Scrimshaw Sperm Whale Tooth, mid 19th Century
date: label: date made
content: mid 19th century
notes: label: Description
content: The obverse of this small sperm whale tooth has a shallow engraving of a young noblewoman directly gazing at the viewer. Her fashionable outfit and hairdo are accessorized by an intricate necklace, a brooch at the décolletage of her gown and what appears to be some sort of medal or order (Bath?) on her left breast. Her headband contains crenellated towers and her shoulders are covered with an elegant ermine shawl. On the reverse, a youth in a sailor outfit with a kite in his hand is gesturing to go outside to another youth seated on a bench inside a house. The seated youth has his hand up in a negative gesture. Unfortunately, the story that the artist of this tooth intended to tell is lost in time.
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: Gift of Frederic A. Delano
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: DL.374492
label: catalog number
content: 374492
label: accession number
content: 136263
objectType: label: Object Name
content: tooth, whale
label: Object Name
content: scrimshaw tooth, whale
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: scrimshaw (overall production method/technique)
label: Physical Description
content: tooth (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 5 in x 1 7/8 in x 7/8 in; 12.7 cm x 4.7625 cm x 2.2225 cm