Collecting Scrimshaw

 Scrimshaw is defined by E. Norman Flayderman as “…the art of carving or otherwise fashioning useful or decorative articles as practiced primarily by whalemen, sailors, or others associated with nautical pursuits. The basic materials of the artifacts are from the whale. Other materials may be taken from various forms of sea life, shells, or diverse materials gathered in areas visited by ships, as well as woods, metals, etc. normally carried or used aboard ships. The artifacts must have a nautical association in respect to one or more of the following: maker, motif, method, or materials.”

 Flayderman’s Scrimshaw and Scrimshanders, first published in 1972 remains an authoritative text on the subject. The etymology of the term scrimshaw is not known and there are many variations of its spelling: scrimshoning, scrinshorn, skimshontering, scrim-shonting, scrimson, skrimshonting, scrim-shorn, schrimpshong, and squimshon. The earliest dated piece of scrimshaw, a sperm whale tooth, was 1817 and the term was first found written in a whaling ship’s log of 1826. The material of scrimshaw was primarily the teeth and jaw bone (pan bone) of the sperm whale and baleen of rorqual (right, gray, humpback, etc.) whales.

 Whaling in the mid-nineteenth century involved three to four year voyages from New England around Cape Horn into the Pacific Ocean. Their prey of choice was the sperm whale due to the high quality of the oil as well as for spermaceti, a waxy head case substance for the production of superior candles. After the 1820s, the abundance of whalers resulted in an overabundance of sperm whale teeth which previously had been used to barter with South Sea natives who held such teeth nearly sacred. Whaleships were usually overmanned as many were needed to chase, kill, and process the whale while few were necessary to sail the ship. Thus, during lulls of sometimes weeks or even months before whales were sighted, these men, really teenagers, needed some diversion. The only spare material at hand was, of course, the residual products of the whales: teeth, bone, baleen and shells and woods found in foreign lands. Sperm whale teeth are ivory (like other mammals: man, elephant, hippopotamus, etc.) and its jaw bone is particularly compact and strong. Baleen which the rorqual whales use to sieve and retain foodstuff is flexible and accounts for their usefulness in a world before flexible metals as steel. Baleen consists of keratin like the hoofs of quadrupeds and nails of humans. The folk art form of scrimshaw was nearly limited to the one hundred years of the nineteenth century. By 1900 whale oil had been replaced by petroleum and baleen by plastics and steel.

 Scrimshaw may be divided into two categories: decorative and utilitarian. Decorative scrimshaw includes the engraved sperm whale teeth, engraved pan bones and objects made entirely for its esthetic value. The many utilitarian objects are made for a specific purpose as a pie crimper (jagging wheel), corset busk, swift, cane, etc. There is obvious overlap as some utilitarian objects as four to six wheel pie crimpers are not made for use but simply to be admired. These objects were generally made to be personally used or brought home for a loved one. These young artists and handicraftsmen had no idea that one hundred and fifty years later, some of these casual objects would be worth a small fortune. Thus, it is also very infrequent to find attributions as to artist, date, or location.

 The engraved sperm whale tooth is the quintessential object of scrimshaw. As originally prepared, the tooth surface’s shallow longitudinal ridges are smoothed with a file. Shark skin and or pumice further prepare the surface for polish with leather and oil. The tooth may then be placed in brine to soften the ivory. Engraving is done with a knife, sail needle, or any object with a sharp edge or point. A colored media is then applied to the surface and the grooves hold the coloration when the excess is removed. While the majority of scrimshaw media is black, the exact material (Chinese ink, iron gall ink, lampblack plus tar or oil) has not been determined.  Occasionally, colored media is used. These may be waxes or pigments from inorganic or organic sources. The jaw or pan bone provides a large flat surface for panoramic scenes. Its strength allows for its use as the shaft for canes and the handle for implements. Baleen is simply inscribed by a sharp tool. Its layers vary in shades from black to grey and inscription through the surface reveals the contrasting coloration of a deeper layer. This is particular effective on flat corset busks or on the curved sides of baleen containers. It is beyond the scope of this article to describe in detail all scrimshaw objects.

 The collecting of scrimshaw is no different from that of any antique. Knowledge and exposure are keys; the more you know and have seen and touch, the less likely you are to be duped with a fake. And fake antique scrimshaw abounds. In the 1960s scrimshaw was collected by a limited number of people usually in New England and on the coasts.

 When Jacqueline Kennedy presented President John F. Kennedy with a piece and he began collecting, the price of scrimshaw escalated logarithmically. Recently, one particularly well executed large tooth by a known early 19th century whaleman auctioned for over $184,000! When an art object is rare and the price high, forgeries will be abundant. The serious novice collector would be well advised to commission a reputable dealer to purchase for him.

 For the adventuresome novice, buying scrimshaw should be like going to Las Vegas: if you cannot afford to lose it, don’t buy it. The steps the author, who has collected scrimshaw for over twenty years, suggests are: 1) learn about the history of whaling, 2) read as much as available on the topic of scrimshaw (References), 3) visit museums (Appendix A) with genuine scrimshaw, 4) handle as much genuine scrimshaw as possible, and 5) attend the annual Scrimshaw Collector’s Weekend at the New Bedford Whaling Museum (www.whaligmuseum.org).

 The first thing to consider when confronted with a piece of scrimshaw is, is it ivory? Second, if it is ivory, is it genuine 19th century scrimshaw? Finally, if the piece is genuine 19th century scrimshaw, what is its worth? Ivory of all mammals consists primarily of dentine. Covering dentine is a layer of cementum which in elephant tusks is thin and in sperm whale teeth and walrus tusks, thick, relative to the overall cross sectional area. Enamel is generally present only on hippopotamus teeth. Ivory may be identified with a long wavelength ultraviolet light as it fluoresces where synthetic polymers are dull in color. The hot pin test which is purported to produce a burnt bone smell on ivory and an acrid chemical odor on plastics is unreliable. It is better to examine, with magnification, the hole produced by the pin. In plastic there is usually a crater with a raised edge as it melts. The hole in ivory is without a raise edge and is charred. Bone also fluoresces with ultraviolet light however its source may be indeterminate. On magnification, the surface of bone contains numerous small pits and channels of haversian canals. The whole tooth or tusk is easiest to identify as most ivory (sperm whale, elephant, mammoth, narwhal, hippopotamus, warthog, wild boar) used for scrimshaw have a conical pulp cavity. The exceptions are the Sperm whale pulp Walrus shallow  Fake pulp cavity  Air bubbles (arrows)  cavity (conical)  cavity with mass shallow, slanted in plastic very old sperm whale tooth whose pulp cavity is nearly obliterated by age and disease and the walrus tusk which has a shallow cavity ending in an irregular mass of secondary dentine protruding into the cavity. Usually, the fake teeth or tusks have very shallow and slanted simulated pulp cavities.

 Recently the author encountered resin sperm whale teeth in Hawaii and on the mainland in which a substantial simulated pulp cavity was present. Here, it is critically important to use the ultraviolet light test for the novice. While bone dust has been mixed with plastics to produce fluorescence, it is rare. One should also examine the surface and cut edges carefully as synthetic resins may have air bubbles not seen in genuine ivory.

 Finally, in sperm whale teeth the cementum has often worn away revealing the dentine as will as growth rings. Thus far, fakes have not been able to reproduce this effectively. I would refer the reader to articles on the identification of different types of ivory and the author’s own monograph on the Identification of Ivory which will soon be placed on the web. The surface coloration or patina is greatly dependent upon how the ivory has been stored. Some genuine antique piece may be quite white although a golden patina is most desirable. Not infrequently, the inner layer of dentine in older pieces has a whitish transparency.  As noted above, the preparation of the ivory generally leaves fine scratches throughout its surface.

 There were no electric buffing machines on whaleships. The modern prepared pieces shine with a surface never found on authentic nineteen century ivory. In addition over zealous modern buffing produce a temperature which may cause surface cracks from the friction.  Having now determined the article as genuine ivory, how does one determine authenticity? First and foremost, beware of pieces with too much information. As mentioned above, these nineteenth century articles were produced for personal use, not for posterity. It is very unusual to find names, dates, or locations designated on scrimshaw. Obviously, having provenance increases the value of a piece greatly. Stuart Frank, former Director of the Kendall Whaling Museum, has collated fake pieces in a monograph entitled Fakeshaw: A Checklist of Plastic Scrimshaw. This should be studied by very collector of scrimshaw, particularly if you enjoy living dangerously and buy from online auction sites. One should examine the coloring material with magnification (at least 4X to 10X). Century old media will generally appear cracked and grooves where media has been lost is not unusual. One should pay particular attention to cracks in the ivory as all engraved line across such cracks will shift unidirectional. Also finding media in the cracks may indicate the piece was re-colored or the engraving done after the crack occurred i.e. not nineteenth century. While the finding of miniscule paint spots does not authenticate any piece, nearly every genuine sperm whale teeth the author own has paint spots. It is simply from the frequent repair of sea weathering aboard ships. Then there is the “good dirt” which is generally found in the pulp cavities. Like all antiques, it is best not to clean them or at least leave it to an expert to determine if and how a piece should be cleaned. Genuine nineteenth century pulp cavities may contain all sorts of dust, dirt, cob webs, and even minute insect remnants. Value is the most difficult to determine and is truly in the eye of the beholder. Clearly, authentic nineteenth century scrimshaw on a large sperm whale tooth, expertly done, containing names, dates, and location is most desirable and thus more valuable. Stuart Frank, now Director Emeritus of the Kendall Institute, has published two (and soon three) books on scrimshaw artists and their works. These are the authoritative texts for identifying known scrimshaw artists. The two most famous scrimshanders are Frederick Myrick and Edward Burdett. Beginning at 19 years of age, Myrick produced 37 known sperm whale teeth from 1827 to 1829, the majority being the ship “Susan” (Figure 12). What made these teeth extraordinary was that most had Myrick’s name, the captain’s name, the ship’s name, the date, and the location of the ship. Both sides of the tooth contained scrimshaw and many, the Fig 12 “Susan” Tooth by Frederick Myrick refrain “Death to the living, Long life to the killers, Success to sailors’ wives & greasy luck to whalers”. Depending on condition, each are worth $60,000 to $80,000 and perhaps more. Burdett, whose life ended in 1833 (age 28 years) during a whaling voyage, engraved both teeth and pan bones; some signed, others recognized by his distinctive style. The $184,000 recently auctioned piece was a Burdett. There are artisans whose names are not known but their works have been identified according to similarities of style e.g. the banknote portraitist, the Ceres artisan, and the eagle portraitist, which of course, raises their value. While most decorative scrimshaw is rather primitive, their attraction is exactly because of this quality. However childlike the engravings, they were exceedingly accurate particularly as to the ship, the riggings as well as the scenes of whaling. For example, each whale boat contains six men, no exception. Any other number should immediate raise the question of authenticity. The engraving skill, coloration, information, subject matter all impact on value. It is rare today to stumble onto a “great deal” although they are still out there. In auction, price is obviously dependent upon how many want the same object. When hormones run high, ridiculous prices have been paid. Again, for a serious novice collector, it is best to use a reputable dealer (Appendix B). For those adventuresome souls who wish to learn as the author did, be prepared to buy plastic as ivory, bone as ivory, ivory of one species represented as another, and new scrimshaw on antique ivory. There is no learning experience equal to being duped and the author’s ignorance has been global. The global presence of scrimshaw raises legal issues. The 1973 Endangered Species Act makes it illegal to “…deliver, receive, carry, transport or ship in interstate or foreign commerce, by any means whatsoever and in the course of a commercial activity any such species…” or to kill or to import any body parts of the creatures listed as endangered species. 16 U.S.C. § 1538 et sec. (2005). There was a small window of time in the 1970s when ivory could be registered with the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Most private collectors did not. Thus, unless you can certify a piece of scrimshaw as authentic nineteenth century, it is illegal to buy or sell except in your own state providing there is no specific state statue prohibiting this activity (there is none as yet in Colorado). Mineralized walrus and mammoth ivory are quite legal as they are hundreds and thousand of years old. You can purchase a new piece of scrimshaw while in Hawaii and bring it home but you cannot take that same piece back to Hawaii and sell it nor can you sell it in the mail out of state. The same is true for dealers from one state bringing ivory to sell in another state. Do not take ivory e.g. in jewelry out of the country, they may be confiscated upon return. Enforcement for uninformed individuals has usually been confiscation and a warning. However, those engaged in commercial smuggling have received stiff fines and incarceration. Scrimshaw collecting affords one a life time hobby. Enduring friendships can form with other scrimshaw collectors both in the US and abroad. In a historical context, scrimshaw personifies a most exciting time in the growth of a fledgling United States. There is a magical feel in holding a piece of authentic scrimshaw knowing that its creator was likely a frightened teenager on a small ship in the vast Pacific Ocean pursing and killing a leviathan of immense proportions. Ownership of scrimshaw is really a trust to protect and preserve such pieces. Its enjoyment is endless. References Espinoza, Edgard O and Mann, Mary-Jacque, Identification Guide for Ivory and Ivory Substitutes, 2nd ed, World Wildlife Fund, Washington, DC, 1992 Flayderman, E Norman: Scrimshaw and Scrimshander,s Whales and Whalemen, N Flayderman & Co, New Milford, CT, 1972 Frank, Stuart M: Dictionary of Scrimshaw Artist, Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic, CT, 1991 Frank, Stuart M: More Scrimshaw Artist, Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic, CT, 1998 Frank, Stuart M: Fakeshaw: A Checklist of Plastic “Scrimshaw”, 3rd ed, Kendall Whaling Museum Monograph Series N0 1B, Sharon. MA, 2001 Hohman, Elmo P: The American Whaleman, Longmans, Green, New York, NY, 1928 (reprinted by Augustus M Kelly, 1972) Lawrence, Martha: Scrimshaw The Whaler’s Legacy, Schiffer Publishing, Atglen, PA, 1993 Lund, Judith N: Whaling Masters and Whaling Voyages Sailing From American Ports, A Compilation of Sources, New Bedford Whaling Museum, New Bedford, MA, 2001 Mawer, Granville Allen: Ahab’s Trade, The Saga of South Seas WhalingI, St. Martin’s Press, New York, NY, 1999 McManus, Michael: A Treasury of American Scrimshaw, A Collection of the Useful and Decorative, Penguin Studio, New York, NY, 1997 Penniman, TK: Pictures of Ivory and Other Animal Teeth Bone and Antler.  With a Brief Commentary on Their Use in Identification,  Reprint, Pitt River Museum: Oxford, 1952 Starbuck, Alexander: History of the American Whale Fishery, Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1876 (reprinted by Castle Books, 1989) Appendix A Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic CT: www.mysticseaport.org(unfortunately whaling and scrimshaw collection not a major emphasis although the Blount Library and the scrimshaw in storage, a treasure trove) Nantucket Historical Association: www.nha.org (newly renovated museum with a marvelous scrimshaw collection and whaling artifacts) New Bedford Whaling Museum, New Bedford MA: www.whalingmuseum.org (has the largest collection of scrimshaw and the largest library on whaling in the world; artifacts cover the entire history of whaling history) Peaboby Essex Museum, Salem, MA: www.pem.org (artifacts brought back by early American mariners including the first museum accessed Myrick and Burdett scrimshaw teeth; Phillips Library) Appendix B Nina Hellman, Nina Hellman Marine Antiques and Americana, 48 Centre Street, Nantucket, MA 02554 508 228-4677 www.nauticalnantucket.com Frederick Mitchell, Whalemen’s Shipping List, 17 Johnny Cake Hill, New Bedford, MA 02740 508 990-3786 Andrew Jacobson, Andrew Jacobson Marine Antiques, P.O. Box 437, Ipswich, MA 01938 andrew@marineantiques.com Paul Madden, Paul Madden’s Antiques, 16 Jarvis Street, Sandwich, MA 02563 508 888- 6434 www.paulmaddenantiques.com