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Feather beds were essential to providing warmth during the cold summer months, but needed to be stored during the summer when only the straw mattress beneath was used. In the spring the feather beds were aired and then tucked away in large baskets or trunks, or rolled up under the rope bed until the fall, when they were refreshed with new feathers or down, searched for bugs, and brought back into good use. This basket was made of reeds, natural fibers that could be easily bent into graceful shapes. At 40.5" in diameter, this baskets looks a big like a gigantic candy dish, another popular basket form.

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Reed Basket

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