NANTUCKET, MASS.- The Nantucket Historical Association announced the acquisition of an island folk-art masterpiece: a scrimshaw plaque made by Edward Burdett (1805–1833). Burdett is the earliest identified American engraver of sperm whale teeth and was from Nantucket. Currently, only about twenty pieces of scrimshaw by Burdett are known, all sperm-whale teeth except for two bone plaques. This plaque, which has been in a single family for 200 years, was offered to the Nantucket Historical Association by the descendants of Capt. Valentine Hussey, a significant merchant from Nantucket’s whaling era. The NHA has three other scrimshaw pieces by Burdett, including a tooth also made aboard the same whaleship on which Burdett made this plaque. The plaque will be on exhibit in the Arie L. Kopelman Gallery at the Whaling Museum this summer, giving visitors a chance to view what one recent observer called “Nantucket’s Mona Lisa”: a not-to-be-missed work of art.
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“This is an incredible example of pictorial scrimshaw from the hand of one of its earliest practitioners,” said Michael Harrison, NHA Chief Curator and Obed Macy Research Chair. “A leading scholar of scrimshaw told me he thinks this is ‘the best scrimshaw in the world,’ and ‘the most important new piece to surface in the last thirty or forty years.’ My colleagues and I at the NHA are excited to show it to our visitors at the Whaling Museum.”
The plaque shows a detailed depiction of an imaginary encounter between the whaleships William Tell and Stonington, showing them jointly hunting a pod of sperm whales, likely around 1830. Whaleman-artist Edward Burdett was second mate of the William Tell from 1829 to 1833, and he made much of his best scrimshaw on this voyage. The William Tell was commanded by Capt. Nathaniel Gardner and was one of many ships owned by Jacob Barker, a leading New York merchant whose Nantucket family connections led him to hire, as often as he could, Nantucket men to run his vessels. The Stonington, a New London whaler, was Captain Gardner’s previous command; and it is possible that Burdett engraved this scene of the two ships meeting as a tribute to Captain Gardner.
Born on Nantucket, Burdett was the son of merchant captain Reuben Burdett (1781–1869) and Lydia Ellis Burdett (1781–1843). He went whaling at age seventeen on the Nantucket ship Foster (1822–24) and rose through the ranks on successive voyages that may have included berths on the Japan or Pacific before he became second mate of the William Tell (1829–33). He signed aboard the Nantucket ship Montano as first mate in 1833 but was tragically dragged overboard by a fouled rope several months later and drowned at age 27.
The plaque is a gift of the Friends of the NHA, with a partial gift from Peter Nash Hussey, Michael Phelps Hussey, and Alison Randle Hussey Cummings. Additional generous support from The McCausland Foundation; Christy & Bill Camp; Barbara & Amos Hostetter; Franci Neely; Melinda & Paul Sullivan; Connie & Tom Cigarran; Maureen & Edward Bousa; Anne Marie & Doug Bratton; The H. L. Brown Jr. Family Foundation; Laurie & Bob Champion; Anne & Todd Knutson; Coco Kopelman; Margaret Hallowell & Stephen Langer; Denise & Andrew Saul; Janet & Rick Sherlund; Pamela & Max Berry; Karyn Frist; Kaaren & Charles Hale; Sharon & Frank Lorenzo; Anne & Brec Obrecht; Mr. and Mrs. George Spencer, III; Stephanie & Jay Wilson; Robyn & John Davis; Gail & Rafael Osona; Patricia S. & Thomas J. Anathan; Susan Shapiro; Merrielou Symes; Mary Randolph Ballinger, and other anonymous donors.
