There are four distinctive elements that define a Nantucket lightship basket. The basket is woven on a mold; the staves are made of rattan; the weavers are of cane; and the basket has a solid wood base. Baskets with these characteristics developed on Nantucket during the course of the nineteenth century. When well made, they were robust and practical as storage and carrying baskets. As the island transitioned from a whaling economy to a tourist economy in the 1860s and after, these attractive baskets became popular keepsakes of an island visit.
It is sometimes said that Nantucket baskets may have developed aboard the island’s whaling ships, where the intermittent work of whale hunting allowed the arts of scrimshanding, decorative knot tying, and chantey singing to flourish. There is no evidence of widespread rattan basket making on Nantucket whaleships, however, and no examples of Nantucket-style baskets made aboard whaleships are known, although multitudes of scrimshaw baskets survive.
Some of the earliest makers associated with the distinctive Nantucket rattan basket were, indeed, former whalers, such as James Wyer, Charles B. Ray, Thomas S. James, and James F. Chase. But only in the case of Thomas James is there any indication that any of these men might have made baskets in the course of a whaling voyage. According to an oral tradition that may need to be taken with a grain of salt, James was the first man to return from a whaling voyage with baskets he had made in his spare time, baskets that were deep bottomed, with vertical staves and flat wood bases and folding wood handles. Whether he made baskets while whaling or not, James is one of the men responsible for encouraging the weaving of baskets aboard lightships stationed near Nantucket in the second half of the nineteenth century.
The first American lightships—essentially floating lighthouses—were established by the U.S. government beginning in the 1820s. Lightships began to mark the dangerous shoal waters around Nantucket starting in 1849. Many of the mariners hired to work aboard these floating beacons were Nantucketers; some had even been whalers. Thomas S. James was mate and later captain of the South Shoal Lightship near Nantucket beginning in the late 1860s. As Gustav Kobbé aptly put it in the Century Magazine in 1891, duty aboard the South Shoal Lightship was “at its best a life of desolation, with only a few gulls or Mother Carey’s chickens for visitors.” James and others who made rattan baskets ashore introduced basket weaving aboard the South Shoal Lightship, and trained other men in the craft. In this way, the distinctive baskets already made on Nantucket came to be associated with lightships, particularly the South Shoal Lightship, and the baskets started to be called Nantucket lightship baskets. As Harry Platt wrote in 1894, “For a quarter of a century the crew of the South Shoal light-ship have employed their leisure moments in making a peculiar kind of basket, known to those who visit Nantucket as light-ship baskets. . . . At first but one or two of the crew worked at them, and their products were very rough when compared with the neat baskets made to-day. Now every man aboard is an expert basket-maker, and about five hundred are sold by the stores in Nantucket each summer for the crew.”
The list of notable basket weavers who worked aboard this lightship is long, including Davis Hall, Andrew Sandsbury, William D. Appleton, Charles F. Ray, S. B. Raymond, and Isaac Hamblin. Lightships remained on duty into the mid-twentieth century, but no Nantucketer worked on them after 1905. With shipboard basket weaving finally forbidden by the government sometime before 1916, in an effort to end moonlighting, the making of lightship baskets moved firmly ashore, back where it had started.
While no longer made afloat, the island’s basket continued to be called Nantucket lightship baskets. The craft passed from one weaver to another, and molds, tools, and weaving techniques passed hand to hand as well. Mitchy Ray taught Fredrick Chadwick and later William Sevrens. A. D. Williams learned from William D. Appleton and later taught Ferdinand Sylvaro. Typically, the baskets of this time were woven over oak, ash, or hickory staves, with pine or mahogany bases.
José Formoso Reyes revolutionized the form and meaning of Nantucket baskets during the three-and-a-half decades he lived on Nantucket. He moved to Nantucket after World War II. Unable to find work as a teacher, he turned to basket weaving, supplementing his existing knowledge and skill with lessons from Mitchy Ray. Reyes experimented with shapes, lids, and the addition of ornamental carvings, soon developing the “Friendship basket” purse. His friend Charlie Sayle is credited with first suggesting that Reyes add carvings to the lids of his baskets.
The craft of Nantucket basket making has grown in the last fifty years. Weavers have made creative changes to materials, adornments, and techniques. An expansion of amateur makers has created a market for component pieces.