Scrimshaw Sperm Whale Tooth, mid 19th Century
date: label: date made
content: mid 19th century
notes: label: Description
content: This long, slender sperm whale tooth has a highly polished surface on all sides. However, only a single image is found on the top of its obverse, leaving nearly the entire tooth undecorated.
label: Description
content: Atop a footed stand rests a large bird, with its talons tightly gripping a round perch. Its hooked beak identifies it as a raptor—probably a hawk. The drawing lacks any pinholes, indicating it is a freehand composition and the engraved lines are infilled with black pigment.
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
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
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: 1978.0052.17
label: accession number
content: 1978.0052
label: catalog number
content: 1978.52.17
objectType: label: Object Name
content: box
label: Object Name
content: scrimshaw - tooth
label: Object Name
content: scrimshaw tooth, whale
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: red (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: ivory (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 6 1/2 in x 1 1/4 in x 1 3/4 in; 16.51 cm x 3.175 cm x 4.445 cm