Hello,
I work at the Bard Graduate Center, where we had the basket you mentioned on exhibition this past winter. The basket is from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 39.13.1, and a similar one is in the collection of Colonial Williamburg, G1954-234. The baskets were discussed in the catalogue published by Yale University Press for the exhibition, English Embroidery from the Metropolitan Museum of Art1580-1700, 'Twixt Art and Nature. Andrew Morrall and Melinda Watt were the exhibition curators and catalogue editors.
This is from the beginning of the catalogue entry on the basket in the exhibition catalogue:
"This elaborate beadwork basket is one of a group of similar suriving examples that have been compared to silver baskets of the comparable form that were traditionally used to hold a child's clothes during the christening ceremony. Although such beadwork baskets did not lend themselves to this kind of a practical use, their imagery is also usually celebratory and commemorative of marriage or betrothal." There are a few references and citations within the catalogue entry that you may find helpful to consult.
Best regards,
Alexis Mucha
Date: Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:41:51 -0400
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] 17th c. beaded christening basket
To: [log in to unmask]
Hello all:
For my work study experience at the Maidstone Museum in Southeastern England we putting together a display on embroidery and beadwork titled "Its All in the Detail." I am researching a mid-seventeenth century basket that is made of colored beads and metal wire, given by Lady Cornwallis. It is very elaborate and the accession entry refers to it as a "Christening basket." I found a similar basket on the Bard website (its the object of the month) and wondered if any one had any ideas about how such an intricate piece would be used (a Christening gift?). There is a link to the example on the Bard website below. Thanks in advance.
http://www.bgc.bard.edu/object_month/120508/oom_120508_image_related_3.shtml
Cheers,
Natalya Hopper
Appalachian State University
Boone, North Carolina
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