Mid Century Woven Wire Waste Paper Basket in Silver

Most waste paper baskets are hidden under desks for good reason. This one was made to be looked at. Dozens of fine silver toned wires rise from a woven base to a broad twisted rim, held in place by three bands of wire that spiral around the body and give it a gently flared, conical shape. Turn it over and the base is the best part: a tight woven disc with a cross of bundled wire at its centre, the kind of detail that only makes sense once you have watched someone weave metal by hand.

Baskets like this were produced across France and the Low Countries from the 1950s into the 1970s, when aluminium and coated steel wire became cheap enough to work like willow. They were sold as bins, planters and laundry baskets, and the same workshops turned out bread baskets and bottle carriers in the same technique. The material is light, never rusts and takes on a soft, slightly matte sheen with age rather than the mirror finish of new chrome.

It measures 28 cm tall and 28 cm across the rim, so it sits neatly beside a desk or in the corner of a bathroom without crowding the floor. Use it as intended and it will swallow a week of envelopes and receipts with good grace. Drop a terracotta pot inside and it becomes a planter for a trailing pothos or a clutch of dried hydrangea heads. It also makes a very good holder for rolled towels, or for kindling next to a wood burner where the open weave lets everything dry.

Condition is good and honest. The wires show light surface marks and the odd gentle wave from decades of use, and the rim has a few faint scuffs where it has been picked up and put down a thousand times. Nothing is broken or loose, and it stands level. 

Pair it with painted timber, linen and a little brass and it looks entirely at home.