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SCRIMSHAW- THE MYSTERIOUS ART

Few things in life are as poorly understood as the art of scrimshaw There are three areas that illustrate this statement.

1. Where did the term scrimshaw come from?
2. Where did it geographically originate?
3. What products does the art include?

Most people will have read that scrimshaw is a word of Dutch origin meaning either "to waste one's time!" or "an idle or a lazy man" depending on who's translation you believe. Yet others claim it came from an early Norse word. But, the fact is that nobody knows for sure that scrimshaw was the first terms used. Other early terms were "skimhander," "scrimshonter," scrimshanker, and "srimshorn."

One of the oldest references made by whaling men is to be found in the logbook, dated 1826, of the whaler "By Chance" of Dartmouth, which refers to the term "scrimshonting."If we don't know which word came first, what difference does it make that a word in anotherlanguage has a meaning that might apply? There are many people alive today with the last name of Scrimshaw. Can we be sure that the first person to begin the art wasn't simply someone named Scrimshaw? Maybe people talked about the work Scrimshaw did or about his scrimshawed objects? After all, don't we still talk about the food that the Earl of Sandwich ate? Who cares if a foreign word that sounds like "sandwich" has a similar meaning? In this case we know that it is named for a real person.

Many people believe that scrimshaw is an indigenous American art that began in the 19th century aboard American whaling vessels. Webster's Dictionary defines the term as "any of various carved or engraved articles made originally by American whalers usually from baleen or whale ivory." A publication from the Kendall Whaling Museum states clearly that it didn't exist before 1815.

Others are just as emphatic that it was practiced for centuries by the Inuit and other native groups along the Northwest Coast. Yet other sources say that scrimshaw began with the Eskimos or natives of the southern Pacific. Even the Russians have laid claim to inventing scrimshaw. Possibly the earliest piece of actual shipboard scrimshaw is from Holland and is part of the Kendall collection. Since Neolithic times, primitive people have scratched drawings onto mammoth tusk sand other material. How do we not consider these as examples of scrimshaw? Is it something else just because nobody used that specific term at that time to describe it? Were things not sculptures before someone coined that term?

Nowhere is there a universally agreed to definition as to what scrimshaw encompasses. To some it is exclusively the work of the sailors on board whaling ships, where whale teeth and walrus tusks had pictures incised or engraved onto them. To others it includes crafted carvings done by these whalers even though they may have no engravings. Some sources say it includes the work of people of that time period who did the same work, but while living in the port cities. The broadest definitions include work currently in production and work of other places around the world. It is not unusual to see an ivory snuff bottle described as "Chinese with a scrimshaw picture of" One person is quoted as saying, "What about all the rest? Well, they may be pretty, they may be art, they may contain authentic materials, and they may have value. But they are NOT scrimshaw!" Who is right?

Some authors claim that scrimshaw is only done on whales teeth. But, most people recognize scrimshaw even if done on walrus tusk, porpoise jaws, baleen, whale pan bone, shell, narwhal, tortoise shell, wood, mammoth, hippo, and elephant ivory. In short any material the sailor could come across during his journey around the world.

If you ever find yourself in a discussion about scrimshaw, I suggest you learn the other people's understanding of the term before joining in. Every participant may have a different perception.