In honor of America's Labor Day today, and the last official day to picnic & BBQ, I wanted to share my small collection of vintage picnic baskets & thermoses. I do occasionally use these baskets for our own picnics, and love how they looked stacked one on top of the other in a corner of my family room. I love to pair them with some of my old table linens- there's nothing cuter than a red gingham tablecloth and napkins to add to the festive look of these old baskets.
I've had these baskets for at least 25-30 years each, and my guess is they are from the 50s. They are probably Hawkeye and Red Man (Redmon) baskets, but I'm no expert in the vintage basket department. But I love them, and they are in really good condition. The large red plaid has a pie shelf inside, which makes it easy to stack lots of goodies for a fabulous picnic.
The thermoses are both Thermos brand, and the older, blue one, has the original cork with the Thermos logo. I haven't been able to find out when Thermos stopped using corks and moved to plastic stoppers, but my guess is around the mid-50s. This one is probably older than that because of the metal cup. When I first saw this blue thermos, I thought that the cup was missing, because I'm so used to seeing that ubiquitous plastic cup with handle. But the metal cup, although handle-free, must have been lovely to drink out of, keeping liquids icy cold or toasty warm.
If you are picnicking today, I hope you have a fabulous day. If you have a picnic basket, whether old or new, use it! Everything tastes better when packed with love inside a lovely basket.
I love them Stef! I have always wanted baskets with pie shelves since I always make multiple pies at Thanksgiving and need a good way to transport multiple pies.
ReplyDelete