Scrimshaw Sperm Whale’s Tooth, Mid-19th Century
notes: label: Description
content: The engraving on this sperm whale tooth depicts a well-dressed young boy seated on a rock, with a red horn in his hands. He wears a brimmed hat, long jacket and knee-length breeches. By contrast, his feet are bare. The scene is framed by a simple quasi-vegetal repetitive motif. The frequent pinpricking around the edges and at key points throughout the image indicates that the artist used a contemporary illustration to create an outline before filling it in with pigment. In addition to the horn, the lapels and lower hem of the lad’s jacket are highlighted in red, now faded with age. The other side of the tooth is polished but undecorated.
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: Scrimshaw
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content: Cultures & Communities
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content: Work
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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.374504
label: catalog number
content: 374504
label: accession number
content: 136263
objectType: label: Object Name
content: tooth, whale
label: Object Name
content: scrimshaw
label: Object Name
content: scrimshaw tooth, whale
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: scrimshaw (overall production method/technique)
label: Physical Description
content: tooth, ivory (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 5 1/4 in x 3 1/8 in x 2 1/16 in; 13.335 cm x 7.9375 cm x 5.23875 cm