Tabletop swift

Date19th Century

Medium, , whale ivory, whale skeletal bone, non-ferrous metal, wax, abalone

Dimensions18 1/2 × 2 in. (47 × 5.1 cm)

Object number1958.11

Institutional Credit LineCourtesy of the New Bedford Whaling Museum

DescriptionThis swift contains a single cage made from skeletal whalebone with most of the ribs and struts missing. The upper and lower sprockets contain 6 slots. The shaft is made from skeletal whalebone and connects to a turned and carved whale ivory clamp with linear inlay of red sealing wax. There is a turned whale ivory expansion collar with linear red sealing wax in grooves. The turned and carved whale ivory barrel clamp with linear inlay of red sealing wax with flat crescent-shaped thumbscrew has remnants of a small chamfered rectangular insert, with diamond lozenge in the center of the rectangle, and tapering at the top of the clamp to a fluted cone. Elaborately turned cup finial, inlaid in the bottom center with a disc of abalone.

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