William McLaren of Ancorage, Alaska, ventured a guess for our February’s What Is It. William writes, “At first glance, the What Is It? appears to be a painting or a drawing of an American frontiersman of the 1700’s, holding a long-barreled weapon, presumably a Kentucky rifle. The clothes worn appear appropriate for the period. I am uncertain of the hat, however. The skinned animal held in his left hand may be a waterfowl. If so, the weapon may be a shotgun instead of a rifle. It is possible that the painting or drawing is of a well-known person of the period, such as Daniel Boone or Davy Crockett, although I don’t recognize this rendition of either.”
Thanks for trying, William. Parts of what you say may be true. Our main point of having this as a What Is It was to find out if our readers realized it is a piece of scrimshaw. In an article about Scrimshaw by Jack HT Chang, MD which we published in July of 2012, Dr. Chang shared with us several examples of scrimshaw. The above picture is one of them. It is a Walrus tusk engraving by NS Finney. Courtesy of Michael Gerstein. Another picture, to the left, is a Polychrome line-engraved sperm whale tooth. Collection of the New Bedford Whaling Museum. Photograph courtesy of Richard Donnelly Thanks, William, for your guess.
Readers, why not try your luck with the March’s What Is it. You can win a year’s subscription to the Mountain States Collector!
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