When History Craft was established in the 1970’s, one of the first giftware ranges that was launched was our collection of scrimshaw replicas. Scrimshaw was the folk art of the sea, when sailors whiled away the time on long voyages scratching designs into whales’ teeth, walrus tusks and bones of marine mammals. 19th century scrimshaw is now rare and expensive and obviously it is an illegal practice to create genuine scrimshaw now. Our resin reproduction scrimshaw range reflects the traditional uses of ivory.
Many of our master copies were created in the same way as an original price of scrimshaw would have been - enabling us to re-create scrimshaw art at an affordable price. Our collection of scrimshaw replica giftware included trinket boxes, chess sets and other games, paperweights, clock cases, desk accessories and hip flasks.
Although we do not manufacture much ‘faux’ or fake scrimshaw now, in the 1980’s we were exporting to over 20 countries with one of the major markets being the USA. The History Craft reproduction scrimshaw range was stocked by some of the world’s most respected retail organisations. The success of the scrimshaw replica range resulted in our company achieving the Queen’s Award for Export Achievement in 1990.
Our scrimshaw replicas are of high quality - from time to time when we were shipping export consignments, we had to prove to Customs Officials that we were not shipping real ivory! At the time, this was rather a nuisance, but also very flattering for our scrimshaw replicas to be considered as real ivory.