The one definition that is usually true about baskets made anywhere in the world, is that they are made with locally available, natural, materials. But, there are exceptions and perhaps Scotland has more baskets made with non-indigenous materials than many other countries. Here rattan from South East Asia has played an important part in many of the baskets particularly those used for fishing since at least the early 20th Century, if not before.
At that time for a basketmaker in Scotland to be making baskets madeout of a material that grows in a tropical jungle on the other side of the globe required several things to have happened. Firstly the material needed to have arrived in Scotland with a price tag that was not prohibitive. Secondly someone needed to have spotted its potential for use in basket making. And thirdly someone needed to have made baskets with it and found it to be a better material for the particular job in hand than anything available locally.
There are various theories as to how it may have arrived in Scotland, but so far little documentary evidence.[1] The most common and plausible theory is that it arrived as dunnage, which is a waste or non valuable material used like packaging to prevent the cargo, in the hold of a sea going vessel, from shifting during passage. The evidence for this theory seems largely to come from this story of the arrival of rattan in