Title

Oval sewing box

DateCirca 1840-1860

Mediumwhale skeletal bone, wood, velvet, metal

Dimensions3 3/4 × 6 3/4 × 5 in. (9.5 × 17.1 × 12.7 cm)

Object number1959.8.7

Institutional Credit LineCourtesy of the New Bedford Whaling Museum

DescriptionWooden top overlaid with a tawny-colored velvet pincushion; wooden bottom; panbone sides and skirt, monochrome engraved on all outside surfaces, with red sealing wax highlghts. Sides: Spread eagle with USA shield, clutching arrows and a branch in his talons, and a ribband in his beak inscribed "E PLURIBUS / UNUM"; an oval vignette of Hagia Sophia (St. Sophia cathedral) in Istanbul (Constantinople; Byzantium), with an Eastern Orthodox cross, adjacent cityscape, lateen-rigged sloops in foreground, flanked by cornucopia with flowers and vines; starboard stern-quarter view of a full-rigged ship under sail, flying a USA ensign from the taffrail and a homeward-bound pennant from the main, the sternboard labeled "GIFT", three sperm whales frolicking nearby; oval vignette of a Middle Eastern cityscape, with mosque and a lateen-rigged sloop in the foreground, flanked by ensembles of flowers and vines; spread eagle with leafy branch and arrows in its talons, perched on an oval medallion with a starboad stern-quarter view of a full-rigged ship under sail, flying a USA ensign from the taffrail, a long pennant from the main, and a pennant from the mizzen, with a fort ashore astern; circumferential straight line borders top and bottom, the lower border terminating in acanthus leaves; the joint is six rat-tails, decorated with acanthus leaves; non-ferrous metal fastenings. Skirt: Ensemble of leaves and flowers, triple straight line border at top, double straight line border at bottom; joint is two rat-tails decorated with arrows and acanthus leaves. By the same hand as 00.215.3.ProvenanceD.S. Coleman, 1900; Martha M. Hinsdale Scrimshaw Collection; Estate of Martha M. Hinsdale, bequeathed 1955.

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On view