Antiques: Artifacts of Whaling Era (Published 1972) – The New York Times

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BOSTON—It was far from a whale of a whaling auc tion.
For one thing, the half century‐old whaleboat and the embryo of a sperm whale, advertised as highlights of the sale, never arrived.
For another, a pair of por poise jaws, purported to be rare scrimshaw engraved by Frederick Myrick on the Nantucket whaleship Susan, was considered doubtful both in origin and carved decora tion, nothing like the quality of the Myrick tooth that commanded $11,000 in a Hy annis sale last year.
Even so, some of the 150 or so collectors and dealers who gathered here last week end at the Louis Joseph Gal leries, Inc., to bid on a wide variety of scrimshaw and the curious crafts and artifacts related to this form of sea fare did make some signifi cant, if modest, purchases.
Take the documents, for in stance. Henry Coger, the Ash ley Falls, Mass., dealer, representing Barbara John son, one of the nation's top collectors who is board presi dent of the Museum of Amer ican Folk Art in New York, purchased several at extreme ly low prices.
One of the more important of these was an order, dated June 10, 1765, and signed Gabe Ludlow of New York, for “20 boxes of spermacity candles.” Knocked down at $60, the purchase statement for the candles, which were made of the white, waxy sub stance from the oil of the sperm whale, is a rare proof that there was very early trade in whaling products here.
American whaling, by then a half century old, would later — throughout the 19th century, in fact — dominate the world. In that adventure packed era when Yankee mar iners chased sperm whales across the seven seas, voy ages were grueling, lasting as long as three years.
It was during these extend ed ocean trips that scrim shaw, a folk art indigenous to America, was born. The origin of the term is lost— but it is also referred to (in “Moby‐Dick”) as skrimshand er, and scrimshonter, scrim shorn or scrimshonting. It flourished between 1800 and 1880, when sailors with spare time and a jackknife indulged their considerable imagina tions, often with great vir tuosity, in carving — from whalebone (baleen) or whale teeth — pie crimpers, letter openers, chessmen, corset stays, umbrella frames, boxes, yarn‐winders or canes, and in engraving or etching the sur faces of whalebone or teeth.
Scrimshaw refers to this process of carving out of and decorating the bone or tooth surface with nautical, patri otic or geometric motifs, as well as to the finished product.
Since Scrimshaw was as prized then as now, a flour ishing commerce in craft ing it developed far from the sea, a business that con tinues to this day. Today's collectors seeking period sail or‐made scrimshaw soon dis cover that finds are few. And in such sales as this one (heavily laced with mod ern work, some outright fakes and undocumented older work), an expert's eye is nec essary to separate those pieces whittled on land from those carved on the briny deep.
Douglas Creighton, a pack aging designer and whaling collector who flew up from New York for the sale, bought a few teeth but con centrated mostly on other specimens such as a chess set that once belonged to the Howland family, prominent New Bedford whalers ($90), a game box with dominoes ($250), a letter opener ($175) and a ring ($35), all of which he considered old and good buys.
But scrimshaw was not the only attraction that day. Whaling scenes in paintings, drawings and graphics, ex tremely popular with the pro liferating number of today's collectors, brought prices high and low, depending on the quality of the material.
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