Basket

Round open form basket made with coils of grass and palm leaf that are plaited together. A decorative pattern is created with dark dyed grass wrapped around the coils. The basket contains bread fragments [M11115] but seemingly once held fruit. Probably dating to the New Kingdom and from Thebes (Sams collection no. 117). The object is labelled '602' from when it was displayed in Joseph Mayer's Egyptian Museum on Colquit Street, Liverpool. There is another item (M11914a) associated with the basket described as "portion of the lid". In Mayer's 1852 "Colquit St. catalogue", this basket is described as containing "Fruit of various kinds - the date, the pomegranate, &c. (some of which are now become extinct, and their names unknown)". Charles Gatty noted that Mayer mistook dom plam nuts for pomegrantes in his Colquit Street catalogue. The object was evacuated from the gallery in 1939 and assigned the ARP [Air Raid Protection] number 1435. 1928 Mayer Inventory Entry: "Plaited red basket with portion of the lid. Labelled 602. 7 1/2 inch diameter. Egyptian Hall case 41".