Nantucket Basket by Miss Jimmie Kent's

Miss Jimmie Kent (1939-) of Sneads Ferry, North Carolina, was born in Texas and spent some time in Tennessee and Alabama in her younger years. She made her first basket when she was ten years old but started designing the baskets she makes when she moved to Sneads Ferry in 1985 and started teaching basket weaving there. Her husband Jim is also a basket maker.

When word got around about Miss Jimmie's skills, she was contacted by Poplar Grove Plantation in Scotts Hill/Wilmington, NC, once a sweet potato and peanut farm, now a historic museum complex. She teaches basket weaving in a gallery there; we've included a photo of Miss Jimmie holding that first basket she ever made while standing in front of a display of her baskets at the Plantation.

This large, open Nantucket basket has the elements of those developed on Nantucket during the nineteenth century: it was handwoven of cane on a mold and it has a solid wood base. The wooden swing handle was carved and is attached to each side with white knobs with brass tacks. The basket is accompanied by a hangtag tied on with a white piece of string. We've pictured both sides of the tag and we'll include it with the basket.

This basket measures 9 inches tall and 9 1/2 inches in diameter; when the handle is up, it's 16 inches tall and weighs 14 ounces. It's in superb condition, with no weave breakage or other damage. It has the burned-in initials 'JK' on the bottom and displays handsomely.

Some further information on Miss Jimmie:

Miss Jimmie's baskets were featured in the May, 2007 issue of The Crafts Report Magazine.

In the March 21, 2003 issue in a Washington Post newspaper column titled 'Looking Ahead': "Basketry by Jimmie Kent of Sneads Ferry, N.C., is among the work you can find at the Craftsmen's Classic Arts & Crafts Festival March 28-30 at the Dulles Expo Center."

© PrimpingYourHome.com

PYH 5524