Edgartown Scrimshaw Gallery, Edgartown
43 Main Street
Edgartown , Massachusetts
02539
Tel: 508 627 9439
Edgartown , Massachusetts
02539
Tel: 508 627 9439
Concierge.com's insider take:
The art of scrimshaw—etching delicate, highly detailed pictures onto pieces of ivory—was popularized by sailors looking for ways to while away the months at sea aboard 19th-century whaling ships. Despite the ban on ivory, artisans, like gallery owner Thomas DeMont keep the craft alive. DeMont's painstaking etchings of square-riggers and seascapes (all made on fossilized, decades-old ivory or bone) as well as works by other contemporary scrimshaw artists and a few antique pieces on sperm-whale teeth fill the showcases here.
Open May through December and occasional Saturdays in the off-season.