Today we have some Scrimshaw.
But, alas, all is not as it seems.
Scrimshaw, as I'm sure you know, is an artform that was popular among sailors - particularly whalers - on long sea voyages. It consists of hand-engraved images on such things as whale bones, baleen and teeth, walrus tusks or sea shells. Soot, ink, candle black or tobacco juice was then rubbed into the engravings to make them stand out. It was most commonly made out of the bones and teeth of sperm whales, as this one is.
Or as the original was.
I bought this one in a junk shop in Wales. I pretty much knew that it was a resin copy because of the price - real ones cost a pretty penny. But it was a well-made decorative item and worth taking a gamble on. Sure enough, I was later able to confirm that it was a copy using the pin test - heat a pin and stab it into the base. The smell will either be sweet like resin or smelly like burning hair.
I did attempt to find out something about the ship Stenrofjord and its Captain Vincent and discovered that the replica was made by an American museum replicas company called Dunston Mint (that
seems to have gone out of business around 2015). It's a replica of a 19th Century American scrimshaw featuring Captain Ward Parker Vincent, an arctic explorer and lecturer. His home was in the village of West Tisbury on the beautiful island of Martha¹s Vineyard off Cape Cod in Massachusetts - now a millionaire's playground.
Museums around the world have some wonderful examples of scrimshaw on display.
Images from a display in Horta, Azores. The two big pieces are sperm whale jaw bones. Photos by Jlahorn (Creative Commons).
Four pieces from the New Bedford Museum of Whaling, Massachusetts.
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