Fish basket

For transporting fresh fish in water, the fishermen used a sadz, which could be a lockable wicker basket or a box coming in various sizes and shapes, with holes in the walls to allow the water to flow through. On land, fish were carried in sacks, bast bags and buckets. However, the most distinctive equipment, used for land transportation as well as for storage of fish, were special baskets, know under such names as karżyna (worn on the back), karznia, leszka and kipa (carried in one’s hands). Usually, they were handmade by the older people who had enough time to collect and prepare the raw material for weaving. In the culture of Pomeranian fishermen, the baskets were widely used. The sight of women travelling to the markets in remote villages and towns with baskets full of fish was characteristic for that region. The Department of Ethnography of Pomerania of the National Museum in Szczecin has in its collection eleven baskets used for storage and transportation of fish. The presented example was made from torn pine roots with a wicker technique commonly used in Europe which involved tightly wrapping a rigid skeleton, the so-called ribs, with flexible threads. Originally, shoulder straps were attached to the even surface on the back of the basket, so that it could be carried comfortably on the back. The basket comes from the village of Kopice in Stepnica municipality, from around 1900.

Agnieszka Słowińska