Scrimshaw Ivory Whale Stamp, mid 19th Century
date: label: date made
content: mid 19th century
notes: label: Description
content: Generally carved from sperm whales teeth, whale stamps were used in whaleships’ official logbooks to record the type of whales captured on any given day, and the number of barrels of oil the whales yielded once its blubber or fat was boiled down into liquid.
label: Description
content: This whale stamp appears to be made of two pieces of ivory. It has a “P” pinpricked into its top, and below are two parallel rings of pin pricks. Below is pricked the word “SPERM”, below which the whale ship’s name “PROGRESS” is pinpricked. On the opposite side of the round stamp are the letters “N.B.”; probably the carver’s initials. On the bottom is a long whale’s body with a hole in the middle to write the number of barrels of oil obtained from each whale recorded.
label: Description
content: Scrimshaw began in the late 18th or early 19th century as the art of carving whale bone and ivory aboard whale ships. The crew on whalers had plenty of leisure time between sighting and chasing whales, and the hard parts of whales were readily available on voyages that could last up to four years.
label: Description
content: In its simplest form, a tooth was removed from the lower jaw of a sperm whale and the surface was prepared by scraping and sanding until it was smooth. The easiest way to begin an etching was to smooth a print over the tooth, prick the outline of the image with a needle and then “connect-the-dots” once the paper was removed. This allowed even unskilled craftsmen to create fine carvings. Some sailors were skilled enough to etch their drawings freehand. After the lines were finished, they were filled in with lamp black or sometimes colored pigments.
label: Description
content: Scrimshaw could be decorative, like simple sperm whale teeth, or they could be useful, as in ivory napkin rings, corset busks (stiffeners), swifts for winding yarn or pie crimpers. The sailor’s hand-carved scrimshaw was then given to loved ones back on shore as souvenirs of the hard and lonely life aboard long and dangerous voyages.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Whaling
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Maritime
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content: Cultures & Communities
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content: Scrimshaw
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content: Transportation
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content: Art
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1980.0260.01
label: accession number
content: 1980.0260
label: catalog number
content: 80.0260.01
label: catalog number
content: 1980.0260.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: scrimshaw, stamp
label: Object Type
content: scrimshaws
label: Other Terms
content: scrimshaw, stamp; Maritime
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: ivory, whale (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: scrimshaw (overall production method/technique)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1 3/8 in x 15/16 in; 3.4925 cm x 2.38125 cm