Rattan Wicker Log Basket of Boat Form with Arched Carrying Handle. France. Circa 1970.

This log basket distinguishes itself from the conventional round or bag-form basket by its distinctive boat or crescent silhouette — a wide, shallow body whose curved profile echoes the hull of a vessel, open along its upper length to receive and display a generous stack of firewood. The arched handle rises with a single sweeping arc from one end to the other, forming the dominant vertical element of a composition that is otherwise emphatically horizontal. This formal tension between the flat breadth of the basket and the soaring height of the handle is one of the piece’s most pleasing qualities.

The rattan is woven in its natural colour — warm honey and amber tones, lighter and more varied than the darkened examples of the period — with bands of differently tensioned or coloured weave providing a decorative accent that animates the surface without disrupting its fundamental simplicity. This combination of structural weave and ornamental banding is characteristic of French basketwork of the 1960s and 1970s, a tradition in which the functional object is consistently given a degree of aesthetic attention that elevates it above the merely useful.

At 61 cm wide, this is a basket of generous scale, capable of holding a substantial supply of firewood for an evening’s burning. The boat form allows logs to be stacked in a single layer across the full width of the basket, making them easy to select and retrieve and presenting them in an orderly, visually appealing arrangement beside the hearth. The wide footprint also ensures that the basket sits with complete stability on any floor surface.

In good vintage condition and fully functional, this basket would be at home beside a fireplace in a range of interior registers, from the traditional French country house to a contemporary domestic setting that values the organic warmth of natural craft materials.