Narwhal tusk fragment with scrimshaw whaling scene, c. 1860

A nine-inch section from the distal end of a narwhal tusk, showing the characteristic left-handed spiral and natural taper, engraved along one face with a whaleboat scene: four oarsmen, a harpooner standing, and, on the horizon, a partially submerged whale. Inked in the manner of mid-century American scrimshaw, likely worked aboard a New Bedford or Nantucket vessel during a Davis Strait voyage.

Narwhal (Monodon monoceros) is CITES Appendix II. This piece predates CITES by well over a century and is documented by an 1867 probate inventory listing 'one horn of the sea-unicorn, carved'. Full paper trail available; we will not ship internationally regardless.

It is, and has always been, a strange object. Medieval Europeans believed these to be the horns of unicorns and paid accordingly. We do not make that claim, but we understand the impulse.