A SCRIMSHAW WHALE TOOTH

Finely carved with a three-masted ship on one side and an alluring mermaid waiving on the other, "lonely whalers, separated from their wives or sweethearts, were apt to incise their scrimshaw with female figures" (Charles R. Meyer Whaling and The Art of Scrimshaw (New York, 1976), pg. 151). The fascination with mythical mermaids resulted in depictions such as the one found on the present lot.