Lot Essay
The newspaper lining of the interior of this box may be the Connecticut Observer, dating to the summer of 1830, and may accordingly suggest a southern New England point of origin for this box.
Details
A WHALEBONE AND SEALSKIN BOX
AMERICAN, POSSIBLY CONNECTICUT, SECOND QUARTER 19TH CENTURY
The domed hinged rectangular lid with sealskin covering and beaded whalebone edges opening to a conforming box centering a heart-shaped whalebone escutcheon, the interior lined with newspaper--6½in. high, 9¾in. wide, 7¼in. deep
AMERICAN, POSSIBLY CONNECTICUT, SECOND QUARTER 19TH CENTURY
The domed hinged rectangular lid with sealskin covering and beaded whalebone edges opening to a conforming box centering a heart-shaped whalebone escutcheon, the interior lined with newspaper--6½in. high, 9¾in. wide, 7¼in. deep
Provenance
Sotheby's New York, The Barbara Johnson Whaling Collection, Part IV, 16 December 1983, lot 119
Literature
E. Norman Flayderman, Scrimshaw and Scrimshanders, Whales and Whalemen (New Milford, 1972), p. 39
Exhibited
Mystic, Connecticut, The Mystic Seaport Museum, 1978
Newark, New Jersey, The Newark Museum, Whaling Days in New Jersey, 1975
Newark, New Jersey, The Newark Museum, Whaling Days in New Jersey, 1975