Rare Nantucket Lightship Lollipop Basket, Late 19th Century. This is an oval formed basket woven on staves pinned to an oval mahogany base and with two mahogany top bands pinned to each stave. Basket has a swing handle held in place with metal caps that measure approximately 9/16" diameter. The interior handle caps measure approximately 1/2" diameter. The upper portion of basket has lollipop cutouts between the staves below the top band.This wonderful museum quality basket retains the majority of the original varnish. It is quite possibly one of the best examples of this basket to surface in recent years. The basket measures 6" high X 11 1/2" long X 10 5/8" wide. Provenance Margaret Fraser, living estate, Memphis, Tennessee family.

Condition- This basket retains about as much original finish as can be found on this type of basket. Very fine condition and we have noted any minor imperfection below. The cane weave in this basket has only one very small fragment missing, approximately 5/16" long X 1/16" wide. The lower mahogany band is in original condition with no cracks. The upper mahogany band does not exhibits any cracks on exterior of basket. The upper portion interior of the top band has a small crack from the last pin, 1/2" long and a small hairline crack, approximately 2" long, from the handle caps. The basket is missing one lollipop above top band. See photos.