A vintage 1950s-1960s era bamboo lidded basket like this one is very hard to find today. It was not made in China. It is exemplary craftsmanship from the Philippines around 60-70 years ago. It was originally made to be an easy to carry small sewing basket for small items like buttons, thread, and needles. It is also very unique as it features triple handles. 

I will share something with you about old bamboo baskets. I know my baskets. Ive been collecting and studying for over 40 years. My mother was a collector too. The secret to knowing a really old bamboo basket is in the size of the canes. In the 1920s and 1930s, all Asian bamboo baskets were incredible works of art with very narrow canes a few millimeters in size. The canes were hand split to size and it was very time consuming. The older baskets were always stained dark brown, sometimes incorporating other colors too. 

Sometime in the 1950s, they stopped staining the bamboo completely. However, throughout the 1950s and 1960s, they still made small baskets with very narrow canes. After the 1960s, there are no Asian bamboo baskets that were made with very narrow canes. They had to produce more, faster, as the export demand was high when Nixon lifted the import ban in 1971. The practice of staining died out in the 1950s to reduce cost and labor. 

This basket is a unique squatty bulbous shape. The basket is made of quarter inch wide natural bamboo canes woven with canes that are just a few millimeters wide. The basket has a wonderful honey gold patina and is in pristine clean like new condition. 

The only slight imperfections are where the handled meet the basket, some of the tiny 2 millimeter wide canes wrapped around the handles have split. I have left them alone but they can be glued back down if you desire. I have not cleaned this basket in any way so if you stare into the cracks hard you will see some very light dust from age. It has been stored away in my collection for about 30 years. 

It measures 7" tall with the handle. The basket portion is about 6" wide x 4 1/4" tall.