Title

cribbage board

Dateearly 20th Century

Mediumwalrus ivory

Dimensions2 1/8 × 1 1/4 × 19 7/8 in. (5.4 × 3.2 × 50.5 cm)

Object number1935.68.25

Institutional Credit LineCourtesy of the New Bedford Whaling Museum

DescriptionMedium size walrus tusk, trimmed, squared, with two chamfred edges; monochrome engraved on both sides. Recto (left to right): a fish; cribbage board flanked by a highly stylized leafy flowering plant device, and with six rearing seal heads with ears and teeth; two seals. Verso: standard Nome School map of the Cape Prince of Wales / Port Clarence / Nome / St. Michaels coast of Alaska; a seal. Compare central vignette of 1935.68.28. Drilled for a peg foot (missing); root end prepared for storage of game marker pegs. The feathery, leafy, sometimes winglike ornaments are analogously present in four walrus ivory cribbage boards in the collection, all from the same donor: 1935.68.24, .25, .28, and .31.ProvenanceSee N. Hursy, Arctic Ivory, 1998, p. 74.

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