I have my great-grandmother's laundry basket. It is actually a small, waist-high (on an average-sized American woman) cupboard with woven rattan sides, and both a door opening in front and a lid that opens on the top. The household's dirty laundry would be stacked in it, and once a week or more often, the laundryman would come by and take the whole thing away for everything to be washed.
I also have my grandmother's crumb-brush, which is a ceramic figure with a coconut husk fibre brush attached, used to brush crumbs from the table after each course.
They are both still in use, though the laundry-basket is just a repository for dirty clothes now, since I have a washing-machine.
Where? I've only seen them myself in Southeast Asia, though they could probably be found in India as well. I think of them as a British colonial thing.
Here in southern California. One family kept bed linens in theirs. I remember another one when I was a kid. Records (LPs) were stored in it. I'm pretty sure I've seen more--it was instantly familiar.
Fascinating! I wonder where they came from. An indigenous development, possibly. There were similar, smaller contraptions with wire sides, which were hung from the ceiling and used to store food away from rats.
There are a lot of Pacific Rim people here in SoCal, from current generations to many generations back (railroad/Gold Rush era), from wealthy to poor. My guess is, furnishings brought over might have been adapted to changing lifestyles.
I also have my grandmother's crumb-brush, which is a ceramic figure with a coconut husk fibre brush attached, used to brush crumbs from the table after each course.
They are both still in use, though the laundry-basket is just a repository for dirty clothes now, since I have a washing-machine.
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http://www.knock-on-wood.asia/?portfolio=laundry-cabinet
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