Sturdy and distinct, Longaberger baskets are a favorite at QBO sales. A quality, handmade American product, new Longabergers are not cheap – $300 for a laundry basket! Unlike baskets woven freehand from thin materials such as reeds, Longaberger baskets are made of ‘maple weavings’; slats of wood dense enough that the basket must be shaped over a wooden form with the occasional aid of a hammer. The company has a working library of every form back to those designed by the founder. Each basket is the work of a single person and Longabergers made after 1982 are dated and initialed on the bottom alongside the company logo. Baskets signed by Dave Longaberger (founder) or Grandma Bonnie (founder’s mom) can have $100 of added value, while those of Tami or Rachel (founder’s daughters) go up $50. Sometimes there’s a small plaque reading “Longaberger 1973” on the rim – the company’s official start date.
Because despite their old-timey look, Longabergers are not antiques. Their story begins with J.W. Longaberger, in 1919 an apprentice at The Dresden Basket Factory in Dresden, Ohio. When the company tanked during the Depression he worked elsewhere to support his burgeoning family (12 kids!) but kept making baskets on the side. Eventually he and wife Bonnie Jean saved up to buy the factory for their Ohio Ware Basket Company (later J.W.’s Handwoven Baskets). 5th son Dave W. Longaberger was born in 1934, with epilepsy and stuttering bad enough to keep him in high school until age 21 but in 1971 he took over the company, renaming it The Longaberger Company, designing new baskets and creating accessories such as cloth liners.
The company did so well that as a connoisseur of architecture who had invested his growing wealth in preserving many historic Dresden buildings, in the 1990s Dave commissioned NBBJ and Korda Nemeth Engineering to build one of the most distinctive company headquarters in history, a 7-story building modeled after Longaberger’s best selling “Medium Market Basket”. As goofy as it looks, it was quite a challenge as it has a glass roof, an ‘open plan’ center interior and each ascending story overhangs the one below it. Not to mention 150-ton basket handles!
But here’s where we leave old-timey behind – to sell that many baskets Dave ended up making Longaberger an MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) company which can veer dangerously close to an illegal pyramid scheme: ‘independent associates’ spend their own money on product to sell to friends and family via home-based parties, while earning commissions by recruiting even more sales associates to sell to THEIR friends and on and on. So those baskets have more in common with Tupperware, Amway, and LuLaRoe than you’d think. By 2000, Longaberger had 8,200 real employees (basket-makers, etc.) and did $1 BILLION in sales of baskets, ceramic and wrought-iron wares via 45,000 ‘independent associates’. Dave died in 1999, sales sunk to $100 million by 2012 and in 2013 Longaberger was acquired by holding company CVSL, Inc.. Tami Longaberger, chief executive officer and director, resigned in 2015. The company closed its doors in 2018.
But that’s not the end! In 2019 Xcel Brands acquired Longaberger, which today is back making baskets with the blessing of Tami and Rachel Longaberger and is no longer an MLM. Another business called ‘Dresden & Co.’ is making very similar baskets and IS an MLM, but Longaberger disavows them, so check your baskets for authenticity. And Dave’s beloved basket building? It’s changed hands a few times but the current developer/owner is working to get it added to the National Register of Historic Places. Drive Ohio State Route 16 and you’ll see it from the road.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiGYsFlmmP0
Tuesday Treasures was started by our staff member, Jeanne Lusignan. Each week she will be featuring items that have been found at our estate sales. If you would like to submit a treasure for Jeanne to feature in a future installment of “Tuesday’s Treasures”, please follow the button below and send us an email! Please attach a few photos of your treasure in a beautiful setting as well as any details you have about your item such as manufacturer, use, age, region of origin. If you don’t know about the piece, that’s okay! We still might be able to research it for you! Don’t forget to tell us what makes this item such a treasure to you!