A Collection of Five Nantucket Lightship Purse Baskets, Various Makers, Dates Ranging 1963-2006

Including one with scrimshaw whale to lid, by José Formoso Reyes (1902-1980), inscribed to underside, "Made in Nantucket/ José Formoso Reyes/ 1963," and with drawn outline of Nantucket; one with scrimshaw plaque to lid depicting floral basket, by N.P. Giffin, signed and dated to underside, "NP Giffin/ 1967"; one with carved scrimshaw swan to lid, by Susan Chase Ottison, inscribed and dated to underside, "Susan Chase Ottison/ 1993/ Nantucket Island"; one with carved scrimshaw owl protecting its nest to lid, by Susan Chase Ottison, inscribed and dated to underside, "Susan Chase Ottison/ 2006/ Nantucket Island"; and one with scrimshaw plaque to lid depicting a beach scene, by Susan F. Chase, inscribed and dated to underside, "Susan F. Chase/ 1978/ Nantucket Island."

H: 7 in. W: 8 in. D: 7 1/2 in. (Reyes basket)

This lot is located in Philadelphia.

Provenance:

The Estate of Joly Walton Stewart.

Some scuffs to bottom boards, and minor wear to woven hasps and edges of lids.

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Lynda Cain

VP, Head of Department, American Furniture, Folk and Decorative Arts

[email protected]267.414.1237

Lynda Cain serves as a Vice President of Freeman's and is the Head of Department for American Furniture, Folk and Decorative Arts.
She specializes in American furniture and decorative arts, Native American art, American folk art, and Pennsylvania furniture and decorative arts.
Cain joined Freeman's in 2001 as the company's first American furniture and decorative arts specialist. She began her career in American Decorative Arts as assistant curator at the Detroit Historical Museum. In 1984 she became curator of costume at the Detroit Historical Museum. In 1986, she relocated to Cambridge, Massachusetts and switched from museum work when she joined the American Furniture and Decorative Art Department at Skinner Inc., Bolton and Boston, Massachusetts. Before leaving New England in 1997, she had the great pleasure of directing the cataloguing project of the Folk Art Collection of Nine Fletcher and Bertram K. Little at Cogswell’s Grant, Essex, Massachusetts for the Society of the Preservation of New England Antiquities, now Historic New England. Ms. Cain joined the cast of the popular PBS series Antiques Roadshow in Season 19.
Growing up in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, she was greatly influenced by the rich collections of American paintings, furniture, and decorative arts held by Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum. She notes her good fortune of working in our two great “attic states:” Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. Each Commonwealth has tremendous inventory of historic material, great institutions, and citizens who treasure their inherited and collected items. Cain appears on the television Antiques Roadshow as an appraiser of decorative and folk arts.

Andrew Taggart

Associate Vice President, Specialist, American Furniture, Folk and Decorative Arts

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American Furniture, Folk and Decorative Arts

A Collection of Five Nantucket Lightship Purse Baskets, Various Makers, Dates Ranging 1963-2006

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