The basket of finely woven rattan, its bail handle fastened by ivory mounts, the lid secured with a pin and fitted with an oval wooden plaque hosting a carved sperm whale, the basket's wooden base is stamped "MADE BY / MIKE KANE / 1976 / NANTUCKET ISLAND" on the underside and is fitted with a 1976 Lincoln cent on the interior. With the basket is the following reference book: Seeler, Katherine and Edgar. Nantucket Lightship Baskets (Nantucket: Deermouse Press, 1972), 117 pages, small quarto (10-1/4 in.), pictorial cloth boards. Owner initialed and dated on front flysheet.

7-1/4 x 11-1/2 x 8-1/2 in.

Michael Kane is a venerable weaver, having sold his first basket in 1969. Today's business on Nantucket Island prides itself on sourcing legal, pre-ban ivory for the baskets' decorative elements.

The basket with a fine appearance and nearly as made over fifty years ago; the only impairments being a shallow 6mm circular impression on the lid's wooden panel and a split to a piece of weaving below the interior rim. The book is in fine condition with no apparent issues.