I am very excited to say that I finally am in possession on a tobacco basket. A few months ago I saw one in an antique store in N. GA and was intrigued by this square, shallow, woven basket they had for sale. It was a little beat up but they wanted 75$ for it plus they were giving 15% off. I didn't buy it that day but I came back a few days later thinking I was going to buy it, but hesitated. I bought some other items for the house instead. I proceeded to research these baskets online and found out that they have been in use up until the 1980s mostly in the tobacco farming areas of N. Carolina. They were used to display the tobacco for sale.
I asked a lady at a local antique store about them and she said they were hard to come by, but that I might have an easier time finding one in N.C. Well, when we went to Maggie Valley in April I went antique shopping. I found one but it was in poor shape. The salesman wanted 15$ for it. He said he had more but couldn't find them. So I decided to check around a few more places. (For some reason there are not as many antique stores around Waynesville as there are on the 441 in N. GA. and western N.C.) But I wasn't able to find any more and everyone told me they were hard to find. So we went back to the store that had the broken one.
I thought, for 15$ it was so cheap that if I got lucky and found another one, then I could put the broken one downstairs and put the new one on my bedroom wall. I was afraid of missing out and not be able to get a basket at all. Well, now they had another one sitting on the ground that wasn't there before. It was tore up too, but not as bad as the first one. The salesman then proceeded to tell me that he had found the missing baskets and that I should look up and low and behold up in the rafters were about 20 of them. He also told me that he had misquoted me on the 15$ but that he would honor that price, but if I bought any others, they would be 35$. Either price was cheap to me. I saw online where some of these sold for up to 150$. I picked out the best one and bought it. Thanks Craig. He really went out of his way to make sure I got my basket.
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| Here is the front of my basket. I love the diamond shape. It will hang above my bed. |
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| Back view of the basket. |
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| The rims are blue and say Farmers Knox. |
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| Number stamped on it. |
When I get her all cleaned up and on the wall, I will post it here. Also, here are a few more updates on the house:
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| Everything matches in the kids' shower now. |
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| New shower head for my shower. Rest will come later. |
