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Ideas

Well-made Baskets for the dutiful consumer

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How They do it in Deerfield

Madeline Yale Wynne believed that consumers should look to Deerfield, Massachusetts, for beautiful baskets made with 'honest intent.' In comparison to the exuberant examples that Wynne found in American department stores, Deerfield baskets were quite spare. Palm leaf baskets, for instance, were constructed into straightforward, highly-functional geometric shapes, using "simple flat weaves".¹ These baskets were often small, and their pale materials were left undyed. Madeline described the palm leaf basket as, "shy of ribbons and coy as to color, and we have originated some pleasing shapes."²

1. Madeline Yale Wynne, "Makers of Baskets," Good Housekeeping November 1901, pp. 369, 370
2. Ibid, 371.