Basket: rivercane, market

This rivercane shopping basket or market basket, also called a “shopper,” was made by Nancy George Bradley from Painttown, North Carolina. Shopping Baskets like this one were carried to market. The interlocking handle of this shopper is woven directly into the basket, giving it a sturdiness to hold weight. The river cane splits were dyed using walnut for the brown color and butternut for the yellow. Woven in the single weave technique, the basket pattern is Cross on the Hill, sometimes called Stairway to Heaven. Nancy George Bradley was a second-generation basket weaver who taught her children to weave as well. Her mother was Mary Dobson; her daughter, Rowena Bradley; both accomplished basket weavers. Nancy Bradley spoke Cherokee, not English, and lived with her husband and 8 children in the Big Cove community near Cherokee, North Carolina. While this basket was made after the Craft Revival period, it remains a late example of work produced during the period