May, 1919 
47 
A relic of early Victorian days is a 
basket made of numberless tiny 
shells, which with their iridescent 
colorings are fascinating 
The case contains flower-bas¬ 
ket jewelry—enameled ear¬ 
rings, an old silver comb, snufl 
boxes, and an enamel watch 
An Italian embroidered basket of the 
l&th Century is done in delicate tones 
of chenille on a white ground and 
framed in oval 
One of the most valuable items 
is a delicately carved ivory 
basket, an old French piece of 
the \%th Century 
produced exquisite laces in which my favorite 
design was delightfully used. 
A Twenty-Year Collection 
This collection of mine extends over a period 
of twenty years. Some of it was unearthed in 
tiny old shops in Spain and Italy, some in the 
byways of France, some from little old New 
England villages. There are about five hun¬ 
dred baskets, altogether, in¬ 
cluding those in the design of 
old laces, old bead purses, 
water-color paintings, baskets 
made of worsted, of paper 
and of shells. There are some 
old pieces of furniture, wax 
pictures, old prints, cameos, 
glass, old china, Chinese 
porcelain, silver, lustre, and 
bits of Italian pottery. 
The baskets have such va¬ 
rying shapes, such variety 
of colors, such diversity of 
styles. The contrasts are very 
great; all the way from the 
delicately carved ivory done 
with all the restraint and fin¬ 
ish of the 18th Century to the 
crude and rather blatant 
American tinsel flower pic¬ 
ture made by untutored fin¬ 
gers in Victorian days. Each 
establishes its own atmos¬ 
phere and re-creates for you 
the setting in which it was 
conceived. 
Among the most curious 
and fascinating are the little 
straw baskets filled with glass 
fruit of the 17th Century, 
which were used with old 
Creche figures. The small¬ 
est piece in the collection is 
a little pin, half an inch high, 
made of very fine colored 
hair, worked into petit point 
on a black hair background. 
Another very interesting 
one is a quaint old English 
piece of needlework made of 
numberless bits of colored 
felt. 
Then there are curious bits of old jewelry, 
combs, pendants, rings, earrings, snuff boxes; 
in fact, there is no end to the use of this fasci¬ 
nating design when you begin to look for it. 
I have been particularly concerned with the 
question of the placing of the collection in a 
room in which I spend so much of my time. 
The arranging of collections has always been 
a difficult problem, and I was particularly anx¬ 
ious to avoid an overcrowded 
effect. So in order to estab¬ 
lish a sense of quiet and re¬ 
pose, I planned each wall 
, space carefully with a view 
I to keeping it as perfectly bal¬ 
anced as possible, choosing 
the same size and shaped pic¬ 
tures to hang in pairs. The 
deepest tone of the creamy 
backgrounds, which occurred 
in the most of the flower pic¬ 
tures, was used on the walls, 
and the furniture and the 
hangings were all kept in 
warm honey color and green. 
Basket Inspiration 
In later years this collec¬ 
tion became the foundation 
for a daily inspiration to me 
in the design of other things, 
such as electric fixtures, 
lamps, shades, pillows and so 
on. All of these were in¬ 
spired by suggestions from 
my beloved baskets. My 
friends know about this keen 
interest of mine and are fre¬ 
quently adding other con¬ 
tributions to my collection. 
I was very much enter¬ 
tained by a young friend of 
mine, aged nine, who spent 
at least half an hour diligent¬ 
ly searching through my Pa- 
nier Fleuri room in a vain at¬ 
tempt to find something on 
which that design did not ap¬ 
pear, and finally, after su¬ 
preme effort, she exclaimed, 
“Well, the carpet isn’t a bas¬ 
ket!” 
Over the bed is a delightfully quaint piece of English needlework made of colored 
felt in a design of a flower basket. The basket design is repeated on practically 
everything in the room. The \%th Century Italian painted bed has the design on 
the footboard and an urn of floivers of late Renaissance embroidery on its cover 
