A Brief History of the Nantucket Lightship Basket Bag—And How to Get Your Hands on One
These days, it’s rare to come across an item that’s deeply tied to a single place—especially a strip of the world as small as Nantucket. I had never heard of a Nantucket Lightship basket bag, nor have I ever been to Nantucket, but when I saw cookbook author and influencer Meredith Hayden, a.k.a. Wishbone Kitchen on TikTok, haul her latest antique find earlier this summer, I suddenly became obsessed with all things rattan and sperm whales.
The Nantucket Lightship basket bag, I’ve come to learn, is like a Birkin for Nantucketers—and, depending on the year in which it was made, can go for as much as £5,000. According to the Nantucket Historical Association, an authentic Lightship bag is made on a mold, features cane weaving on rattan staves, and has a solid wooden base. The “friendship baskets,” as coined by legendary maker José Formoso Reyes, feature lids with ivory, ebony, or mahogany carvings of whales, scallop shells, or seagulls.
The bag’s history
The bag can be traced back to the Wampanoag people, the first inhabitants of Nantucket Island, who weaved baskets out of wooden splints for fieldwork and storage. Some believe early whale hunters developed the technique as a form of scrimshanding (carving ivory or bone), but the basket really became associated with the first American lightships in the mid-19th century, which warned other vessels about the dangerous shoal waters around the island. Thomas S. James, captain of the South Shoal Lightship in the 1860s, introduced basket weaving on the ship as a way to pass time.
In the early 20th century, the government forbade Lightship basket weaving, deeming it a case of moonlighting, and the craft eventually moved its way back to shore, where it passed from one weaver to the next. It was José Formoso Reyes who revolutionized the technique by turning the basket into a purse and adding a lid in the 1940s. Originally from the Philippines, Reyes attended Harvard University and later served in World War II. After the liberation of the Philippines in 1945, he resettled in the US as a discharged army captain and settled on Nantucket with his wife’s family.
Unable to find a teaching position due to discrimination, Reyes worked as a house painter and repaired cane and rush chairs. His friend, Mitchell Ray, passed down some of his father’s molds to Reyes, who began applying his weaving skills from the Philippines to craft Lightship baskets. He introduced the “friendship basket” pocketbook, incorporating suggestions from local craftsman Charles Sayle to top the baskets with ivory adornments. Reyes crafted an estimated 5,000 baskets before his retirement in 1978, some of which you can find (for a pretty penny) at antique markets today.
In addition to Reyes and Ray, some of the earlier makers include William Appleton, Nancy Chase, and Paul Whitten. If you are lucky enough to come across one of their creations at an antique market, you’ll likely find their names inscribed on the wooden base. But it’s also common for buyers to hand-sign their names on the baskets, so that future generations who inherit the heirloom will remember its former owner.
