"One Egg" Nantucket Lightship Basket, circa 1940

A great basket in excellent condition made by Sherwin Porter Boyer (1907-1964). Made with oak staves and carved oak handle that is attached with brass ears. The basket bears Boyers s...

With a dark rich patina. Made with oak staves, handle and a mahogany base. In excellent condition. Attributed to Sherwin Porter Boyer (1907-1964). Measures: 6”.    

Oval Nantucket lightship basket with shaped oak swing handle ending in carved round “lollipop” ends and brass ears. Remnants of the original paper label remains on the bottom. Made...

Made with oak staves, handle, mahogany base and attached brass ears, in excellent condition. The poem on the label reads” I was made in Nantucket, I’m strong and stout. Don’t lose me...

7 ½” open round Nantucket lightship basket with brass ears , “R Folger Maker Nantucket, Mass” is stenciled on the interior bottom, circa 1875 Rowland Folger (1803-1883).

A small Nantucket lightship gathering basket with sturdy wooden ears, and a convex interior bottom with thee concentric lines typical of a George Washington Ray (1814-1891) made b...

Very Early Nantucket lightship basket, circa 1860, an oval open basket with wide splint staves, split wood rim, cane weave, solid birch bottom plate, and sha...

Antique Nantucket Lightship Basket from the South Shoals Lightship, attributed to Captain Thomas James (Nantucket: 1811 - 1885), circa 1870s, an early round, open Nantucket basket wi...

Nantucket Petite Basket, by Sherwin Boyer, circa 1960, the tiny size referred to on-island as a “one egg" basket, a round open basket with carved swing handle,...

Antique Nantucket Lightship Basket by Davis Hall (1828 - 1906), circa 1880, made aboard the South Shoals Lightship. A shallow round open cane woven basket with oak staves, slender sh...

A wonderful and quite rare and hard to find nantucket lightship basket by Davis Hall, (1828-1906). Hall's baskets are prized by collectors of lightship baskets worldwide. This basket is made with his traditional swing handle and rounded lollipop connecting two ends. Hall cultivated his basket-making skill on the South shoal lightship after the American Civil War...

19th Century Nest of Three Nantucket Lightship Baskets, circa 1880, a graduated set of three round, open baskets having cane weave on rattan staves, a carved swing handle with an elongated ovoid lozenge end connected to tin ears that extend down inside the weave for about a quarter length of a stave, and hardwood bottom plate, likely maple, that is slightly convex and scribed with three concentric rings, The baskets are not signed but are clearly all made by the same hand. The style of the handle with a lozenge end is very similar to that carved by Charles Ray, Capt. Thomas James, William Appleton and circle aboard the South Shoals Lightship, and continued in a more exaggerated manner ashore by A.D. Williams, Ferdinand Sylvaro and especially Mitchy Ray. The handle here has a more slender and elegant profile more akin to the work of Capt. James, suggesting that this nest was likely made by a sailor serving aboard the lightship during James' tenure. All three baskets remain in very good, strong condition, and enjoy a deep patina nicely darkened with age. Unlike most nests which really seem to be more of an assemblage gathered together after the fact, these three baskets nest together nicely with a uniform gradation in size, a feature exemplified by the perfect graduated profile of their handles. This nest was in the personal collection of noted Nantucket folk art...