Scrimshaw Candle Lantern
notes: label: Description
content: Made of whalebone and copper, this candle lantern was designed to hold a single candle, the stub of which is still visible in the turned socket on the base. The base is pierced with four square holes to introduce a draft; the glass sides prevented the outside air from blowing out the candle. Each of the bone corner posts has shallow, faint wavy lines engraved into its sides, and the top is made of four curved and pierced sections of bone covered and pinned together by narrow strips of copper, like the ridge of a house. The little copper top is pierced to let the candle smoke out.
label: Description
content: All four roof panels are engraved differently. One side has an unidentified ship engraved into its surface; the panel to the right is engraved with the double-entendre “•HAPPY•IS•HE•WHO•FINDETH•LIGHT•” The panel opposite the ship is carved “+JOHN+DENTON+” and the last panel is engraved “*1859.*”
label: Description
content: Although there is a candle stub in the lantern, the absence of smoke inside the roof suggests that the lantern was too precious to its owner(s) to see much use.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Maritime
label: See more items in
content: Cultures & Communities
label: See more items in
content: Scrimshaw
label: See more items in
content: Transportation
label: See more items in
content: Art
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: From the collection of Dr. and Mrs. Wilbur J. Gould
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1978.0052.04
label: accession number
content: 1978.0052
label: catalog number
content: 1978.52.4
objectType: label: Object Name
content: tooth, whale
label: Object Name
content: lantern
label: Object Name
content: scrimshaw whale bone lantern
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: scrimshaw (overal production method/technique)
label: Physical Description
content: bone (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: copper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 12 1/2 in x 4 13/16 in x 5 in; 31.75 cm x 12.22375 cm x 12.7 cm