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"Witch" basket

(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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Madeline Yale Wynne (1847-1918) introduced Deerfield, Massachusetts, women to raffia basketry when she began living in Deerfield in 1885. The basket makers of Deerfield's Arts and Crafts movement at the turn of the century used a variety of materials in their baskets. These included imported raffia and palmetto palm, native sweet grass, willow withes, reeds, rushes, pine needles and common grasses. This raffia-lidded example has woven-in designs of black and orange cats and jack-o-lanterns, created with natural dyes. These designs inspired its owner to call it her "witch basket."

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