The Western Australian Museum acknowledges and respects the Traditional Owners of their ancestral lands, waters and skies.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are advised that this digital guide may include images, sounds, and names of now deceased persons.

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Two large pointed teeth in a Museum display case, each has a large drawing of a person on them - a man and a women, in old fashioned clothing.

Scrimshaw

Whale Tooth

Scrimshaw is the art of engraving or carving designs and pictures on whalebone, ivory or teeth. It was common for sailors to make these pieces on long voyages

Memories of home, scenes of ships, places they visited and portraits of loved ones were popular subjects.

Today, scrimshaw has become valuable on the collector's market.

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Deep Dives

Three large pointed teeth resting on a blue cloth. Two have drawings of a sailing ship and the other has drawings of six different types of whale.

Whaling Gear

Nothing was wasted - the art of scrimshaw

Article

Two large pointed teeth in a Museum display case, each has a large drawing of a person on them - a man and a women, in old fashioned clothing.

Whale teeth scrimshaw.
Credit: WA Museum

The Western Australian Museum acknowledges and respects the Traditional Owners of their ancestral lands, waters and skies.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are advised that this digital guide may include images, sounds, and names of now deceased persons.