Post #361155 by Paipo on Thu, Feb 14, 2008 12:09 PM

I posted this in another thread a while back:

On 2007-12-06 15:19, Paipo wrote:
I bought this many years ago thinking I might carve or scrimshaw it, until I found out what it was:

I have seen a lot of whale teeth over the years, but this is one of the biggest. I think the smoked patina has been sanded off unfortunately (still visible in the grooves ), and the two dark spots are little tacks still embedded in the ivory that have rusted out. I guess it probably had an engraved plaque on it at some point.

As a slight update to the above, I recently had a couple of houseguests who were current or ex-museum staff and had some expertise in the area of marine mammals, and they were most impressed by the size of this big boy. Not bad for $50 NZ! :) *

I can't wait to see how the hand develops. A detached hand is quite a powerful presence, much like a severed head (the Rapa Nui carved hand in the British Museum comes to mind). It's interesting - obviously to make a piece as a "mug", I guess it must be nominally functional, but I'd be curious to know if any of these crazy one-offs you've been doing will ever contain a drink. I look at them as high-end art pieces and I'm sure their owners do too, and I know I'd be way to scared to risk damaging it by having to wash it after imbibing a beverage. Maybe some members of the VanTiki owners club could chime in?

*hmm, here's an idea for you...a giant ceramic whale tooth scrimshawed with tikis and strange goings-on? Of course, you would have to empty that too before you could put it down again! Or maybe it could be hung around the neck on a big sennit cord? :lol: