NARWHAL TUSK

Monodon monoceros
1970 – 1980
235 × 6 × 6 cm

Provenance:
Private collection, Switzerland

A Twisted Tale of Fantasy and Biology
The narwhal tusk is not only the exemplary and indispensable item that every cabinet of curiosities must contain, but also a prime example of how in these curiosities fantasy and biology, myth and science become entwined. Like the unique surface structure of the tusk, resembling a twisted sheet of cloth, so too is its story twisted and contorted.

This contortion already begins with the tusk being actually one extremely enlarged tooth that has more sensory capabilities than any inner teeth would have. So what looks to our eyes like a spear held threateningly in front of the animal is actually a delicate part of the very body it supposedly shields. The tooth that is normally hidden inside the mouth protrudes here for up to 10 feet (3 m), and so the tusk exposes the animal’s sensitive body as much as it protects it.

Long have scientists wondered what this tusk is actually used for, because observation of the narwhal in its natural habitat has for long been so difficult. Spending most of their lives underneath the Arctic ice, the narwhal’s deployment of his tusk has always been obscured from our view.

In the Middle Ages it was believed the narwhal horn when ground to powder would not only be able to cure disease but also work as a potent aphrodisiac. The people of the time of course were all the more strongly convinced of the miraculous powers of this organ since they believed the tusk to be a unicorn's horn. Narwhal and unicorn – another contortion in which actual animal and mythological entity are twisted into one. The fascination for the narwhal’s tusk is inseparable from the unicorn's history. The unicorn, this most famous and most fascinating of all the mythical beasts, was first described in early Christianity in the Physiologus from Alexandria in the second century AD. From there, the unicorn entered the consciousness of the Middle Ages via several fundamental texts, including the famous 'Thierbuch' by Conrad Gesner. As late as the 16th century, Gesner still used the tooth of the narwhal as proof of its existence.

The example presented here measures a fantastic 7 ft 8 in (2.35 m), shows a wonderful patina and has an undamaged tip.