Scrimshaw
Image

By Robert Humphreys,

They whittled away on the teeth of their catch, over 200 years ago now, sailors bored and fatigued. They plied from primitive ports on the North American continent, their blades shaping the faces of women they missed, ships they had known, captains they had loved and loathed, and mates claimed by the depths. It was slow, exacting and tedious, this carving. But the sailors had the time. Or rather, time had them. Thus evolved the exquisite art of scrimshaw, establishing itself as the first currency of collectibles by Europeans in North America. History recorded on whale teeth, jawbone, panbone plaque, and just about any other part of a sperm whale that would keep an etch forever.

Image

I have been fascinated by scrimshaw since I bought by first piece in a shop in Hawaii 15 years ago. It was a sailing ship on the tooth of a sperm whale, carved in contemporary style by a scrimshander on the island of Lahaina, Hawaii. Waves crashed over my imagination, as I held it in my hands. More like it held me! I now own several hundred scrimshaws, and there are many more out there with my name on them. As my wife Michelle says, I can’t help myself! “Thar she blows,” she’ll hollar,” another scrimshaw!”

What hooks me is that this is a truly home-grown American art form, not an import. It says so much about where we are from, and how we arrived. Scrimshaw has amazing romance.

Image

So I am not surprised to see a seismic shift in the price of scrimshaws. First, the May 1 , 2005 sale in Brookline, Mass., of a tooth scrimshawed by Edward Burdett (1805-1833) for $182,250. Two months later, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, another Burdett tooth sank deep into a $193,000 sale. The ink wasn’t dry on that check when, across town, an unsigned tooth by the so-called Pagoda/Albatross artist dropped anchor on $303,000!

What these big numbers have done is raise the bar on scrimshaw everywhere. Pieces that sold for several hundred dollars three years ago, are now considered a bargain at several thousand dollars. Original Scrimshaw is like buying oceanfront property; only so much of it was made. Not that contemporary scrimshaw does not blow well. To my mind, modern pieces are often more intricate, yet still evoking in their story.

While the original scrimshaw artists have long ago been assigned to Davey Jones, no modern man did more for this art than John F. Kennedy. His desktop collection was seen regularly by millions when he addressed us from the Oval Office. And when they buried him, they carved the White House Seal on a scrimshaw , and placed it on his chest.

Robert Humphreys, President
Malibu Mountain Gallery, LLC
5312 Derry Avenue, Suite F
Agoura Hills, CA 91301
(818) 889-5008
(888) 770-7788 – toll free
(818) 889-6155 – fax
 
[ Back ]