Category Archives: Audemars Piguet

The art of scrimshaw is surrounded by layer upon layer of romance, tradition and controversy. Originating on whaling ships, where whalebone and marine ivory (mostly from walrus tusks) was plentiful, scrimshaw involves engraving on bone or ivory, with pigment applied to bring out the design. One of the great classics of American literature, Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, depicts scenes of scrimshaw creation on board the Pequod by the whaling crew, and historical articles of scrimshaw were seen as exotic artefacts of a seaborne life — they often illustrated foreign sights or objects of sailors’ domestic yearnings.

Nowadays, of course, the trade of ivory and whale parts is strictly controlled, if not outright prohibited, and contemporary scrimshanders (as scrimshaw artists are called) ply their techniques mostly on synthetic bone replicates or non-controlled animal bone. read more