Scrimshaw Sperm Whale’s Tooth, Mid-19th Century
notes: label: Description
content: The pictures carved on whales’ teeth by scrimshaw artists commonly fall into a group of simple categories, like ships, whales, patriotic scenes, women, shorelines, and the like. Sometimes a tooth’s carving will tell a simple story about danger, loneliness, love or war. Other times, the tale that a tooth tells is lost in time, perhaps forever. This little tooth may be one of the latter. On the top of one side are two outlined flags: on the left is an American flag, and on the right is a flag with a large “M” on it. Both are waving in the wind. Below are the words “OUR COMPROMISE” in two lines. At the bottom is a small cannon on a truck, or carriage. The truck construction indicates that it is a land weapon rather than a ship armament. The depth of the gun etching is much deeper than the flags, perhaps indicating a different artist. Although it is polished and prepared for carving, the other side of the tooth is not decorated. The lack of a date or any other identifying factors makes it almost impossible to decipher the artist’s message to us from an earlier time. Was it a private message to a friend or lover, a political statement, a military event.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Maritime
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content: Scrimshaw
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content: Cultures & Communities
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content: Transportation
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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: 1978.0052.39
label: accession number
content: 1978.0052
label: catalog number
content: 1978.52.39
objectType: label: Object Name
content: scrimshaw
label: Object Name
content: scrimshaw tooth, whale
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: whale tooth (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 4 1/2 in x 1 3/4 in x 1 3/8 in; 11.43 cm x 4.445 cm x 3.4925 cm