Scrimshaw tusk with patriotic motifs

walrus tusk

SCRIMSHAW & ALLIED ARTS - TUSKS
marad; scrimshaw
Finney, Nathaniel Sylvester
ivory
overall: 28 3/4 x 3 x 1 3/4 in.

Walrus tusk by N.S. Finney. Obverse - From bottom to tip, the images are: A figure of Columbia with "(E plu)ribus unum" on pedestal; eagle with motto on ribbon; General Washington, soldier, eagle and flag; "Liberty" on base; female figure above; small eagle at tip. On reverse: Monument to the Pilgrims; Landing of the Pilgrims; General Banks; eagle and motto; Commodore Foote; Neptune; eagle and shield; small bird and floral motif at tip. Etchings colored with blue and red ink.

From S.Frank's 2012 survey - "Image of Columbia - the statue entitled "Armed Freedom," sculpted by Thomas Crawford (1814-1857), posthumously erected on the dome of the United States Capitol in 1863, here (as widely elsewhere in Finney's work) copied after the engraved frontispiece for the bound annual volumes of "Harper's Weekly" from 1861 to 1870."

1957.702