Place MadeEngland (British)
Title
sperm whale tooth
DateCirca 1840
Mediumwhale ivory
Dimensions2 3/4 × 1 5/8 × 6 in. (7 × 4.1 × 15.2 cm)
Object number2009.85
Institutional Credit LineCourtesy of the New Bedford Whaling Museum
DescriptionA monochrome sperm whale tooth that is engraved on both sides with ship portraits. Recto: Starboard broadside portrait of a full-rigged ship, with gunports (or false gunports), nine on the starboard side, a figurehead, and a boat aft suspended from bent davits; under plain sail, flying a plain British ensign from the mizen spanker gaff; with a rocky shore (Gibraltar?) in the distant background. Verso: Larboard broadside portrait of a three-masted lateen-rigged ship, six gunports visible with guns run out, flying the Spanish national flag from the mizen yard, a long pennant from the main yard, and a swallowtail pennant or standard from the fore yard. In both cases, the portraits are expertly and knowledgably rigged, the lateener being especially significant as it reflects an uncommonly (and perhaps among British sailors, uniquely) intimate knowledge of the hoists and running rigging of an exotic Arabic/Mediteranean type.ProvenanceReceived by the donor from relatives in Kansas; additional historical data is supposed to follow (the donor’s family has a logbook that may be related, but the relationship remains unconfirmed at this time; she intends that the logbook be examined by SMF later this winter or spring). A credit-line may follow with the future documentation.On View
Not on view
19th Century
19th Century
Circa 1835
19th Century
19th Century
19th Century
19th Century
