Title   Mandemaaker (Search for the image)
Translated title Basket-Weaver
Intro Text by dr D. Barnes, accompanying Bramer’s drawing of a basket-weaver (`mandenmaker’)

Code of occupational group 94220
Description A basket-weaver wearing a soft cap sits on a box or block of wood in a straw-filled workshop. His legs are outstretched and spread apart to hold a large basket which he is weaving. He uses both hands to weave the wicker. Bundles of osiers are on the shop floor and leaning against the window at the left. A finished basket is on the floor. Two other baskets hang on nails in the wall behind the basket-weaver. A second worker stands behind the basket-weaver. Ms arms are raised and stretched wide to hold the handles of a huge basket balanced on his back and shoulders.

Baskets were used for many purposes: to store peat and wood; bring produce to market; display peddlers' goods; carry laundry; hold fruits and vegetables harvested in orchards and gardens.
Specialized wicker baskets were woven to serve as fish "cars" for keeping fish fresh in river boathouses while others were used as cages to bring live poultry to market. Wicker baskets were also made as cradles for infants. Long wicker mats with a woven wicker back were used by women who sat in them close to the fireplace while nursing or changing the diapers of an infant. Baskets were created in many sizes and shapes, depending upon their use.

Jan van Vliet's basket-weaver also sits on a box in virtually the same position; his basket is equally finished; and there is also a large basket at the left. However, Van Vliet has an assistant shaping a basket splint by using a special cutter, rather than carrying a basket. Bramer has modified van Vliet's imagery somewhat, but retained many features.

Source Donna R. Barnes, Ed D, Street scenes, Leonard Bramer's drawings of seventeenth-century daily life (Hofstra Museum exhibition 1991). Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York.

Click here for the introductory essay on Bramer's drawings.



Contact Copyright

© 2024 IISH Amsterdam