Lot Essay
With their tight weave and elegant symmetry, these eight nesting baskets are incredible surviving examples of a Nantucket craft. These art forms were termed "Lightship baskets" in the late 19th century because the majority of these baskets were made by crew members aboard the South Shoals Lightships to occupy their time during the long winter months. The lightships, anchored twenty-four miles off Sankaty Head, were equipped with large beacon-lights and bells to ward off incoming ships from the sandbars. Life aboard a lightship was not only monotonous, but also quite dangerous. On occasions a ship during a storm would break away from its moorings or in a thick fog would be sunk by an incoming ship. Crew members lived on their ships from December until May without any contact with the main land. This isolation encouraged the development of crafts, such as basket making and scrimshawing. In an article written in Century magazine in 1891 by Gustave Kobbe about life on board the South Shoal Lightship he states,
"They come in nests, a nest consisting of five or eight baskets of various sizes fitting into each other. These
baskets are made only on the South Shoal Lightship. Their manufacture has been attempted ashore, but has never paid.
This is because there is a narrow margin of profit in them
for the purpose of whiling away the weary winter hours. In
summer the crew occupies its spare time scrimshawing, an
old whaling term for doing ingenious mechanical work, but
having aboard the South Shoal the special means of preparing
the strips of wood and rattan for the manufacture of the
baskets in winter. The bottoms are turned ashore. The blocks
over which the baskets are made have been aboard the ship
since she was anchored off New South Shoal in 1856.
The sides of the baskets are of white oak or hickory,
filled in with rattan and they are round or oval, of
graceful lines and of great durability, the sizes of a
nest ranging from a pint to a peck and half.
Carpenter, Charles, Jr. and Mary Grace Carpenter, The
Decorative Arts and Crafts of Nantucket (New York, 1987) p. 187.
Davis Hall (1828-1905) fought with 213 other men from Nantucket for the Union in the Civil War. After the war, Davis returned to Nantucket and served on the South Shoals Lightship under Captain Andres Sandsbury from 1854 until his death. Most likely it was during this time that Hall made these baskets which sold in local shops on Nantucket. Known for the development of the oval form, Hall's baskets are known for their chamfered hands, tight weave, and elegant symmetry.
For a related nest of eight baskets now in the Heritage Plantation of Sandwich, see Charles H. Carpenter Jr. and Mary Grace Carpenter, The Decorative Arts and Crafts of Nantucket (New York, 1987) p. 190, fig. 177. A nest of six baskets labelled Davis Hall from the Bertram K. and Nina Fletcher Little Collection, sold at Sotheby's New York, January 29, 1994, lot 215. A nest of five baskets labelled Davis Hall sold at Northeast Auctions, Hampton, New Hampshire, August 17 & 18, 1996, lot 796.
"They come in nests, a nest consisting of five or eight baskets of various sizes fitting into each other. These
baskets are made only on the South Shoal Lightship. Their manufacture has been attempted ashore, but has never paid.
This is because there is a narrow margin of profit in them
for the purpose of whiling away the weary winter hours. In
summer the crew occupies its spare time scrimshawing, an
old whaling term for doing ingenious mechanical work, but
having aboard the South Shoal the special means of preparing
the strips of wood and rattan for the manufacture of the
baskets in winter. The bottoms are turned ashore. The blocks
over which the baskets are made have been aboard the ship
since she was anchored off New South Shoal in 1856.
The sides of the baskets are of white oak or hickory,
filled in with rattan and they are round or oval, of
graceful lines and of great durability, the sizes of a
nest ranging from a pint to a peck and half.
Carpenter, Charles, Jr. and Mary Grace Carpenter, The
Decorative Arts and Crafts of Nantucket (New York, 1987) p. 187.
Davis Hall (1828-1905) fought with 213 other men from Nantucket for the Union in the Civil War. After the war, Davis returned to Nantucket and served on the South Shoals Lightship under Captain Andres Sandsbury from 1854 until his death. Most likely it was during this time that Hall made these baskets which sold in local shops on Nantucket. Known for the development of the oval form, Hall's baskets are known for their chamfered hands, tight weave, and elegant symmetry.
For a related nest of eight baskets now in the Heritage Plantation of Sandwich, see Charles H. Carpenter Jr. and Mary Grace Carpenter, The Decorative Arts and Crafts of Nantucket (New York, 1987) p. 190, fig. 177. A nest of six baskets labelled Davis Hall from the Bertram K. and Nina Fletcher Little Collection, sold at Sotheby's New York, January 29, 1994, lot 215. A nest of five baskets labelled Davis Hall sold at Northeast Auctions, Hampton, New Hampshire, August 17 & 18, 1996, lot 796.