Scrimshaw - Scrimshaw Design

Scrimshaw Design

Whale teeth and bones were a highly variable medium, used to produce both practical pieces, such as hand tools, toys and kitchen utensils, and highly decorative pieces, which were purely ornamental. The designs on the pieces varied greatly as well, though they often had whaling scenes on them. For example Herman Melville, in Moby-Dick, refers to "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 skrimshander articles". Most engravings were adapted from books and papers.

Read more about this topic:  Scrimshaw

Famous quotes containing the word design:

    You can make as good a design out of an American turkey as a Japanese out of his native stork.
    —For the State of Illinois, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)