RARE AND IMPORTANT SCRIMSHAW WHALE'S TOOTH ATTRIBUTED TO JAMES ADOLPHUS BUTE, CREW MEMBER ON CHARLES DARWIN'S EXPEDITION Circa 1834
Engraved aboard the H.M.S. Beagle during Charles Darwin's expedition. Both sides depict scenes from the expedition. Obverse with oval vignette depicting seven figures in a line hauling a group of small boats up a river. There are a few figures in each boat, and mountains and cliffs fill the background of the landscape. The vignette is surrounded by a double line and sawtooth border, with a sunburst at the top. Below the vignette is the inscription "Tracking the boats of H.M. Sloop Beagle up the River Santa Cruz". Reverse with an oval vignette depicting a beached vessel with figures standing at the base of the hull and six figures in a rowboat off the stern. The vignette is surrounded by a double line and a thistle-like vine border. Beautiful mellow patina. Length 6.5".
The image, caption, sunburst and thistle-like vine border on this tooth are identical to a tooth by James Adolphus Bute, signed "J A Bute", that is part of the collection of the Western Australia Museum in Perth. This tooth also exhibits the same primary images, sunburst and caption as another tooth by Bute, which is signed "J A Bute" and dated "1834", presented earlier in this sale. These three teeth are the only known examples of scrimshaw teeth done by Bute aboard the Beagle in 1834.

According to the Dictionary of Scrimshaw Artists by Stuart M. Frank (Mystic, Ct.: Mystic Seaport Museum, 1991, p. 24), Englishman James Adolphus Bute was born around 1799 and joined the Royal Navy around 1819. There was great crossover of personnel between whaling and naval service in England, much more so than in the United States, and Bute may have been introduced to scrimshaw during a whaling voyage in between stints on Naval vessels. "The Journal of Syms Covington", assistant to Darwin on his second voyage aboard the Beagle, December 1831-September 1836, lists James Bute as a crew member, one of six crew members listed as a Royal Marine.

Published accounts of the voyage note that in early April 1834, the Beagle was laid on shore for repair in an estuary of the Rio Santa Cruz, which opens to the Atlantic 217 miles north of the tip of South America. While the repairs were being made, Darwin and others explored further upriver, with the men having to haul the three boats they took with them against the river's current for most of the journey. These two events are illustrated on the tooth. Conrad Martens, the official artist onboard the Beagle, also captured these events in two drawings that mirror the images on the tooth; both of Martens's illustrations can be seen in Darwin and the Beagleby Alan Moorehead (N.Y.: Harper & Row, 1969). Given the similarities between Bute's and Martens's work, it is possible Bute was influenced by or collaborated with the artist in creating his pieces of scrimshaw.

Provenance:
James Bute gave this tooth to his friend James Irwin of Devonport and it descended in Irwin's family to his great-grandson.


Hyland Granby Antiques, January 26, 1999.
From the Folk Art & Americana Collection of Carl and Sonia Schmitt.

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