A few weeks ago we had a rather special visit from Lisbeth and Ole, who had travelled with their grandchildren from Denmark for an historic trip taking in Hadrian’s Wall, Edinburgh and Lindisfarne.
Lisbeth is a keen basket weaver, and was eager to see how one of hers measured up to our remarkable Roman survivor.
She learned of the Carlisle basket and the (once lost) Roman technique from her teacher Steen Hedegård Madsen, an expert basket maker with his own collection of historic baskets dating as far back as 1840. Steen himself has made several reconstructions of the basket after it was described in a 1991 edition of the Basketmakers’ Association by Elisabeth Algott.
The Roman technique involves weaving with six willow stems for the ‘standing’ part of the basket (four across and two under) and four (two across, two under) for the rest of the basket.
After learning of the technique, Lisbeth set about making a replica which we were pleased to give her the opportunity to compare.
Hers looks a little fresher than ours, but maybe we’ll have to check back in 1800 years or so to be fair.
You can see the original Roman willow basket on display in the Border Galleries. It’s made from the woven stems of a willow tree and so incredibly rare as organic items don’t usually survive this long.
