POLYCHROME SCRIMSHAW WHALE'S TOOTH DEPICTING NAVAL ENGAGEMENTS One side depicts the battle between the "Shannon" and the "Chesapeake..

POLYCHROME SCRIMSHAW WHALE'S TOOTH DEPICTING NAVAL ENGAGEMENTS First Half of the 19th Century

One side depicts the battle between the "Shannon" and the "Chesapeake", and the other side depicts the "Hornet & Penguin", based on images sourced from J.J. Smith's 1831 American Naval Battles, which is based on Abel Bowen's The Naval Monument. Both are dynamic battle scenes with billowing smoke, waving pennants and carefully rendered ships and rigging. Ships are identified in elegant script lettering. The water is executed in blue-black and the ship hulls in a pale sepia. Length 7".

Provenance:

West Sea Company, San Diego, April 28, 1991, Lot 123A. The tooth was consigned by a collector who acquired it from the estate of Capt. Robert M. Mountfort, who died July 1, 1914.

The Collection of Paul Vardeman.

Condition:

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