Three Carved Whalebone Whale Stamps in a Box, Twelve Ivory Items, and Fourteen Pieces of Related Ephemera

Description:

Three Carved Whalebone Whale Stamps in a Box, Twelve Ivory Items, and FourteenPieces of Related Ephemera, c. 1850s, three hand-carved bone whale stamps with whale figural handles, depicting a Right whale, a Sperm whale, and an indistinct whale tail, mounted in a lift-out leather-lined wood tray carved to conform to each stamp, and also a leather-covered carved bone ink container, in a dovetail-constructed mahogany box, the tray lifts out to reveal a compartment containing three 1857 issues of the weekly New Bedford, Massachusetts, newspaper Whalemen's Shipping List and Merchant's Transcript, an ivory and brass folding measuring device, and eleven ivory disk playing pieces, probably sailor made, two letters of correspondence, two addressed to Alexander H. Cory (1795-1860),a merchant of a successful family of merchants in Westport, Massachusetts; a Custom House document, six papers (merchant shopping lists and receipts) relating to Ruth Cadman (who is related to the Cory family),and a letter from a Quaker father, Clother Gifford (1800-1871),and brother William W. Gifford (1831-1903),of Westport, Massachusetts, addressed to "Ezra Gifford/Barque Winslow/Captain Simons/Atlantic Ocean, (the box lacking a cover),box ht. 4, wd. 7, lg. 10 in.

Note: Whale stamps were inked into a whale ship's log, and used to record types of whales and the number of barrels of oil rendered from them.
Estimate $800-1,200

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