Scrimshaw walrus tusk, portrait of General William T. Sherman

walrus tusk

SCRIMSHAW & ALLIED ARTS - TUSKS
marad; scrimshaw
Finney, Nathaniel Sylvester
1860-1879
ivory
Overall: 24 5/8 x 3 1/4 x 2 1/2 in.

Walrus tusk with pierced tip, one of a pair, unsigned, attributed to Nathaniel S. Finney (1813-1879), ascending above base of tusk, on one side, a portrait of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman surrounded by oak and laurel sprays, a spread winged eagle with banners, a portrait of Ulysses.S.Grant; figure of Columbia, female figures marked "NORTH" and "SOUTH" kissing; a flag-skirted figure; Lady Liberty on a pedestal; and a small eagle. The tusk known from contemporaneous photographs to have been exhibited at Abe Warner's Old Cobweb Palace saloon, San Francisco,1880's or earlier. See Richard C. Malley, "Graven by the Fishermen Themselves: Scrimshaw in Mystic Seaport Museum" (1982), Stuart M. Frank, "Scrimshaw
and Provenance" (2012), and William Gilkerson, "The Scrimshander" (1975).

1957.705