FAKESHAW HELP
Table of Contents

Definition of Fakeshaw: Fakeshaw is a category of synthetic machine-manufactured, mass-produced, factory-made objects that are intended to resemble scrimshaw. Some are made to look like sperm whale teeth, others to look like walrus tusks, hippopotamus teeth, pieces of bone, and objects of various kinds that have been carved out of, or constructed from, natural ivory and bone. The material is a combination of polymers (plastics) and additives to create the illusion of ivory and bone.

Many people believe that Fakeshaw is manufactured specifically in order to deceive people into believing that it is genuine scrimshaw, and there can be little reason for its manufacture without disclaimers other than to deceive people; but whatever purpose the manufacturers may have had in mind, it has deceived thousands of people, sometimes quite cruelly, and has the same effect as art fraud. Fakeshaw is fake; it has no historical significance, it has no aesthetic merit, and it has virtually no monetary value. From the standpoint of any museum or collector, Fakeshaw is worthless. (See also "Basic Information About Fakeshaw" below.)

How to Search: When on the search page, begin by pressing Ctrl-F to invoke your browser's find function. You can search any keyword in any title or description. Beware that many keywords appear in the titles and descriptions of more than one or two Fakeshaw pieces, so you may want to search the same keyword more than once until you find the piece you are looking for. Beware also that the manufacturers have sometimes used the front of one piece and the back of another, or sometimes one side of an existing piece and something new on the other side, to create a "new" piece that resembles, but is not the same as, one or more other Fakeshaw pieces.

For pieces that have text (pieces that have words on them), best results will be obtained if you search the principal word or words on the piece itself, such as the name of a ship, or the person identified as the subject of a portrait. Many alternate keywords are cross-referenced to the catalogue title (main catalogue entry) of the piece.

For pieces that have no text (pieces that have no words on them), the search can be more difficult. All pieces that have no text include "NO TEXT" in the description. You can either try to find the piece by guessing at a keyword that you believe might appear in the description; or you can search "NO TEXT" until you find a description of the piece you are looking for. For example, the keyword stagecoach will turn up several pieces, some of which have text and some of which do not.

Catalogue Main Titles: Wherever the manufacturer or distributor has assigned a title to a Fakeshaw piece, this title is the main catalogue entry. Wherever no such manufacturer's title exists (or is unknown), the main catalogue entry is the principal word named on the piece (for example, the name a ship or the subject of a portrait). On pieces that have no official title and no text, we have tried to assign a title that reflects the most prominently featured subject matter of the piece. Various other prominent features or alternate titles are cross-referenced. The manufacturer's title often bears little or no intelligible relation to the content of the piece or the words on it. Rely on the description more than the title.

Catalogue Entries: Wherever possible we have tried to provide for each piece the following information: the title; the type of scrimshaw the piece is manufactured to resemble*; the size (measurement); the manufacturer's or distributor's catalogue or reference number; the complete text of any inscriptions or mottoes on the piece; a complete description of the pictorial content (iconography) of the piece. Of course, the manufacturers have not been keen to help us identify their fakeshaw, and much of what we know about Fakeshaw is based on pictures, descriptions, and sizes submitted by consumers and museum colleagues all over the world. Unfortunately, much of the data is therefore incomplete.
* What we mean by "type of scrimshaw [a piece] is manufactured to resemble" is: a tooth (sperm whale tooth), tusk (walrus tusk), bone (piece of whale jawbone), hippo tooth (hippopotamus tooth); or a box, jar, plaque, panel, or oval. These do not resemble anatomical features but may be square, rectangular, round, oval, or cylindrical, and are supposed to look like items carved or constructed out of natural ivory or bone. None of the materials used in fakeshaw is actual ivory or bone; all of the materials used in Fakeshaw are synthetic.

Measurements are approximate. Measurement is the least important feature to consider in trying to identify a piece of fakeshaw! Standards of measurement of scrimshaw differ even among professional curators; the various manufacturers have tended to produce many fakeshaw pieces in several different sizes and formats; and the manufacturers' measurements are not always reliable. Where manufacturers have provided any measurements at all, they are always in inches. In this Fakeshaw catalogue, measurements are given in inches (as provided by the manufacturers, wherever possible); they have also been converted to metric measure (centimeters) for international use. Beware that the manufacturers have not always provided measurements; and that many pieces are known only from photographs, from which accurate measurements cannot be derived; and that many of the measurements were obtained from correspondents who undoubtedly utilized differing standards of measure. In trying to identify a piece of fakeshaw, rely on measurements only as a rough indicator or guideline: Measurements are the least reliable standard by which to identify fakeshaw! If the description fits, disregard that there may be discrepancies in the measurement!

Historical Accuracy: Pictures, dates, and information written on fakeshaw are fabrications: they are made up; some are accurate, most are not. Nothing on any piece of fakeshaw can be relied upon as historically accurate or factual.

"Tests" for Plastic Fakeshaw: Various tests for plastic have been published, such as the "hot needle" test, and the "match" test, and viewing fakeshaw under black light (ultraviolet light). However, THESE TESTS USUALLY DO NOT WORK! The tests were useful when they were first published (as early as 1979), but manufacturers of fakeshaw are devious and they are not fools. They read the test results too, and they change their formulas, so that hot needles will not penetrate the newer polymers any better than they will penetrate real bone, a match won't necessarily burn it, and it may fluoresce under ultraviolet light to a degree that only a trained expert can distinguish it from organic matter.

Basic Information About Fakeshaw: Here is the text of the letter that the Kendall Whaling Museum sends out in response to inquiries about fakeshaw:

Please excuse this form letter, but we receive so many inquiries about "scrimshaw" of this type that we have been forced to resort to this means simply to keep up with the volume...
In response to your inquiry of [date], I regret having to report that the "scrimshaw" you mention is not actually scrimshaw at all, but, rather, a machine-manufactured, polymer- plastic simulation, of a type mass-produced in England under the trade-names Juratone, Ltd. (of London), Historycraft, Ltd., and Grooveport, Ltd. (both located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire). The particular scrimshaw fake(s) alluded to in your letter can be found listed in the monograph, Fakeshaw: A Checklist of Plastic "Scrimshaw" (Sharon, Massachusetts: The Kendall Whaling Museum, Monograph Series Nº 1, 1988; and/or the revised-and-expanded editions, Nº 1a, 1993; and Nº 1b, © 2001 ):

Cat. #
Type Title
Size
Manufacturer
Mfr.'s Inventory # The net retail value of each piece is approximately: $20.00 / £12.50 / DM 35,-

We receive numerous letters and calls about bogus pieces of this kind. They turn up frequently in the marketplace throughout the world; and not only collectors, but antiques dealers, auction houses, galleries, and museums have occasionally mistaken them for genuine. None of these counterfeits has any historical or artistic interest: They are not "copies" or "reproductions" of actual scrimshaw pieces, nor do they faithfully recreate the style or aesthetic of the original 19th-century whalemen's art. Rather, they are implausible fictions, virtually all of the names and dates brazenly emblazoned on them are misconstrued or entirely spurious, and their decorative appeal is at best dubious Museums and other collectors of genuine scrimshaw regard plastic fakeshaw as entirely worthless.

If you bought fakeshaw that was represented to be genuine scrimshaw, you may have been the victim of deliberate fraud; or perhaps the party who sold it to you also believed it to be authentic. When advised of such an error and furnished with reasonable proof, most honest antiques dealers and auctioneers will make restitution in full. If you paid more than $20 or $30 for a piece of fakeshaw, we recommend that you try to get your money back.

Stuart M. Frank, Ph.D., Director and Chief Curator
Donald E. Ridley, P.E., Assistant Curator (Scrimshaw)
The Kendall Whaling Museum

How To Get More Information About Fakeshaw: Don't bother writing or calling museums to find out about fakeshaw. Everything we know about fakeshaw is published in the monograph entitled Fakeshaw: A Checklist of Plastic "Scrimshaw," written by Dr. Stuart M. Frank, published by The Kendall Whaling Museum, and now available in the Third Revised and Expanded Edition (© 2001). The monograph includes: essays about the status of fakeshaw as fakery; comparing it with tribal art and "honest plastic"; early catalogue lists of manufacturers, notably Juratone, Ltd., of London (England), and Grooveport, Ltd., and Historycraft, Ltd., both of Cirencester, Gloucestershire (England); and a few representative illustrations. The Fakeshaw Monograph can be ordered by mail for $13.00 postpaid ($17.50 outside the USA) from:

The Museum Store
The New Bedford Whaling Museum
18 Johnny Cake Hill
New Bedford, MA 02740
USA
508 997-0046

It can also be purchased over-the-counter at the Whaling Museum, or at many specialty nautical booksellers, or at book shops at many maritime museums. Or you can order it from your favorite bookshop. Or you can borrow it from a public library.

Inquiries: We publish the Fakeshaw Monograph and we post the Fakeshaw Catalogue on the internet so that you don't need to call or write museums about fakeshaw. So please save us all some effort: use the Fakeshaw Catalogue listings on the web site; read the Fakeshaw Monograph essays, if you wish; and please don't call or write until you are certain that your "scrimshaw" isn't fakeshaw. Inquiries are by mail only: we do not answer inquiries about scrimshaw over the internet. Any inquiries sent to the Museum must be accompanied by good photographs of the piece or pieces in question. Inquiries from inside the USA (except from Members of the Museum) must include a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Inquiries from outside the USA, please enclose US$1.00 in cash to pay for return postage. Thanks.

Acknowledgments are extended to valued colleagues in several institutions who over the years have maintained inventories of fakeshaw and freely shared lists, catalogues, pictures, and information: Joshua Basseches (Harvard Museum of Natural History); Honore Forster (Pacific School of Research Studies, Australian National University) Richard C. Malley (Connecticut Historical Society); Donald E. Ridley, Michael P. Dyer, and Peter P. O'Brien (The Kendall Whaling Museum), William N. Peterson and Philip L. Budlong (Mystic Seaport Museum); Robert L. Webb; Dr. Janet West (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge); and Anne Witty (Maine Maritime Museum).

Major Museum Collections of Scrimshaw: The Kendall Whaling Museum (27 Everett Street, P.O. Box 297, Sharon, Mass. 02067) houses the world's largest and most comprehensive collection of scrimshaw. The Kendall has held an annual Whaling History Symposium each October since 1975 and festive Scrimshaw Collectors' Weekends in the spring since 1989.

Major scrimshaw collections are at:
The New Bedford Whaling Museum, Massachusetts USA
Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts USA
Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic, Connecticut USA
Nantucket Historical Association, Nantucket, Massachusetts USA
Old Dartmouth Historical Association, New Bedford, Massachusetts USA
South Street Seaport, New York, New York USA

Bibliography 1 - Documentation of Whaling History

Colby, Barnard L.  For Oil and Buggy Whips: Whaling Captains of New London County, Connecticut. Mystic, Conn.: Mystic Seaport Museum. 1990.

Decker, Robert Owen. Whaling Industry of New London. York, Pa.: Liberty Cap. 1973.

Forster, Honore. More South Sea Whaling: A Supplement to The South Sea Whaler…. Canberra: Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University. 1991.

Forster, Honore. The South Sea Whaler: An Annotated Bibliography… relating to whaling in the Pacific Ocean in the nineteenth century. Sharon, Mass: The Kendall Whaling Museum; Fairhaven, Mass.: Edward J. Lefkowicz. 1985.

Hegarty, Reginald B. Addendum to "Starbuck" and Whaling Masters. New Bedford Customs District. New Bedford Free Public Library. 1964.

Hegarty, Reginald B. Returns of Whaling Vessels Sailing from American Ports: A Continuation of Alexander Starbuck's "History of the American Whale Fishery" 1876-1928. Additions by Philip F. Purrington. New Bedford: Old Dartmouth Historical Society. 1959.

Jones, A.G.E. Ships Employed in the South Seas Trade 1775-1861. 2 vols. Canberra: Roebuck Society Publications Nºs 36 and 46. 1986 and 1992.

Sherman, Stuart C., et al. Whaling Logbooks and Journals 1613-1928: An Inventory of Manuscript Records in Public Collections. Garland Reference Library of the Humanities, Vol. 682. New York and London: Garland. 1986.

Starbuck, Alexander. History of the American Whale Fishery, from Its Earliest Inception to the Year 1876. (Report of the U.S. Commission on Fish & Fisheries, Part IV. Washington, 1878.) Variously reprinted in 1 and 2 vol. eds. Work Progress Administration. Whaling Masters. New Bedford, Mass.: Old Dartmouth Historical Association. 1938.

Bibliography 2 - Fakeshaw Catalogues

Exham Fletcher. Whale of a Tale Scrimshaw Replicas. Santa Monica, California, n.d. [c1983.] Price-list of Juratone and Juratone-like fakeshaw, some of which is not listed elsewhere.

Grooveport, Ltd. [Catalogue and Price List.] Cirencester, Gloucestershire, n.d. Issued in conjunction with the ensuing, circa 1983, this list is not exhaustive and illustrates only one side of some two-sided pieces. A large portion of the Grooveport line is derived from Juratone prototypes, to which many Grooveport pieces are substantially identical.

Historycraft, Ltd. [Catalogue and Price List.] Cirencester, Gloucestershire, n.d. Catalogue issued in conjunction with the preceding, circa 1983; evidently not exhaustive.

Juratone, Ltd. [Catalogue and Price List.] London, n.d. [circa 1979]. The original Juratone catalogue (circa 1979-80) is the largest single compendium of fakeshaw examined to date, with prices (listed in British pounds sterling) equivalent to market values at that time for hand-crafted works of genuine whale and walrus ivory. The relationship to ‘New" Juratone (a separate and subsequent numbering system) remains unclear.

Juratone U.K., Ltd. [Catalogue and Price List.] London, n.d. [circa 1987]. "New" Juratone, with variations on the original Juratone line. The relationship to "old" Juratone remains unclear.
[Nye Overseas Trading Enterprise.] History Art USA. West Yarmouth, Mass., n.d. [circa 1987]. Price-list includes Juratone-derived fakeshaw and ostensibly original "honest" plastic. The Nye line is separately indexed on page 26 he Fakeshaw Monograph, but is not integrated into the main Checklist.

Bibliography 3 - Fakeshaw Documentation
Basseches, Joshua. The Scrimshaw of Manuel Cunha: Late Work from Madeira Revealed. Kendall Whaling Museum Monograph Series, Nº 2. 1988. Descriptive essay and illustrated catalogue of works by the most successful Portuguese emulator of Yankee scrimshaw.

Frank, Stuart M. Fakeshaw: A Checklist of Plastic "Scrimshaw." Kendall Whaling Museum Monograph Series, Nº 1. Originally published in 1988. Third Revised Edition, 11 illus., ± 300 items. © 2001.

Malley, Richard C. "False Teeth: New Problems with Plastic Scrimshaw." The Log of Mystic Seaport, 33:3 (Fall 1980), 83-89. Informative discussion of the emergence of fakeshaw; description of the Artek line (including their coding system for identification of museum reproductions); rudimentary early list of Juratone fakeshaw (43 items); simplified detection and testing methods.

West, Janet. "Scrimshaw: Recent Forgeries in Plastic." The Mariners' Mirror, 66:4 (Nov. 1980), pp. 328-30. Rudimentary list of Juratone (43 items); testing procedures; taxonomy of plastics; solubility in organic solvents and in dilute mineral acids; calcium content; flame test; visual examination under UV light and with magnifying lens; olfactory test. Owing to evolution of polymer chemistry since publication, the tests are less useful than they were when Dr. West introduced them.

Bibliography 4 - Recommended Reading about Scrimshaw

Basseches, Joshua; and Stuart M. Frank. Edward Burdett, 1805-1833: America's First Master Scrimshaw Artist. Kendall Whaling Museum Monograph Series, Nº 5. 1991.

Carpenter , Charles H., Jr.; and Mary Grace Carpenter. The Decorative Arts and Crafts of Nantucket. New York: Dodd Mead & Co., 1987), pp. 159-181.

Flayderman, E. Norman. Scrimshaw and Scrimshanders, Whales and Whalemen. New Milford, Conn.: N. Flayderman & Co. 1972.
Frank, Stuart M. Dictionary of Scrimshaw Artists. Mystic, Conn.: Mystic Seaport Museum, 1991.

Frank, Stuart M. More Scrimshaw Artists. Mystic, Conn.: Mystic Seaport Museum, 1998.

Frank, Stuart M. "Scrimshaw: ‘Ingenious contrivances… in the hours of ocean leisure.'" AntiquesAmerica.com (Boston, July 2000).

Frank, Stuart M. "Scrimshaw: Occupational Art of the Whale-Hunters." Maritime Life and Traditions, #7 (London, March 2000), pp. 42-57.

Frank, Stuart M. "The Origins of Engraved Pictorial Scrimshaw." The Magazine Antiques, 142:4 (Oct 1992), pp. 510-21.

Frank, Stuart M. "Les scrimshaws: Tradition artisanale des chasseurs de baleines." Chasse-Marée (Douarnenez, France), 67 (10 Sept 1992), pp. 46-61.

Hellman, Nina; and Norman Brouwer. A Mariner's Fancy: The Whaleman's Art of Scrimshaw. New York: South Street Seaport and Balsam Press. 1992.

Malley, Richard C. "Graven by the fishermen themselves": Scrimshaw in Mystic Seaport Museum. Mystic, Conn.: Mystic Seaport Museum. 1983.

Martin, Kenneth R. "Some Very Handsome Work": Scrimshaw at the Cape Cod National Seashore. Eastham, Mass.: Eastern National Park and Monument Association. 1991.

McManus, Michael. A Treasury of American Scrimshaw: A Collection of the Useful and Decorative. New York: Penguin, 1997.

Penniman, T. K. Pictures of Ivory and other Animal Teeth, Bone and Antler; With a brief commentary on their use in identification. University of Oxford: Pitt Rivers Museum, Occasional Paper on Technology Nº5, [1952] 1984.

Ridley, Donald E.; and Stuart M. Frank. Frederick Myrick: Scrimshaw Catalogue Raisonné. Kendall Whaling Museum Monograph Series, Nº 13. 2000.

Ridley, Donald E.; and Janet West. Frederick Myrick: Physical Characteristics of the Scrimshaw. Kendall Whaling Museum Monograph Series, Nº 14. 2000.

West, Janet; and Arthur G. Credland. Scrimshaw: The Art of the Whalers. Hull (U.K.): Hull City Museums & Art Galleries; Beverley, E. Yorks. (U.K.): Hutton Press, 1995.