Saleroom
ELDRED’S, USA
Whale of a price
Anyone who’s read Moby Dick will know that whaling involved sustained periods of barely endurable boredom – often 300 pages or more – followed by short bursts of frenzy and gore. Yet, it was in their downtime that sailors produced intricately detailed scrimshaw carvings on whales’ teeth.
The master of between November 1829 and February 1833, the Nantucket seaman-artist produced this piece that may challenge and perhaps even surpass the world record auction price of $456,000 (£350,600), paid in 2017 for another work by Burdett produced on the same voyage.
