Open Nantucket Bushel Basket with with Oak Hart Shaped Side Carrying Handles, Attributed to Mitchell Ray, American, circa 1910
InformationOpen Nantucket Bushel Basket with with Oak Hart Shaped Side Carrying Handles, Attributed to Mitchell Ray, American, circa 1910.
Oak fixed handles with shaped finger holds. Oak rim and ribs. Mahogany base plate with two grooved concentric rings on interior, typical for Ray. Excellent state of preservation and rich brown patina.
Height to rim 9.5". Diameter 18.75".
Condition: Generally well preserved.
Provenance:
Marguerite Riordan, Stonington, Connecticut, October 7, 2004.
The Collection of Nancy & Larry Dickson.
Reference:
The Decorative Arts and Crafts of Nantucket by Charles H. and Mary Grace Carpenter (N.Y., 1987), p. 185, 188-190, 193.
Nantucket Lightship Baskets by Katherine and Edgar Seeler (Nantucket, Mass., 1982), p. 14, 106-107, plate 46.
The Lightship Baskets of Nantucket, A Continuing Craft by David H. Wood (Nantucket, Mass., 1994), p. 7, 17, 47.
Notes:
Clinton Mitchell "Mitchy" Ray (1870-1956) learned to make Nantucket baskets from his grandfather, Charles B. Ray, one of the most prolific South Shoal Lightship basket makers. When Mitchy took up full-time basketmaking, many of the molds he used were made by his grandfather. He made work baskets of various sizes, including tiny "one-eggers", which he sold for about $1.50.
His earliest baskets had simple paper labels but he later started famously marking them "I was made in Nantucket, I'm strong and stout. Don't lose me or burn me and I'll never wear out.".
circa 1910
Dickson Price $17,350.
