Basket, butter

This basket is a ‘Southport boat’, used for carrying butter and eggs. It was in the donor’s family for over seventy years, and dates from around the turn of the century. It is a rectangular basket made of buff willow (probably salix purpurea, ‘Dicky Meadows’) on a frame of ash spelk and with an ash spelk handle. It originally had a lid, but this has been lost. The Southport boat was designed in 18…