Panbone ditty box

Datecirca 1825

Mediumwhale skeletal bone

Dimensions3 7/8 × 3 1/16 × 9 1/2 in. (9.8 × 7.8 × 24.1 cm)

Donor credit lineKendall Whaling Museum Collection Transfer

Object number2001.100.1091

Institutional Credit LineCourtesy of the New Bedford Whaling Museum

DescriptionPanbone box built in the form of a miniature seaman's chest, with relief-carved Tudor-Rose rosettes on each end (one laid oit and scribed, but unfinished); dovetail joints, mortise lock (key absent), two handmade copper hinges; with a handwritten label affixed to the bottom, inscribed "Made by Thomas Mark Pacy / Grand Father to the Exhibiter / Union Chapel Sunday School"; and in a different handwriting, "Thomas Mark Pacy was a Ship's Carpenter worked on a South Seas Whaler & this box is made of whalebone [whale skeletal bone]."

Ref: S.M. Frank, Dict. Scrim. Artists, 1991, p. 104.ProvenanceMaggs Bros., London, August 1967

On View

On view