scrimshaw pendant - age? material?

Discussion in 'Jewelry' started by smallaxe, May 2, 2022.

  1. smallaxe

    smallaxe Well-Known Member

    A family piece, but provenance lost to memory. Ideas on possible age and what the material is? It's worn smooth to the point where some details are starting to be lost. Does that destroy value?
    IMG_20220502_134727.jpg IMG_20220502_133505~2.jpg
     
  2. komokwa

    komokwa The Truth is out there...!

    looks like whale tooth.......
    date unknown
    worn out design....lowers value
     
  3. smallaxe

    smallaxe Well-Known Member

    Another photo that may help nail down material.
    IMG_20220502_135447~2.jpg
     
  4. all_fakes

    all_fakes Well-Known Member

    Like Komo says, marine ivory. Design is not only worn, but is quite generic; and it could be noted that since the 1920s and up until around 1975, a Seattle jewelry company arranged to have genuine ivory scrimshawed with generic designs supplied by the company, using mostly non-native workers; most but not all of these were signed on the front or back "Nuguruk," a fictional "Eskimo" name. The scrimshaw on the Nuguruk items is generally more rudimentary than on genuine native work.
    Yours may be one of these, or not; but value-wise, it is what it appears to be: scrimshaw on ivory, quite worn.
    A Nuguruk item, just as an example:
    Nuguruk pin.jpg
     
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