bust
of this monarch, made out of a number of separate pieces of Belgian
Congo ivory skilfully put together. This is a work of the sculptor,
Thomas Vinçotte, and is preserved in the great "Colonial Museum" of
Tervueren. A copy of this bust in marble is to be seen in the Victoria
and Albert Museum in London.
In
the days when whaling vessels were absent from port from one to three
years, it frequently happened that the men from New England who manned
them had a great propensity for carving or etching. Some of them
possessed considerable artistic instinct, and in unoccupied moments
they would practise their art upon whale and walrus teeth, or on the
bones of the whale's jaw. Sometimes their subjects would be scenes of
places seen on the voyage, but more frequently they carved into the
bone the faces of mothers, sisters, sweethearts, and wives. The work
was often remarkably well done, and was known in sailor's slang as
"scrimshaw wbrk." The instruments were usually a sail-maker's needle
inserted in a wooden handle, or a finely sharpened jackknife. When the
carving was finished they rubbed a black fluid into it, either a dark
fluid coming from the cuttlefish, or else ink. Collections of these
carvings, or rather etchings, are to be found in the museum in New
Bedford, in the Historical Society's museum in Newport, and in the
collections of Gouverneur Morris, Mrs. William Rockefeller, A. N.
Bea-dleston, and many others, where excellent examples are preserved.
Although
the art has never been cultivated in the United States as it has been
in some parts of Europe, we have nevertheless had a few very good ivory
carvers here, among whom Mr. F. R. Kaldenberg deserves special mention.
The fact that his father was engaged in the manufacture of goods made
of ivory, as well as of amber, meerschaum, and many other materials,
brought him in contact with
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