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Chrysanthemums in a Vase by Elizabeth Coffin –

Oil on Canvas, 30” x 25” Sight.
Signed and dated, Elizabeth Coffin 1888.
Elizabeth Rebecca Coffin (1850-1930).

Elizabeth Rebecca Coffin was born of Nantucket Quaker parentage in Brooklyn, New York. She studied at Vassar College, The Hague Academy of Fine Arts, the Art Students League in New York, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, in addition to traveling extensively in Europe and California. She was a pupil of Thomas Eakins.

Beginning in the 1880s, Coffin began to summer regularly on Nantucket, painting brilliant genre scenes and portraits that capture the quaint and fading way of life of post-whaling Nantucket. After moving to Nantucket permanently in 1900, her artistic output declined, and she began to devote her energies to reviving instruction in handicrafts at the Coffin School.

An eighth-generation descendant of original Nantucket settlers Tristram and Dionis Coffin, the artist returned to the island of her ancestors, leaving a legacy of outstanding paintings and devoted public service.

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Chrysanthemums in a Vase by Elizabeth Coffin

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A Nantucket Fireplace by James Walter Folger – Sold

Watercolor & Gouache on Paper, 11 ½” x 17”, sight.

Signed and dated “Jas Walter Folger/ Nantucket/1904”.

Picture of interior with brick fireplace and green surround with spinning wheel to left and a brown wood chair to the right by a slightly open green door.

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A Nantucket Fireplace by James Walter Folger

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Sailor Made Whalebone Scrimshaw Ditty Box – Sold!

Sailor made scrimshaw whalebone oval ditty box with unusual Mahogany domed top. Constructed with a large piece of panbone joined by a vertical stay with rivets.

American, c.1840. 6” x 10” x 7 ½”.

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5” Open Round Nantucket Lightship Basket by Mitchell Ray – Sold!

5” Open round Nantucket lightship basket with a swing handle, bearing the original paper label. Made by Mitchell Ray.

Clinton Mitchell Ray (1857-1956) was the most prolific basket weaver on Island. The grandson of Capt. Charles B. Ray, he wove early on as a child and was one of the ‘on Island’ weavers that kept the craft from dying out. 

Fall Fishing at Sconset by James Walter Folger- SOLD !

Watercolor on Paper, 11 ¾” x 22 ½”, Sight.
Signed and Dated 1905
James Walter Folger (1851-1918).

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Fall Fishing at Sconset Fall Fishing at Sconset Fall Fishing at Sconset

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Builders Half Hull Model of a New England Whaler – Sold!

Half hull builders model of whaleship. Solid hull construction with original black,white and salmon paint. Mounted on a hardwood backboard.

American, 1845, 7.75” x 28” x 3.75”.

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“One Egg” Nantucket Lightship Basket with Dark Patina – Sold!

One Egg Nantucket Lightship Basket in great condition with a very deep dark patina. Constructed with Oak staves and swing handle, brass ears.

Unknown maker, c.1920. 2.75″ x 3″ x 3″.

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"One Egg" Nantucket Lightship Basket with Dark Patina "One Egg" Nantucket Lightship Basket with Dark Patina "One Egg" Nantucket Lightship Basket with Dark Patina "One Egg" Nantucket Lightship Basket with Dark Patina

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Nantucket Lightship Basket Attributed to C. Mitchy Ray, circa 1940 – Sold!

3″ Small round Nantucket lightship basket with Oak staves and swing handle. Great condition with a deep honey patina.

Attributed to Clinton Mitchell “Mitchy” Ray (1877-1956). 3.5″ x 3.5″ x 3.5″.

Mitchy learned how to make Nantucket Lightship Baskets as a young boy working with his grandfather Charles B. Ray, a highly regarded mariner and prolific basket weaver. Unlike his grandfather and his father Charles F. Ray, Mitchy never went to sea. He is remembered as an Island character with a reputation of being wild in his younger years. At one point he saved a man from drowning at Surfside earning a medal for his deed. Mitchy took up various jobs and after a short time spent on the Cape as a meat cutter he decided to come home. Mitchy later became a full time basket maker opening a small shop in Starbuck Court. Mitchy used the molds given to him by his father Charles and made utility, or work baskets in various sizes, starting with the tiny “one egger” of which he sold hundreds. Each, for the sum of about $1.50.

In 1920 Mitchy was visited by a young William Sevrens whom he introduced to introduced him to basket weaving. Mitchy is credited with giving the idea to Sevrens of adding a penny to the inside of his basket to identify it, which later became Sevrens trademark. It was not until 1964 that Sevrens opened his own basket shop on Old South Wharf. Early in his basket making career the baskets were well constructed and adorned with a simple paper label. Later in his career he began adding the now familiar tag line “I was made in Nantucket, I’m strong and stout. Don’t lose me or burn me and I’ll never wear out. Made by Mitchy Ray.” As time went on and Mitchy aged, his popular baskets very popular and he was selling them so fast that some say the time and effort that went into his later baskets doesn’t have the detailed quality he produced earlier. However in all of his baskets the durability is ever present and rich in his family and Nantucket history. Mitchy Ray baskets are treasured by those who collect Nantucket lightship baskets.

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Nantucket Lightship Basket Attributed to C. Mitchy Ray, circa 1940. Nantucket Lightship Basket Attributed to C. Mitchy Ray, circa 1940. Nantucket Lightship Basket Attributed to C. Mitchy Ray, circa 1940. Nantucket Lightship Basket Attributed to C. Mitchy Ray, circa 1940.

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Steamboat Wharf  by Walter Francis Brown – Sold

c. 1900
Oil on canvas, 14” x 12”, sight.

Walter Francis Brown(1853-1929) visited Nantucket at the end of the century, drawn like many other late-nineteenth-century genre painters by the opportunity to paint scenes that express a sense of the island’s natural beauty and fading past. Brown was born in Providence, Rhode Island, studied painting at Brown University, and later with Gérôme and Bonnat in Paris, and painted extensively in Venice, where he died in 1929. He also worked as an illustrator of such books as Mark Twain’s A Tramp Abroad and Charles Miller’s Roger Williams.

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Steamboat Wharf by Walter Francis Brown

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Pair of Three Dimensional Adirondack Moose and Deer Paintings.  – Sold

Pair of three dimensional Adirondack moose and deer paintings. Applied wooden carvings mounted on canvas board in their original frames, each initialed “JM”.

c.1950, 17 ¾” x 18 ¾”.

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Pair of Three Dimensional Adirondack Moose and Deer Paintings. Pair of Three Dimensional Adirondack Moose and Deer Paintings. Pair of Three Dimensional Adirondack Moose and Deer Paintings. Pair of Three Dimensional Adirondack Moose and Deer Paintings.

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10″ Shallow Round Nantucket Lightship Sewing Basket by AC Hussey -Sold!

10″ Shallow Round Nantucket Lightship sewing basket with oak staves and heavily turned and incised poplar base and carved heart shaped handles.

Stamped on bottom “AC Hussey Maker South Shoal Lightship”. Made by Albert Hussey, b. 1836 c.1880.

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Composition Stone Poodle Entryway Figures – Sold!

A vintage pair of whimsical entryway composition stone poodles with a great stylized form and weathered surface.

Great condition, 28” High, c.1950.

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Composition Stone Poodle Entryway Figures Composition Stone Poodle Entryway Figures

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Painted Decorated Blanket Box. – Sold

Painted decorated blanket box. Retaining its original yellow and red sponge decoration with black highlights.

Great condition, made with rosehead nail construction.

New England, c.1850 15 ¾” 35 ½” 16 ½”.

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Painted Decorated Blanket Box Painted Decorated Blanket Box

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Labeled Nantucket Lightship Basket by Sherwin Boyer, circa 1950 – Sold!

Exceptional Nantucket Lightship basket in excellent condition made by Sherwin Porter Boyer (1907-1964). Made with oak staves and carved oak handle that is attached with brass ears.

The basket bears Boyers stamp and jelly label that reads: “I was made on Nantucket Island am strong and stout don’t lose or burn me I’ll never wear out Made by S.P. Boyer.”

Sherwin Boyer was one of the first generation of Nantucket basket makers in the “purse” period, starting in the late 1940s and working up until his death in 1964. A contemporary to Jose Reyes, Boyer is regarded as one of the best basket makers of the period.

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Labeled Nantucket Lightship Basket by Sherwin Boyer, circa 1950 Labeled Nantucket Lightship Basket by Sherwin Boyer, circa 1950 Labeled Nantucket Lightship Basket by Sherwin Boyer, circa 1950 Labeled Nantucket Lightship Basket by Sherwin Boyer, circa 1950 Labeled Nantucket Lightship Basket by Sherwin Boyer, circa 1950 Labeled Nantucket Lightship Basket by Sherwin Boyer, circa 1950

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Labeled Nantucket Lightship Sewing Basket by Ferdinand Sylvaro, 1935 – Sold!

9″ Diameter Sewing basket with carved Oak heart shape handles and staves. The jelly label from when the basket was made is still intact with it’s original price: “Made by Ferdinand Sylvaro 97 Orange St Nantucket, Mass $2.50.”

Ferdinand Sylvaro (1868-1952).

A house painter by trade, Ferdinand Sylvaro was a Nantucket native of Portuguese decent and married a woman named Althea Macy (not to be confused with scrimshander Aletha Macy) Ferdinand Sylvaro worked from his shop that was attached to his home, on 97 Orange Street. Ferdinand Sylvaro owned molds that belonged to Davis Hall, a famous basket maker of the late 1800s who was a lightship keeper of the New South Shoal.

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Labeled Nantucket Lightship Sewing Basket Made by Ferdinand Sylvaro, 1935 Labeled Nantucket Lightship Sewing Basket Made by Ferdinand Sylvaro, 1935 Labeled Nantucket Lightship Sewing Basket Made by Ferdinand Sylvaro, 1935 Labeled Nantucket Lightship Sewing Basket Made by Ferdinand Sylvaro, 1935

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Pair of Carved Folk Art Sheep – Sold

A pair of hollow folk art sheep carved from mahogany.

American, c.1940. Each 7 ¾” x 7 ¾”.

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Pair of Carved Folk Art Sheep Pair of Carved Folk Art Sheep Pair of Carved Folk Art Sheep Pair of Carved Folk Art Sheep Pair of Carved Folk Art Sheep

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Double Sailor’s Valentine with Pinwheel and Eight Pointed Star Designs – Sold!

Barbados, c.1870, 10 ½”

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Double Sailor's Valentine with Pinwheel and Eight Pointed Star Designs. Double Sailor's Valentine with Pinwheel and Eight Pointed Star Designs.

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Child’s Firehouse Chair – Sold

Apple green painted child’s firehouse chair with shaped back.

Stenciled with flowers and fruit with turned spindles.

Original condition. New England, c.1860. 19” x 13½”.

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Child's Firehouse Chair Child's Firehouse Chair

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Pine and Mahogany Half Hull Builder’s Model – Price

Half hull builder’s model with alternating pine and mahogany lifts with original black painted waterline with applied rudder and carved gallery with windows.

Mounted on the original molded mahogany backboard.

New England, c.1860, 8” x 37”.

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Pine and Mahogany Half Hull Builder's Model Pine and Mahogany Half Hull Builder's Model

For more information contact us or call 508-228-0960.