19th Century Sailor’s Scrimshaw Whale Tooth, circa 1849, with Gold Rush connection – a sailor’s hand engraved Sperm Whale tooth (Physeter macrocephalus) with finely etched small image of a ship flying an American flag, above image of a fish (likely a pilot fish), over a complex wrap-around sea bed border, signed at the top with the initial “T”; the reverse has a very artistic depiction of a Pronghorn Antelope leaping in a high desert landscape; most surprisingly, at the tip of the tooth is engraved a sailor’s face with mustache and muttonchops!<\/p>\n
I have never seen a pronghorn antelope depicted on another piece of scrimshaw, or in fact in any sailor’s folk art. It is a rather obscure species that in the 19th Century would not be known by anyone outside of its range; in fact even today relatively few Americans are aware that there is a species of antelope indigenous to our country. It is a safe assumption that the sailor who engraved this tooth would have had to be in the high desert and foothills of California or beyond. Sailors in fact teemed in this after gold was discovered in 1849, when officers and crews alike abandoned their whaleships in the San Francisco mudflats and jumped ship to make their fortunes aprospecting. This tooth is surely the work of a whaleman turned 49er.<\/p>\n
The tooth is in excellent condition with no cracks, and retaining its clear and deeply etched artwork.<\/p>\n
This piece of antique sailor’s folk art is engraved on a tooth from a sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus), is well over 100 years old, and is in full compliance with federal law as specified in the Marine Mammal Protection Act (1972), Endangered Species Act (1973), and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Director’s Order No. 210 (as amended 2014).<\/p>\n
Measures: 4-3\/4 in L x 1-7\/8 in W<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
19th Century Sailor’s Scrimshaw Whale Tooth, circa 1849, with Gold Rush connection – a sailor’s hand engraved Sperm Whale tooth (Physeter macrocephalus) with finely etched small image of a ship flying an American flag, above image of a fish (likely a pilot fish), over a complex wrap-around sea bed border, signed at the top with the initial “T”; the reverse has a very artistic depiction of a Pronghorn Antelope leaping in a high desert landscape; most surprisingly, at the tip of the tooth is engraved a sailor’s face with mustache and muttonchops!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":7543,"template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[33,19,31],"product_tag":[1333,368,2107,1435,282,184,197,445,388],"class_list":["post-7541","product","type-product","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","product_cat-folk","product_cat-marine","product_cat-scrimshaw","product_tag-antique-nantucket","product_tag-antique-scrimshaw","product_tag-gold-rush","product_tag-nantucket-antique","product_tag-nantucket-antiques","product_tag-nantucket-art","product_tag-sailors-folk-art","product_tag-scrimshaw","product_tag-whaling","first","instock","taxable","shipping-taxable","purchasable","product-type-simple"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nantucketantiquesdepot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/product\/7541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nantucketantiquesdepot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nantucketantiquesdepot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nantucketantiquesdepot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nantucketantiquesdepot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nantucketantiquesdepot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fproduct_brand&post=7541"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nantucketantiquesdepot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fproduct_cat&post=7541"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nantucketantiquesdepot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fproduct_tag&post=7541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}