmaid. Circa 1660. Credit: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. 

Right:  

Two warps over a weft create the pattern on this wicker basket full of seashells. Interestingly, the artist included the broken stitches along the top edge, typical of a well-used basket.

The basket looks like it could be made of willow, that hearty plant used for basketry throughout Europe and North America. A quick search of "Dutch basket materials" brought up a wonderful website from the Dutch Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage which states "Basketry, is done with wicker, rushes, straw, various grass varieties, blackberry twigs and other flexible twigs from the Netherlands. Others use rattan, material that initially came to the Netherlands from The Dutch East Indies as ballast." 

Perhaps willow might be included in the category "flexible twigs," as willow is native to the Netherlands, including white willow Salix alba.

Cornelis de Man, The Curiosity Seller. Circa 1672-77. Credit: Sothebys.

  

Above:  

A lively scene in Jakarta features, from left to right, a man reaching into a basket tray on the ground; perhaps a basketry parasol; two mats, probably basketry; and a pair of baskets on a yoke at the far right.

Andries Beeckman, The Castle of Batavia. [Jakarta] Circa 1661. Credit: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

Left:

Five large baskets, probably filled with food, sit on the ground in this South American scene. In the background, a woman is seen carrying a similar basket on her head.

Frans Post, Brazilian Landscape with a Plantation House. Circa 1655. Credit: LACMA   https://collections.lacma.org/node/209115

I hope you read Farago's thoughtful article. I find his closing sentiment to be meaningful, so I will use it for my closing as well: 

"Art may show you the connections for just a moment. They will always be hazy. But some motions can only be sensed when you're standing still."

Baskets Find A New Home in Anchorage

On April 19, 2022, the New York Times ran an article about the closing of the Wells Fargo Museum in Anchorage, AK.  Over 1,700 items from that museum have transferred to the Alaskan Native Heritage Center, "a museum that focuses on Indigenous culture and is operated by Alaska Natives," and is also in Anchorage, according to Zachary Small's article. Some items were transferred to the Anchorage Museum as well. (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/19/arts/design/alaska-heritage-center-gift.html).

I was fortunate to be able to visit the Wells Fargo Museum in 2019, and here are a few my photos of the exhibits there.

Unangan Aleut twined baskets, late 19th - early 20th centuries.

Cukiq, grass socks worn with mukluks.

More Unangan Aleut fancy baskets and a painted wooden hat.

A wooly mammoth's tusk is highlighted in the now-defunct Wells Fargo Museum's gallery.

The Alaska Native Heritage Center is a vibrant place where artists from throughout Alaska demonstrate their arts, from basketry to dance. It is well worth a trip if you are ever in Alaska. It will be interesting to see what new exhibits might feature items from the Wells Fargo Museum. (BBP photo 2012)

Seen at the Anchorage Museum, 2019:

Left, sewn and beaded detail on a fur dance parka.  

Below: a basketry dance fan in the hand of a dancer.

The Alaska Native Heritage Center and the Anchorage Museum both have shops where authentic arts such as baskets can be purchased.

ka.

Viking Baskets

 A trailer for the new movie The Northman depicts, of all things, a scene with Anya Taylor-Joy in what appears to be a basketry workshop. She is next to an unfinished basket, people behind her are weaving, and a basket which might be a fish trap is seen on the left.  They are open twined, and could be made of unpeeled willow or a number of other plant materials.

The Viking Age lasted from about 789 to 1066. The Vikings were wide-ranging people, but their home was the area now known as Scandinavia: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.   Here's a short tour of some baskets from this area.

The National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen has several archaeological baskets on display. When I visited in 2016, I took this rather poor photo of a crushed fish trap basket. It is open twined, and has some reinforcing rods on the exterior. The label text describes it as a "Trap of bound twigs for catching small fish and eels." It is from Lille Knabstrup in western Zealand, and dates to 4500 B.C.  This definitely predates the Viking Age, but is a good example of an early Danish basket.

The Hanseatic Museum in Bergen, Norway, contains items from the period of the Hanseatic League, from the 13th to 15th centuries. Definitely post-Viking. The Norwegian baskets in the photograph below, taken of an exhibit there in 2016, may not be that old.

 

The Ringkøbing-Skjern Museum in Denmark's Jutland region has this work basket in its collection. It is open coiled with a foundation of a bundle of straw and is woven with an unidentified woody material. It dates from the 20th century.

The Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, Denmark, has some more contemporary baskets on display.

 

At this museum, modern artisans create Viking craft, from baskets to longboats. The photo to the left is an exhibit which shows a model chicken in a basketry cage nestled in a longboat.

The Tycho Brahe Museet in Ven, Sweden, uses contemporary Swedish baskets in their hands-on program. These handled carrying baskets on the lawn hold gaming pieces.

This gathering of Scandinavian baskets dates from 6500 years ago to the present. From this limited selection, it seems that the basketry props seen in The Northman trailer may indeed reflect the type and manufacture of baskets used by the Vikings.

Adoration of the Magi

The National Gallery, on the National Mall in Washington D.C., is filled with painted treasures. On a visit in December 2021, I found myself in the Italian Renaissance section in the West Building. I was drawn to a large circular painting, a tondo format, 36.5 inches in diameter.

In celebration of Christmas, I am sharing this, the "Adoration of the Magi." The painting is thought to have been made between 1440 and 1460, and perhaps be by the hand of two artists, Fra Angelico and Fra Filippo Lippi. For more information about it, see the National Gallery's website. 

Most pertinent to this blog, of course, is the manger. Not a manger cradling the Christ child, but the manger full of hay, which a donkey is enjoying. It is woven in a wicker weave, with multiple warps.

It is a straight and dark material, perhaps willow, which is used in contemporary Italian baskets. In this detail, the angular cuts of the warp ends can be seen.

My limited internet research into Italian Renaissance basketry has thus far been unsuccessful. However, I came across the secular festival of Thests in Polcenigo, Italy. The website features contemporary Italian baskets in multicolored willow, including a dark brown. Add this basketry festival to my list of places to visit.

https://www.prolocopolcenigo.com/sagra-dei-thest//

A Bit About Bannock Baskets

 A Bit About Bannock Baskets.*

*Not to be confused with Scottish baskets used in the preparation of bannock bread. This is a discussion of baskets from the Bannock of the Plateau region of North America. For more information on the people, see their website, Shoshone-Bannock Tribe.

A September 2021 visit for identification of Native American basketry at Shelburne Museum in Vermont led to my attribution of probably Bannock, possibly Shoshone, for a coiled willow basket.  The basket in question, item number 1947-17.5, reminded me of Bannock baskets in the Southwest Museum collection at the Autry Museum of the American West, last seen by me in person in 2009, and not currently present on their online collection database. The Bannock County Historical Museum and the Idaho Museum of Natural History do not have collections online, although they both have ethnographic collections, and the Idaho Museum reports having an excellent collection of Shoshonean basketry materials. The American Museum of Natural History has a Bannock basket collected by anthropologist Alfred Kroeber, donated in 1900, but its features are not all the same as the one in Vermont.  

Bannock or Shoshone Basket, date unknown. Plant materials,
 possibly willow, 6 ¾ x 6 ¾ x 6 ¾ in. Gift of Electra Havemeyer Webb.
 1947-17.5. Photo: Nancie Ravenel, Shelburne Museum.

Rim detail, Shelburne Museum
1947-17.5. Photo: BBP

Shelburne Museum's basket is round with an oval start, it has clipped weft ends with a few tucked weft ends, occasional split stitches, and a whipstitched rim. It is probably coiled of willow. Plus, it has four cloth imbricated stitches. Most indicative of placing the basket in the Bannock/Shoshone area is its three rod stacked foundation. According to Whiteford (North American Indian Arts, 2001), "Idaho Shoshoni basketry includes three-rod stacked coiling with willow." 

I needed some baskets for comparison. How about checking America's attic, the Smithsonian Institution, for Bannock baskets? I hit pay dirt! A quick online search of the National Museum of the American Indian collection brought up 175 "Possibly Bannock (attributed)" baskets, all collected by William (Willem) Wildschut, an anthropologist, during fieldwork sponsored by the Museum of the American Indian (MAI) in 1924.  Modifying the search, "Bannock basket coiled" resulted in a list of 104 items!  "Fort Hall Reservation; Bannock County, Bingham County, Caribou County, Power County; Idaho; USA" is the listed place of collection for the baskets, with some specifically noted as being from the Cook Drug Store and Indian Curio Shop in Pocatello, Idaho.

Here's the link to that search:

https://americanindian.si.edu/collections-search/search?edan_q=bannock%20basket%20coiled

Interestingly, most of the baskets with colored designs in this collection list "paint" as a material. One example of this is basket with cover 13/1394. This round basket has a three rod stacked foundation that is clearly visible in the photo, occasional split stitches, and an oval start that can be seen on the lid. Looking at the photograph and not holding the basket in front of me, I find it hard to differentiate potential paint from a dyed element. In my experience, baskets with painted areas usually have paint spread on neighboring stitches, and no paint on the weft portion stitched into the coil. On 13/1394, extra paint on other stitches, or within the coil, can't be seen. Again, I'm looking at the online photo and not at the basket directly.  And then, there is basket jar 13/1288, which does have paint, blotchy paint, in red and green. This also had three rods stacked, a few split stitches, and possibly a tucked under stitch seen on the left edge of the photo. 

Detail,Cloth stitch detail,
Shelburne Museum
1947-17.5 Photo: BBP.

There was no paint detected on the Shelburne's basket. However, there is cloth woven into it, and cloth was sometimes used in Bannock and Shoshone baskets (Turnbaugh and Turnbaugh, Indian Baskets, 1986 edition). In my next search of the Smithsonian online collections, "Bannock basket cloth" came up with ten items. In nine of these, the cloth was either a carrying strap or wrappings on cradle baskets.  The tenth is basket tray 13/1363, a shallow bowl with inconsistent stitches, a few tucked weft ends, and black wool cloth used on the rim. This is unlike our basket, in which there are four cloth imbricated stitches in a row on the exterior.

Next, a search on "Shoshone basket coiled," which brought up 40 items, including Northern Paiute, Western Shoshone from Nevada, and some attributed to Koso (Panamint/Shoshone) from Death Valley, CA.  About a dozen of the Shoshone baskets look like the Bannock baskets recently seen.

The first basket, 12/2032, looks suspiciously like those in the Bannock search. This bowl with handles was made by Mrs. Pawagee-Tattagit, Eastern Shoshone, and collected on the "Wind River Reservation, Fremont County, Hot Springs County; Wyoming; USA."  This was also collected by Wildschut, on a 1923 MAI expedition.  It is coiled of willow with a three rod stacked foundation, a few split stitches, and a few tucked weft stitches.

Other notable baskets in this search are four gambling trays, three collected by Wildschut in 1923 from the Wind River Reservation: 12/2103, owned by Mrs. Mujawo, Eastern Shoshone, with a painted central design and a rim of cross-stitched willow wefts over a band of red wool cloth, and a three rod stacked foundation; 12/2108 owned by Mrs. Hibitsitsi, Shoshone, with a red wool cloth rim with overcast willow stitches, and a three rod stacked foundation; 12/2109 made by Susie Peahrora (Mrs. Pedro Peahrora), Eastern Shoshone, with black wool at the rim, stacked rod foundation indeterminate.  The fourth gambling basket tray 1/112 was purchased by George Heye in 1906 from Frank Covert, the collection history is unknown and it is from the "Great Basin region, USA (inferred)."  It has remnants of red wool cloth at the rim, with overcast willow stitches. It does not appear to have a three rod stacked foundation, although it's hard to tell precisely from the photo.  https://americanindian.si.edu/collections-search/objects/NMAI_10959?destination=edan_searchtab%3Fedan_q%3D1/112

With the presence of the cloth, the occasional split stitches, a few tucked weft stitches, an oval start, and the most characteristic three rod stacked foundation, it seems like this basket from Shelburne Museum is, indeed, probably Bannock or Shoshone.  It's been fun investigating.

Oval start detail, view of base.
Photo: Nancie Ravenel, Shelburne Museum.

Thank you to Shelburne Museum staff Nancie Ravenel, Barbara Rathburn, and Leslie Wright. This visit was funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Vietnamese Bamboo Structures and Baskets

 In line with the late Prince Philip being photographed with baskets, I snapped a shot of Colin Powell off of the television that was shown on CNN Breaking News when he passed away, October 18, 2021.

Powell is leaning against a structure in Vietnam in the mid-1960s. It looks to be constructed of bamboo and made in a wicker weave. It is similar in construction to a mat seen in a photograph below.

Echoing this construction is "Floating Nest," a new building with a bamboo basketry-type exterior screen by Atelier NgNg, a research and design firm with offices in Los Angeles and Saigon.  

Read about it here: https://worldarchitecture.org/article-links/egfnz/this-vietnamese-narrow-house-by-atelier-ngng-is-clad-by-woven-bamboo-screen-made-of-vertical-sticks.html

Detail, Floating Nest

Below, an undated photo from Viet Nam News shows a bamboo house with construction more like Atelier NgNg's Floating Nest than Powell's building.

https://www.chinadailyhk.com/articles/155/4/68/1538909867394.html

Goggling "Vietnamese bamboo structures" led to all types of beautiful and creative contemporary structures, wherein bamboo is lauded as the building material of the future.  To find some older photos, I dove into archives and found Texas Tech University's Vietnam Center and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive, whose copyright statement says: 

"The following materials can be used for educational and other noncommercial purposes without the written permission of the Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech University....If using these resources for writing purposes, they should be cited appropriately to include The Vietnam Center and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech University and the individual collection from which they were used." https://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/resources/digital.php

Although I have not found more on Vietnamese bamboo construction with limited searching today, I found hundreds of photos with bamboo in the archives, and will share a few with baskets here. These are all cropped. Interested readers are encouraged to visit the online archives to see more. Thank you to the Archives, including soldiers and others who donated their photographs.

Courtesy of The Vietnam Center and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech University:

Qui Nhon Vietnam, 1955
Rufus Philips Collection,
VA066498

Basket hanging from a bamboo ceiling,
 W.B. Bartow Collection,
VA009374

Basketry mat, 1970, Douglas Pike
Collection, VA002376

Bamboo building, no date, Earl R. Rhine
Collection, VA061131

Roadside Baskets, Hugh Manes Collection,
 VA016566