ENGLAND: THE OTHER WITHIN

Scrimshaw at the Pitt Rivers Museum

Alison Petch,
Researcher 'The Other Within' project

There are a total of 22 scrimshaw items in the Museum, all but one might have been carved by English sailors, and have therefore been included in the 'Other Within' project.

Definition of Scrimshaw

The Oxford English Dictionary defines scrimshaw as:

A general name (also scrimshaw work) for the handicrafts practised by sailors by way of pastime during long whaling and other voyages, and for the products of these, as small manufactured articles, carvings on bone, ivory, or shells, and the like. Also {sm}scrimshaw v., trans. to decorate or produce as scrimshaw work; absol. to employ oneself in scrimshaw work; {sm}scrimshander, -shandy = SCRIMSHAW n.; {sm}scrimshoner, one who practises scrimshaw work.

A longer description:

Scrimshaw is the name now given to the wide variety of incised, carved and variously decorated items made primarily by those engaged in the whale industry. The word scrimshaw is both a verb and a noun: the process of creating the work and the work itself, which is a type of folk art but unusual in being international in many respects and not based on regional peasant traditions. As an occupational art form, the commonest materials for scrimshaw were related to the industry; from whales came baleen (traditionally called whalebone), skeletal bone and whale ivory (sperm whale teeth), but other invories especially walrus and narwhal tusks were made, sometimes with other materials such as wood, horn and tortoiseshell. [West and Credland, 1995: 5]

West and Credland in one of the best introductions to the subject available, draw attention to the huge range of artefacts that the sailors made as scrimshaw, 'birdcages and boxes, toys and games, watch stands and ladles, walking sticks and canes, riding whips and cutlery, baskets and jewellery, from the purely functional such as tools and ships' fittings to the purely decorative such as whale bone plaques and the many sperm whale teeth engraved with an intriguing variety of pictures and designs'. [West and Credland, 1995: 5] All of the Pitt Rivers items fall into the latter category with the excception of four items, 3 walking sticks and one whip. One of the Pitt Rivers items is not made from whale or other animal-related materials but from coconut, using the same techniques.

West and Credland suggest that 'most scrimshaw was given to friends and family'. [1995: 50]

UK Whaling industry

Whaling was an important industry in eighteenth-century England. Whaling was mostly carried out in the Spitsbergen and Greenland areas, but as whale stocks became depleted in these areas, whalers moved to Baffin Bay and Davis Straits in the 19th century. The main ports in England for whaling were Hull, Whitby, and Newcastle in the north-east and London. Scotland also had a large whaling industry based at Dundee and Peterhead.

Sperm whale teeth

In 1952 Penniman (the Curator of the Pitt Rivers Museum) published a paper entitled 'Pictures of Ivory and other Animal Teeth, Bone and Antler'. In this paper he had a chapter about sperm whale teeth. Here is what he has to say about the material:

Sperm whale teeth come from the enormous elongated jaw of Phuseter catodon, an inhabitant of tropical and sub-tropical seas ... The Japanese use the teeth for carving netsuke and other small figures, and they are widely employed throughout the Pacific as ornaments, perhaps being most prized in the Fiji Islands ... These teeth are most familiar to the general public in the form of scrimshaw work, done by seamen in the Pacific, who employ the whole tooth, ground and polished, and either carve on it more or less beautiful designs, or engrave pictures according to their abilities, some designs being pleasing to persons of sensibility, and others resembling the cruder designs tattooed on their bodies. [Penniman, 1952:27]

The staff at the Museum have always been greatly interested in technology and materials. Penniman remarks:

The texture of the outer cement [of sperm whale teeth] is different from tht of the inner dentine, and Sir Francis Knowles, who particularly enjoys carving these teeth, and admires their colour and texture, tells me that the outer part is much more resistant to carving than the inner. [Penniman, 1952:28]

Find out more about the Pitt Rivers Museum and Technology and Materials.

Scrimshaw made from sperm whale tooth

The sperm whale preys on squid and fish, each whale is equipped with about 25 large conical teeth. As each whaling voyage would hope to catch up to forty whales, the scrimshoners would have access to over a thousand teeth on each voyage, making it clear why the sperm whale teeth were such a popular raw material. [West and Credland, 1995: 16]

Scrimshaw made from whale bone

According to West and Credland, 'the most versatile material for scrimshaw of all kinds was bone from the lower jaws of the great whales ... [it] is particularly dense and even-textured and provided large areas of useable material which was very strong and durable and resistant to warping and splitting'. [1995: 21]

Scrimshaw designs

Most of our sperm whale teeth are decorated with line engravings, West and Credland suggest that this was usually done with a sharp point or blade rather than a proper engraving tool. [West and Credland, 1995: 17] The engraved lines were rubbed with dark pigment to make a good colour contrast with the white tooth. West and Credland suggest that this was probably a mixture of oil and lampblack (soot) or ink. [1995: 18]

According to the same authors, many shipowners and master mariners were active freemasons which is why several of the items in the Lawson / Laing collection show freemasonry symbols. [1995: 16] The authors comment that, 'The relief carving of sperm whale teeth was rare in the 19th century, but there is a very interesting collection of them in the Pitt Rivers Museum.

Items of scrimshaw in the Museum

1. The Lawson / Laing collection
Janet West of the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, has identified Edward Lawson, master and owner of whaling ships, as being active in the South Seas from 1819-1840. [West and Credland, 1995: 47; correspondence in PRM, RDF] West and Credland comment that 'many of [the sperm whale teeth are] relief carved, which is rare' [1995: 47].
1936.26.27-37
Accession Book Entry - 'C.M. LAING, B.C.L., M.A.. ... W.8. June... The following collected by Capt. Edward Lawson, 1800-1820.... - Sperm-whale's tooth and 10 others decorated by whalers ('scrimshaw' work, 4 engraved, 1 carved with decorative design and five carved with figures etc. in relief)'.
1936.26.27 Undercorated sperm whale tooth.
1936.26.28 Sperm whale tooth with decoration begun but not completed.
1936.26.29 Sperm whale tooth decorated with 'Masonic' symbols and a steam sail ship on reverse.
1936.26.30 Sperm whale tooth decorated with 'Masonic' symbols and ship.
1936.26.31 Sperm whale tooth decorated with 'Masonic' symbols and ship.
1936.26.32 Sperm whale tooth with carved tip and base.
1936.26.33 Sperm whale tooth carved with relief designs of a bird and a snake on a black painted background. Unusual example.
1936.26.34 Sperm whale tooth carved with relief designs of a bird and a snake on a black painted background. Unusual example.
1936.26.35 Sperm whale tooth carved with relief designs of flowers and snake.
1936.26.36 Sperm whale tooth carved with relief designs of a woman with basket, 'depicting an orange seller' [Illustrated as figure 8 (page 15) in Scrimshaw: The Art of the Whaler, by Janet West and Arthur G. Credland, Hull: City Museums & Art Galleries / Beverley: Hutton Press, 1995]
1936.26.37 Sperm whale tooth carved with relief designs of an eagle and an elephant.

1936.26.38-39 Accession Book Entry - ‘C. M. LAING, B.C.L., M.A. ... W.8. June... The following collected by Capt. Edward Lawson, 1800-1820 [sic, see information about dates above] .... - [1 of] 2 carved walking-sticks of whale's bone. Whaler's scrimshaw'.
1936.26.38 Carved walking-stick of whale bone, with spiral design on shaft.
1936.26.39 Carved walking-stick of whale bone, with spiral design on shaft. Ball-shaped handle carved with plaited cord design.

1936.26.40 Accession Book Entry - ‘C. M. LAING, B.C.L., M.A. ... W.8. June... The following collected by Capt. Edward Lawson, 1800-1820.... - Walking-stick made from a shark's vertebral column. [Whaler's scrimshaw].'

1936.26.41 Accession Book Entry - ‘C. M. LAING, B.C.L., M.A. ... W.8. June... The following collected by Capt. Edward Lawson, 1800-1820.... - Lady's riding-whip of whale's bone, carved. [Whaler's scrimshaw].'

1936.26.42 Accession Book Entry - ‘C. M. LAING, B.C.L., M.A. ... W.8. June... The following collected by Capt. Edward Lawson, 1800-1820.... - 1 [walking-stick] of hard wood. [Whaler's scrimshaw].'

2. Other sources
1936.37.3 Whale tooth incised with cloaked female figure.
Accession Book Entry - 'J. H. HUTTON, D.Sc., C.I.E. Old Hall, Dolau, Radnorshire. Oct... - Sperm whale tooth roughly incised with female figure; ‘scrimshaw’ work by a whaler. ENGLISH...See also special catalogue, Naga Hills.'

1961.7.76 Accession Book Entry - Collection donated by The Director (per Dr F.N. Howes) of The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, on the disposal of the ethnographic section dealing with the use of Natural Fibres. - Incised coconut on stand. "Scrimshaw" work - i.e. work done on shipboard by sailors to occupy the time. An incised coconut topped with a steel ferrule and pipe standing on a half-coconut. Incised designs of Irish harp, the Royal crown, crossed union flags, an anchor, and a date palm. Undated, 9" overall. (Perhaps part of a 'hookah' smoking apparatus?).

1983.22.7 Powder horn of horn with wooden nozzle. Decorated with pictures of a man with a gun and various animals, including a fish and a deer.
Accession Book Entry - MRS PATIENCE BRADFORD, ... OXFORD. A collection of pottery and scrimshaw work. See Related Documents File for list and correspondence. .7. Probably EUROPE. Powder horn. A short length of horn with a decoratively-carved wooden stopper at the wide end and a short conical wooden tube at the other. The horn is decorated with 'scrimshaw' work representing a ?hunter, animals, a fish on a line, the initials DS [note: the S is reversed] and the date 1661. H = 13.7 cm; max dia = 5.3 cm.

1983.22.9 Accession Book Entry - MRS PATIENCE BRADFORD, ... OXFORD. A collection of pottery and scrimshaw work. See Related Documents File for list & correspondence. - Probably EUROPE. Whale-tooth scrimshaw, decorated with carving (in dots) of naked woman on the convex side. On the concave side are the intitals GCW and the date 1879. L = c.10 cm; max W = 4.5 cm.

1983.22.10 Accession Book Entry - MRS PATIENCE BRADFORD, ... OXFORD. A collection of pottery and scrimshaw work. See Related Documents File for list & correspondence. - Probably EUROPE. Whale-tooth scrimshaw, decorated on convex side with carving of human figure in skirt, possibly under trees. A hole is drilled through the concave side. L = 11 cm; max W = 6 cm.

There is one other piece of scrimshaw in the Museum, 1945.11.25 made by an American sailor, USA sailors' etched sperm-whale tooth with figure of man holding spear, women, eagle, a boat, anchor and the legend 'never divided'. The tip is carved as the head of a bird.
Accession Book Entry - The late Henry Balfour, FRS. Continued - ... - 1945.11.25 - British USA sailors' etched sperm-whale tooth, scrimshaw work, with American eagle, etc., & motto "never divided"

Individuals associated with scrimshaw collections at the PRM

We don't know much about Edward Lawson who collected most of the sperm whale tooth scrimshaw. Janet West of the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, has identified Edward Lawson, master and owner of whaling ships, as being active in the South Seas from 1819-1840.

Charles Miskin Laing was a barrister, born in Rotherhithe in 1863, he lived in Bury Knowle House (now a public library) in Headington, Oxford from 1901 to 1923. His wife was called Etheldreda. Laing was a member of Oxford City Council from 1890-1900 (so he obviously lived in Oxford then) and chairman of the Conservative Party in the city from 1897-1920. It seems he was educated at Oxford University.

John Henry Hutton (1885-1968) was a senior member of the Indian Civil Service and an anthropologist. Find out more about him here.

Frank Norman Howes (1901-1973) was Keeper of the Museums (Economic Botany) from 1948 to 1966, he worked at Kew Gardens from 1926-66.

Patience Bradford was the wife of John Spencer Bradford who was a lecturer in the Department of Ethnology and Prehistory at the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford. She died in 1985.

Henry Balfour gave the American piece of scrimshaw, you can find out more about him here.

Where to see scrimshaw.

Pitt Rivers Museum: 3 items from the collections are on display in the Museum. 1936.26.30-31, 37 is shown in the Court of the Museum, in Case 111.B - Objects made from Ivory and Bone.
Hull Town Docks Museum [Hull Maritime Museum] is renowned for having one of the best collections of scrimshaw in the UK. If you are interested in the subject, you should definitely visit the museum.

Further reading

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrimshaw
Flayderman, E. Norman. 1972. Scrimshaw and Scrimshanders: Whales and Whalemen. N. Flayderman and Co. Inc. New Milford, Connecticut
Gillkerson, William. 1978 The Scrimshander Troubador Press, USA San Franciso
Penniman, Thomas Kenneth. 1952 'Pictures of Ivory and other Animal Teeth, Bone and Antler' Occasional Paper on Technology, 5. Oxford: Pitt Rivers Museum
West, Janet and Arthur G. Credland. 1995. Scrimshaw: the art of the whaler Hull City Museums and Art Galleries and Hutton Press Ltd

The bibliography in West and Credland gives many other books and papers to read on this subject.