Rafael Osona's Annual Auction Catalog Rafael Osona Annual Auction 2018 | Page 21

47. TWO FINE AND LARGE BOLDLY STIPPLED AND POLYCHROMED SPERM
WHALE TEETH BY MANUEL MONTEIRO, last quarter 19th century, taken from the same
jaw. The first is the larger and also stippled throughout the tooth; decorated with a three-quarter
portrait of a well-dressed lady with hat and holding a fan, the reverse having a similarly fashionably
dressed lady; the narrow side shows a majestic building with a miniature figure on a chaise below;
the opposing side depicts a polychrome portrait of a fish spanning the full length of the tooth and
spewing air bubbles to the surface. Height 6 ½ in. Width 4 in. The second signed and inscribed
“Manuel Monteiro – I love you” and decorated with two ladies in long dresses, one with a fan and
the other with a bouquet, a young girl walking away and another in half portrait and holding a doll,
and a dog’s head. Height 6 ¼ in.
Literature: Stuart M. Frank, Ingenious Contrivances, Curiously Carved/Scrimshaw in the New Bedford
Whaling Museum, Boston, 2012, cf. Fig. 14:11, p. 313.
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