Carved whale ivory pie crimper with a curved handle terminating with an eagles head, American circa 1860. The crimper will metal axle provides the eye for the eagle. The handle has tow baleen spacers and there are a pair of harts that look like a bow tie in the eagles neck area. The pie crimper has survived with a few other scrimshaw items that were made by Charles Little a New Bedford Whaleman.
Condition: The pie crimper has a few minor and typical age cracks and a fine mellow patina.
Reference: "Scrimshaw and Scrimshanders: Whales and Whalemen", E. Norman Flayderman, New Milford CT, 1972 pg. . A very similar crimper probably by the same hand as the one described above is illustrated on this page 182.
Provenance: A Third Dictionary of Scrimshaw Artists by Stuart M. Frank (Mystic, Ct.: Stuart M. Frank and Mystic Seaport Museum, 2013), p. 163-164, Charles Little was born in Westport, Massachusetts, in 1816 and was a master aboard whaling voyages sailing out of New Bedford. This is one of three pieces associated with him, though it is unclear whether he made them himself or he brought them home with him from one of his voyages. His wife Cynthia, probably the recipient of the pieces, accompanied him on at least one of the voyages he captained, aboard the vessel Congress from 1846 to 1848, or the Emma C. Jones from 1849 to 1853. The pieces descended to their eldest son George, and family history has relayed the provenance since then.
Dimensions: Length 7".