Large, Unusually Cage-like Antique Lidded Sailor Made Macrame Basket eyes and statements by the architect(s)

and statements by the architect(s)

I believe most likely it was made to function as a tea caddy (there are some very fine 19th c example of tea caddies in the form of houses)

Both in great vintage condition

late 19th century US Army

facing toward the camera

Large, Unusually Cage-like Antique Lidded Sailor Made Macrame Basket eyes and statements by the architect(s)A sailor made macrame basket, late 19th century or so, as large as I've see and rather amazingly still with its lid (with very sweet scalloped edge) and with this unusually wide, open weave on the sides, pushing the limits of the basket form and making it feel equally like a cage in which one might carry home a canary or a live fish! (Found in Maine, I might think it was a lobster trap that inspired it!) As Ive said before, antique sailor made baskets