Rafael Osona's Annual Auction Catalog 2019 2016 | Page 63

206. PAIR OF RARE BIFURCATED SCRIMSHANDED WHALE TEETH, 19th century, mounted as contemporary
bookends, one tooth engraved with a mourning scene, rising angels in the sky above a bereaved woman and her two children standing
in front of a tombstone with weeping willows in the background, the second with a brooding interior domestic scene depicting a
seated woman in early Victorian dress with a kneeling child at her side, the room around them filled with furniture and accessories, the
windows shuttered. Woman and child appear to be the same as illustrated in the first tooth. Height 7 ¼ in. and 7 in.
Provenance: By descent in the family of Isaac Tripp. Isaac Tripp III was born at Harwich, Ma. on May 29, 1827 and died in Rochester, Ma on Dec.
16, 1897. Mr. Tripp was a professional mariner who shipped on approximately a dozen whaling voyages between 1842-1868.

207. “BRITANNIAN ARTISAN”
SCRIMSHANDED SPERM
WHALE TOOTH, mid 19th century,
deeply incised and richly inked with
the seated figure of Britannia in an
oval reserve surmounted by a trophy
of rifles, sabers and halberds centered
by Union Jacks, the verso with
complementary depiction of Calliope
playing the harp, the British lion
flanked by flags top the oval reserve,
with leafy branches, zigzag and
stippled borders all around.
Length 6 in.

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