169

19th Century

UNUSUAL DECORATED WHALE RIB

Nearly entirely covered with brown-black inked or painted pictographs including palm trees, whales, ships, stick figures, grass-skirted dancers, turtles, an eye, a poodle, and other animals and sea life. According to the consignor, Dr. Stuart M. Frank, Senior Curator Emeritus of the New Bedford Whaling Museum and founder of the Scrimshaw Forensics Laboratory, suggested possible Marquesan iconography, and the images bear some resemblance to "tiki" figures seen in Ralph Linton's "Material Culture of the Marquesas Islands" (1923) and Art of the South Seas (N.Y.: Museum of Modern Art, 1946).
Length approx. 46".
Condition: Some loss of ink/paint.

This item not available for international delivery.

  • Provenance:
    Purchased in Rockport, Maine, 1983.
    A Rhode Island Private Collection.

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August 19, 2021 9:30 AM EDT
East Dennis, MA, US

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