A Mariner’s F A N C Y Functional and decorative whaling artifacts comprise an exhibition at Cahoon Museum of American Art By John O’Hern Attributed to Edward Burdett (1805-1833), Whaleship Japan of Nantucket Homeward Bound to the USA, ca. 1825-1829. Whale tooth, pigment, 5¾ in. Private collection. 48 I n Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, Ishmael, who never lacks for an opinion, comments, “…For all these reasons, then, any way you may look at it, you must needs conclude that the great Leviathan is that one creature in the world which must remain unpainted to the last. True, one portrait may hit the mark much Later he describes those who have actually gone a-whaling. “Throughout the Pacific, and also in Nantucket, and New Bedford, and Sag Harbor, you will come across lively sketches of whales and whaling-scenes, graven by the fishermen themselves on Sperm Whale-teeth, or ladies’ busks wrought out of the Right Whale-bone, and other nearer than another, but none can hit it with any like skrimshander articles, as the whalemen call very considerable degree of exactness. So there the numerous little ingenious contrivances they is no earthly way of finding out precisely what elaborately carve out of the rough material, in the whale really looks like. And the only mode their hours of ocean leisure. Some of them have in which you can derive even a tolerable idea of little boxes of dentistical-looking implements, his living contour, is by going a whaling yourself; specially intended for the skrimshandering but by so doing, you run no small risk of being business. But, in general, they toil with their jack- eternally stove and sunk by him.” knives alone; and, with that almost omnipotent 49 Cane with Fist Crushing Serpent. Whale ivory, inlaid silver and tortoiseshell. Private collection. Dipper, ca. 1840. Coconut shell, whale ivory. Collection of the Nantucket Historical Association. 50 Round basket. Whale bone, wood, iron. Collection of New Bedford Whaling Museum tool of the sailor, they will turn you implements for the kitchen such as pie Scrimshaw Art,” Dr. Stuart M. Frank out anything you please, in the way of a crimpers and utensils, items for sewing writes, “The authentic definition of mariner’s fancy.” including needlecases and yarn swifts scrimshaw is quite specific, and has An exhibition, Scrimshaw: The Whaler’s as well as pictorial scenes of whales more to do with the actual products Art, highlighting these “ingenious and whaling, portraits, and naval and used than the method or means of contrivances” is being shown at the patriotic images.” production: scrimshaw is the indigenous Cahoon Museum of American Art in The exhibition goes beyond the occupational shipboard pastime of Cotuit, Massachusetts, through October romance of whaling and reveals whalemen in the 19th and early 20th 20. Curated by Dr. Alan Granby, author unexpected aspects of its history from century Age of Sail, using the hard of the accompanying book, Wandering native Wampanoag whalers, women byproducts of whaling—sperm whale Whalemen and their Art, the exhibition whalers and the legend of a female ivory, walrus ivory, skeletal bone and “features more than 250 decorative pirate. baleen, often in combination with and utilitarian objects including chisels, In his foreword to Wandering other ‘found’ materials—to produce boxes, baskets, walking sticks, and Whalemen and their Art, “A Feast of practical, utilitarian, decorative, and 51 Journal of a Whaling Voyage of the Ship Rodman, 1827-1830. Private Collection. Manuel Silvia, Ship Hull Trinket Box. Whale ivory. Collection of the Nantucket Historical Association. 52 ornamental objects for themselves and as gifts for folks back home. Scrimshandering was also occasionally practiced by the wives and children of the whaling captains with whom they sometimes went to sea, and was sometimes taken up by seamen in the navy and, less often, in the merchant carrying trades.” The museum notes, “The whaling industry of the 19th century was spurred by the global demand for whale oil, which became increasingly necessary during the industrial revolution. Whales were hunted for oil, meat, and blubber; however, no whales were killed for their bones, teeth, or baleen. These byproducts were readily available to ordinary seamen to use as material for creating tools and decorative objects because they had no monetary value and would have otherwise been thrown into the sea.” A highlight of the exhibition is a classic whale tooth engraved with a whaling vessel. The Nantucket scrimshander Edward Burdett (1805- 1833) engraved the tooth with an image of the ship Japan on which he sailed between 1825 and 1829. It is the first time the piece has been seen publicly. In a monograph on Burdett’s work at the Running Dog in the style of Unicorn Crimper. Whale bone, baleen, 7 in. Private collection. Photo Credit: Jim Goodnough Photography. 53 Wall pocket. Whale bone, 29 x 257⁄8 in. Private collection. Kendall Whaling Museum in Sharon, virtually unprecedented step of signing Massachusetts, Dr. Frank writes, “When his name to his work, the first America Edward Burdett first started engraving known to have done so.” whale teeth as a young professional Another tooth was engraved by sailor not yet out of his teens, pictorial James Adolphus Bute aboard H.M scrimshaw was a new art. There were Sloop Beagle and features scenes no precedents to follow, and each step from Charles Darwin’s 1834 voyage. was, by definition, groundbreaking. It depicts the Beagle laid on shore for As he went along, not only did his repairs near the tip of South America. iconography and execution mature, Scrimshanders’ contrivances went with new variations, permutations, beyond engraved whale’s teeth. They and complexities incorporated into carved whale bone into utilitarian items the unvarying geometry of his ship- such as pie crimpers used to seal the portraiture, but he also took the pie crust against the pan or the bottom 54 James Adolphus Bute, Darwin Expedition, ca. 1834. Whale tooth, pigment, 6½ x 3 in. Private collection. crust before it went into the oven. A single star with an acorn-shaped turned crimper with a dog’s head and a whale’s whale ivory finial at its center. Nine Through October 20, 2022 tail is included in the exhibition. additional turned acorns are applied to Scrimshaw: A wall pocket measuring 29 by 25⅞ the pocket sides and bottom edge. Other inches is one of the most complex items decorative shapes include additional The Whaler’s Art The Cahoon Museum in the exhibition. It is described in stars, circles, and geometric shapes. The of American Art Wandering Whalemen. “A wall pocket was hanging section is hinged at the back 4676 Falmouth Road meant to be wall-mounted and used to and has a complex carved interlocking Cotuit, MA 02635 hold newspapers, letters, and periodicals. circle pattern.” Dr. Granby comments, t: (508) 4287581 This pocket is composed of large slabs “I hope that visitors will understand the www.cahoonmuseum.org of panbone carved into extremely significance that scrimshaw holds as not complex open-carved sections, all of merely an interesting form of American which are joined with copper rivets and folk art, but as the stand-alone art genre pins. Each corner of the pocket bears a it truly is.” 55
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