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Shaker Craftsmanship: Baskets

s it a Shaker-made basket? This is an a different design, but each design had all the identifiable marks
often-asked question and incorrect and proportions of Shaker. Other working baskets made at area farms
Iassumption. Just because a basket is or by local Indians were less task-oriented. They were multipurpose,
beautiful does not mean that it is a Shaker usually made from heavier material, and were bulkier. The handles
basket, even if found in or around the and rims were coarse and less refined than those made by the standards
region of a Shaker village. There were of the Shakers.
many notable, mostly Native American and As early as 1809, the Shakers also began making “Fancy Baskets” for
German basket makers whose skill of the sale to the “outside” world in their gift shops and at grand resort hotels
craft rivaled that of the Shakers producing as a way to supplement their income and support their village. The
baskets in the same regions as the Shaker villages market for their baskets and other hand-made goods was perpetuated
Apple basket made in
Mount Lebanon, NY, of the 18th and early 19th centuries, and whose by Victorian travelers’ desires for novelty souvenirs as they journeyed to
circa 1840-1860. photo: baskets were purchased by Shakers for their per- spas and resorts in New York and New England.
Shaker Museum sonal use, which is why there is often confusion The same aesthetic standards can be seen in the fancy baskets that
as to a basket’s maker of origin. Nothing, are in their counterparts, the working baskets, and display the same
though, rivals a Shaker basket in beauty, craftsmanship, and durability. design, proportion, overall fit and finish to the rim and handle joinery,
So, what’s the trick to identifying a real Shaker basket? Two distinc- all hallmarks of the Shaker basket; however, fancy baskets were always
tive features: their rims and handles, which are often carved from the small (under eight inches) as they were sold as curios and brought home
same piece of wood and lashed together with the same brown ash or as gifts.
white oak splint in which the rest of the basket is woven. These baskets
display incredibly fine craftsmanship using hand-split and hand-carved The Highs and Lows of Manufacturing
local materials and are beautiful examples of early American basketry.
The mid-19th century decline of
Shaker men meant that the primary
The Evolution of an Indigenous Craft responsibility for the industry fell
It is thought that the Shakers began weaving their own baskets when on the sisters. This served to
those purchased from local Native Americans couldn't meet their feminize the design of Shaker
needs. The Shakers were using baskets for everyday agricultural work baskets. This, combined with the
and needed something that could withstand this heavy usage. Their ear- new baskets now being mass
liest attempts at basket making were rustic and tough, inspired heavily produced in factories, should have
by the techniques and designs of European settlers in New England and been the end of Shaker basket making;
northeast Native American tribes. Function, not design, was the main however, the Shaker sisters persevered
concern. It wasn’t until later that the Shakers began producing the fine and the “fancy-work” basket was created. Cheese baskets were traditionally
basketry for which they are known. Shaker basket making was dealt a designed to be lined with cheese
Like most of their industries, the Shakers adapted available technol- blow in1875 when a huge fire at the cloth and used while processing
ogy to create a more efficient manufacturing process that increased the Mount Lebanon Shaker Village took out cheese to separate the curds from
basket’s quality. For example, rather than pounding logs manually with several Church Family buildings, as well the whey. This example is 19”
wooden mallets to prepare wood splint, as the Native Americans did, as many baskets, molds, tools, and mate- diameter x 7” high
the Shakers adapted the mechanic trip-hammer, a blacksmith’s tool, to rials. Although every Shaker community
complete this task. These baskets were made from local wood (predom- crafted baskets, the Mount Lebanon community was known to have
inantly ash) and processed completely by the Shakers. This was a joint produced the largest number of baskets, estimated at 70,000 over 60
operation between brethren and sisters. The brethren were responsible years. In addition to the fire, Shaker communities were waning in their
for cutting and preparing the “basket stuff,” as they called it, while the numbers, which also affected production. According to Martha
majority of the basket weaving was done by the sisters. Wooden basket Wetherbee and Nathan Taylor, authors of Shaker Baskets, considered
molds were created to ensure uniformity and perfection in each piece. the definitive study on Shaker baskets, Shaker basket making had
effectively come to an end by 1900 with older veteran basket weavers
Two Different Styles, Same Set of Rules dying and still more members leaving the community. Unfortunately,
efforts to revive the once booming revenue stream met with little
Originally, the Shakers success, and the last Shaker
produced what is now known basket, according to
as “Working Baskets” for Wetherbee, was made in
their own use. Working 1958. “In a period of some
baskets were for just that: sixty or seventy years, the
work. They were used for Shakers had made 150,000 -
carrying heavy loads and maybe 200,000- baskets. …”
spent much of their lives
being picked up and used by Today, fans and collectors
the Shakers in their daily can find authentic Shaker
communal lives. baskets for sale at primitive
Unlike other working goods and antique shows and
baskets of that time, there at auction at prices that range
were task-specific. That from affordable to the tens of
means they were made for a thousands of dollars.
particular use. They were Labeled baskets in the Yet, these baskets have
used in the dairy for cheese laundry at Canterbury long been and continue to be
making, carried to the wash- Shaker Village coveted by private collectors
room with clothes, to the and museums who seek to
garden for picking and tell the Shaker’s story
sorting, and to the attic for by highlighting the best
drying. Each task demanded
examples of their work.

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