This is a collectible piece of history that was an artistic outlet during the idle hours on ship in early years, whale men produced scrimshaw for family members, sweethearts, and friends. Scrimshaw are decorative and utilitarian objects carved from bone, ivory and teeth with designs engraved on the same materials.
Some whale men sketched their designs freehand, but more often they copied or traced drawings from popular publications. The subjects often included whaling ships and details of the whale hunt, images of women, patriotic motifs etc.
Women and ships were the most popular subjects for scrimshaw carved by crewmen on long, slow whaling voyages.
As seen in the photo's this whale tooth is inscribed with the words To know God is to love many things, and it is signed by the artist as Ken Dick. There is what looks like an oriental man blowing the sails of the large ship with many whales in front and above and to the right side there is what looks like an artistic tree that grows right up to the top with a beautiful profile of a woman with ringlets in her hair below looking toward the crescent moon. The size of this tooth is 4" inches tall 2" wide & 1.2" deep.
