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This is a fully-scrimshawed, 23-inch x 19-inch x 7-inch, complete sea turtle carapace (top shell). There are eleven seperate scenes, each on their own panel. There are two southern hemisphere birds at the top, and five northern hemisphere mammals at the bottom, each on their own panel. Down the center are six individual intitials: four in English; one in Hebrew; and one in an oriental script. We speculate that the six initials represent a six-man longboat crew, and that each man scrimmed the two images on both sides of their initials. The bottom "tail" panel has a "T" imposed over an "A". We speculate that these are the initials of the captain's name, or of the ship's name. Based on ship riggings, etc., the scrimwork has been dated to about 1850. |
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