This lovely key basket is fresh off the bench by my apprentice Jessie Rogers. This basket is based on an original southern Rockingham County or northern Augusta County, Virginia basket located in the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley. Jess has never viewed this particular basket in person so she developed her pattern from only one picture and gave it her own design tweaks to suit her. It turned out beautifully. All hand stitched in linen thread, this basket attains a professional level of completion with a full lining of emerald green leather. Me thinks the title of apprentice is waning at a considerable rate!
Key baskets seem to have become popular in the early to mid 1800s predominantly in Virginia and North Carolina. Many extant examples bear the maker's mark of various saddlers and harness makers of the period.
They seem to have been popular gifts to a bride in recognition of affection and her new role as mistress of the household. Keys were large and multiple so a basket could contain and transport the many keys to the rooms and cupboards of the great house as well as the associated outbuildings relating to household operation such as kitchens, smokehouse, etc.
