The Right Whale…but Wrong Story.

The Right Whale is so often in the news of late as its numbers in the North Atlantic decline ever further. Throughout history this species has perhaps been the most familiar of its kind, and it has been said that it was called the Right Whale because it was the right whale to catch. The explanation is attributed to whalemen, who were purported to describe the Right Whale as being found close to shore, swimming slowly on the surface, docile, staying afloat after dying, and having a high blubber content… thus the right whale for their pursuit.

The term Right Whale was first used in print in 1725,¹ but as in other early references no indication is given as to why the name is used. While the apocryphal explanation above is rationale and plausible, as early as 1766 an article in the Connecticut Courant stated “the truth is no one actually knows how the right whale got its name.”⁽²⁾ The accepted explanation is found throughout twentieth-century literature. Historical accounts and examinations of the whaling industry invariably present this explanation, and in the adventure novels set on whaleships, the old tars always spin this yarn to the green hands. It is repeated in every dictionary and encyclopedia entry, has been adopted by Wikipedia, and is even perpetuated in NOAA bulletins. Most telling, it is repeated with a knowing nod by most every curator, scholar, collector, and dealer of whaling antiques and folk art. So it must be true…

…but it is almost surely not! The term “right,” as used here, was meant as true, proper, or correct. This idea has not been entirely ignored: Eric Dolan in his Leviathan cites John Spears (1908) in opining that Right just as likely meant true or proper, meaning typical of the group.^{2, 3} Melville himself describes how the Right Whale was variously called by whalemen “The Whale, the Greenland whale, the blubber whale, the great whale, the true whale, the right whale.”⁴ Clearly, our Right Whale was originally considered the true or common, bog standard whale.

G. B. Ellis Copper Engraving, Philadelphia, 1825.

The North Atlantic Right Whale is today properly called Eubaleana glacialis. It was originally classified by Walter Charleton as Balaena vulgarus (the common

whale) in 1668, and formally by Linnaeus as Balaena sp. in 1758.⁵ It is interesting, and I think very significant to note, that the word balaena meant simply “whale” (without the modern connotation distinguishing between baleen and toothed whales). The word is still used in French to just mean whale. Even under its current nomenclature as Eubalaena, the Right Whale remains the type species for the genus: for zoologists, this means that this species contains the type specimen by which the genus is defined and contrasted against all other types of whales. Phylogenetically and grammatically, the Right Whale means the common whale.

So how did the apocryphal explanation become so accepted? The time scale here provides a clue. This whale was first hunted by the Basque fishermen in the eleventh Century.⁶ Throughout the ensuing Middle Ages and Renaissance there was little advancement in our understanding of these animals beyond what was first inaccurately laid out by the ancient Greeks and Romans.⁵ Totally separate species were confused, anatomies were wild, and they were still thought of as a very strange type of fish. Even the whalers themselves had little understanding of the true nature of the animals they were hunting: only the dorsal backs of whales were seen in the water, and those cast ashore were collapsed and in some stage of rot. Whalers were not good witnesses.

We are also talking about early days here. Remember that the name Right Whale was only first documented in 1725, and the Right Whale fishery as practiced by Nantucketers and Long Islanders was effectively over by 1750.⁷ So the anecdotal explanation of whalemen referring to the right whale to catch is being told and retold many years, perhaps generations, after that particular fishery was long over. Any story becomes fuzzy over time, and true to form this particular fish tale does not bear up well under close scrutiny. Let us examine the explanation once again: this whale is said to be found close to shore, swim slowly on the surface, be docile in behavior, stay afloat after dying, and have a high blubber content to yield a large volume of oil.

The Right Whale is found relatively close to shore. The North Atlantic Right Whale is found predominantly close to peninsulas and bays, and remains on the continental shelf; in contrast, the South Atlantic Right Whale ranges far offshore during much of the year.^{8, 9} The Right Whale does feed often at the surface (as do many other baleen whales), but is also known to feed in midwater and on the bottom.^{8, 9} While it is true this natural history would prove favorable to whalers, these traits are also the exact reasons why this species would be the most observed large whale in earlier years, and thus the logical type species for the Common Whale.

William Lizar Steel Plate Engraving, Edinburgh, 1852.

The Right Whale also appears at first to be a slow swimmer: unless a mother with calf, the species has been measured swimming at 6 km/hr.¹⁰ This is indeed slow in comparison to the fast Blue Whale which swims at 14 km/hr; however, 6 km/hr is the same speed typical for the Sperm Whale. The Humpback Whale, an undisputed speed demon amongst cetaceans, is known to swim at between 5 and 15 km/hr and can sprint at 25 km/hr. It is very important to note, however, that when feeding, the Humpback is typically observed swimming at only 2 to 5.5 km/hr.^{10, 11} The criteria of speed does not hold up well to support the anecdotal explanation.

Is the Right Whale a docile animal? Well yes, in comparison to the large, toothed, and notoriously aggressive Sperm Whale. But the behavior observed in an undisturbed whale skimming swarms of copepods and krill by the mouthful must be expected to be quite different than that encountered when a 100,000-pound whale is attacked with a harpoon or two. Right whales are extremely acrobatic, known for frequently breaching and jumping clear of the water. They are also well known for lobtailing, or slapping the tail flukes down hard upon the surface. These are behaviors pre-adapted to retaliate against attacking harpooners. Whalemen did in fact know of Right Whales smashing and sinking whaleboats, and there are a number of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century engravings showing such events as drawn from the eye-witness accounts of whalers.

William Lizar Steel Plate Engraving, Edinburgh, 1852.

Right Whales were said to stay afloat after dying, made buoyant by their thick layer of blubber. It is true that they do tend to float after dying. However, the Sperm Whale is also positively buoyant and floats after death,^{13, 14, 15} making it just as much “the right whale to catch.” In contrast, most whales turn out to be slightly negatively buoyant, making it physiologically easier and less energy-consuming for them to dive and maintain position at depth. But a closer look at Right Whales reveals that ten to thirty percent of them did sink, at least in the North Pacific stock.¹² In comparison, the Humpback Whale was notorious among whalers for sinking like a rock and so was among the least desirable prey… but the reality is that only fifty percent of them sank.¹⁷ The difference between thirty and fifty percent is a pretty short spread to warrant the opposing honors of being the best and the worst, the Right versus the Wrong whale to catch.

Lastly we come to the yield of whale oil…was the Right Whale preferred for a greater yield of oil? Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century whalers using the tryworks technology of their day were able to harvest on average forty-two to forty-five barrels of oil from a single Right Whale.¹⁶ The average Sperm Whale yielded forty-five to fifty barrels and included the vastly superior and much more valuable spermaceti oil. There is no need to even consider species like the Blue Whale, which averaged 120 barrels, to conclude that the Right Whale had no advantage for harvesting oil.

The apocryphal explanation of the Right Whale coming by its name just does not bear up under credible scrutiny. The simpler explanation, the long-standing fact that this whale was indeed known for centuries as the correct, true, proper, common, or right Whale, is in no way a disappointment. We are left contemplating an awe-inspiring animal whose very name is not only a symbol of all of its kind but whose name also recalls the entire history of our study of whales and our ever-evolving understanding of their place in the world, and by extension, our own place in the web of life.

References:

(1)        Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 2003.

(2)        Dolan, Eric Jay. 2007. Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America. W. W. Norton & Company.

(3)        Spears, John Randolph. 1908. The Story of the New England Whalers. Macmillan Co.

(4)        Melville, Herman. 1851. Moby Dick, or, The Whale. Harper and Brothers. (Chapter XXXII).

(5)        Romeroa, Aldemaro. 2012. When Whales Became Mammals: The Scientific Journey of Cetaceans from Fish to Mammals in the History of Science. In: ROMEROA. & E.O. KEITH(eds), NewApproaches to the Study of Marine Mammals (Chapter 1).

(6)        Aguilar, A. 1986. A Review of Old Basque Whaling and its Effect on the Right Whales (Eubalaena glacialis) of the North Atlantic. Reports of the International Whaling Commission (special issue) 10: 191-199.

(7)        Tønnessen, Johan Nicolay and Arne Odd Johnsen. 1982. The History of Modern Whaling. University of California Press.

(8)        Kenney, Robert D. (February 26, 2009). North Atlantic, North Pacific and Southern Right Whales. In Perrin, William F., Wursig, Bernd and J.G.M. ‘Hans’ Thewissen, (eds.). Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals. Academic Press. pp. 806–813.

(9)        Crane, J.; Scott, R. (2002). Eubalaena glacialis: North Atlantic right whale: Information. Animal Diversity Web. University of Michigan Museum of Zoology.

(10)      Hain, James H.W., Hampp, Joy D., McKenney, Sheila A., Albert, Julie A. and Robert D. Kenney. 2013. Swim Speed, Behavior, and Movement of North Atlantic Right Whales (Eubalaena glacialis) in Coastal Waters of Northeastern Florida, USA. PLoS One.

(11)      Anonymous. 2011. How does a Blue Whale move? National Geographic 26 March 2011.

(12)      Scarff, J.E. 2001. Preliminary Estimates of Whaling-Induced Mortality in the 19^th Century Pacific Northern Right Whale. Journal of Cetacean Research Management (Special Issue 2): 261-260.

(13)      Braham, H.W. and D.W. Rice. 1984. The Right Whale, Balaena glacialis. Marine Fisheries Revue 46: 38–44.

(14)      Gosho, M.E., Rice, D.W. and J.M. Breiwick. 1984. The Sperm Whale, Physeter macrocephalus. Marine Fisheries Revue 46: 54–64.

(15)      Nowacek, D.P., Johnson, M.P., Tyack, P.L., Shorter, K.A., McLellan, W.A. and D.A. Pabst. 2001. Buoyant balaenids: the ups and downs of buoyancy in right whales. Proceedings of the  Royal Society of London B 268:1811–1816.

(16)      Laist, David W. 2017. North Atlantic Right Whales – From Hunted Leviathan to Conservation Icon. John Hopkins University Press.

(17)      Smithsonian Institute. 2020. On the Water 3: Fishing for a Living, 1840 – 1920.

Published in the Nantucket Historical Association’s series “Nantucket University” – https://nha.org/research/nantucket-history/history-topics/the-right-whalebut-wrong-story/

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Stephen Gibbs – Nantucket Basket Maker Extraordinaire

Stephen Gibbs began making Nantucket baskets shortly after Jose Reyes in the mid 1950s and is today generally recognized as the finest craftsman in that first generation of purse makers.

Where Reyes came into the craft from his hobby of originally making traditional Filipino baskets, Gibbs clearly approached basket making with the discipline of a fine woodworker, with the same attention to detail that a cabinet maker would use to hand cut fine dovetails. He was in fact a fine carpenter and house builder, who turned to making Nantucket baskets in 1954 after suffering a heart attack.

Stephen and his wife Loretta ran a Bed & Breakfast at the corner of North Water Street and Ash Lane and had his basket shop at his brother-in-law’s house on Madaket Road. Gibbs is considered a self-taught basket-maker, although he was certainly familiar with the craft from his childhood when his mother frequently had him run dinners to their bachelor neighbor Mitchy Ray (who taught the craft to Jose Reyes himself). His baskets are superb, sturdily woven in the finest quality. He worked with strong oak staves that taper evenly and of uniform size and stand correctly parallel. His cane weave was always tight and uniform. When handling a Gibbs basket, one has the impression that they would hold water and that you could almost stand on them! His purses are always well proportioned and stylish.

He favored using turned ivory knobs to attach the handle, and a long ivory clasp on the front to receive the peg, a feature that became almost a trademark of his baskets. Stevie Gibbs crafted his baskets for 20 years until passing away in 1974. He advanced the craft of Nantucket basketry and left a respected and admired legacy.

Whaling… a uniquely egalitarian pursuit.

Young America, like most of the world, was a segregated colony and country. That racial heritage has beleaguered our nation throughout its history, with deep rooted harm lasting even unto today. While Nantucket enjoys the relative peace and mutual tolerance and support characteristically found in many small, isolated communities, it is by no means immune and safe from the malady that is rife throughout our society. As the long overdue nationwide protests continue, it is natural to wonder if we can ever possibly learn and grow and heal to overcome this lasting tragedy.

Nantucket’s own history gives a glimmer of hope. Students of the whaling under sail know that the microcosm of the whale ship was a uniquely desegregated bastion in 18^th and 19^th Century America, the sole level deck of community and a revolutionary degree of equal opportunity. Among whaling crews and throughout the supporting shore-bound industries were to be found people from every race, culture and creed found in the maritime world. It was the only forum where whites worked, hand-in-hand alongside, and even under, people of color. It is one of the reasons why antique scrimshaw is so important, the whaleman’s own folk art documenting and portraying life in this uniquely egalitarian pursuit.

19^th Century photograph of crew aboard a whaleship. © 2016 Righteous Roads

Whether it was the generally undesirable nature of the job, or the tolerant doctrines of the Quakers on Nantucket, the whaling industry early-on welcomed all minorities. Whaling was such a grueling, ill paying and low-status job that able bodied seamen sought berths anywhere else, allowing ample opportunity those normally marginalized to get a foot on deck. Once aboard, whaling provided a chance for African, Caribbean, Native American, Asian and Oceanic whalers to earn a comparable wage and gain a measure of respect. Racism certainly still existed aboard ship of course, but men were paid equally depending on the work they did and blacks could gain status as officers or harpooners if they had the necessary skill and dedication.

An examination of whaling crew lists (for example from the New London area) showed that vessels on average sailed with some ten percent men of color, and a total of about 700 men of color as officers or harpooners during the seven decades between 1819 and 1892 (in an industry that peaked locally between 1835 and 1845 with a total of around 2000 men directly employed).¹ In addition, great numbers of minorities also worked in whaling related jobs as coopers, riggers, sailmakers and merchants. The industry brought many immigrants to New England the region as crew members from Hawaii, the Azores, the Cape Verde islands and other locales. In fact, Cape Verdeans whalers are thought to be the first Africans to voluntarily migrate to the United States.

Nantucket Whaling Captain Absalom Boston. Portrait in Collection of the NHA.

Put this in the context of the times when whites and people of color never worked alongside each other, certainly not as peers, and certainly not for an equal wage. Even more astounding is the fact that blacks and other whalers often rose to rank of boatsteerer (harpooner) or mate, where they would be working above white sailors in the crew. There are even of course examples of black whalers rising to command their own vessels. Most famous is the Nantucket whaleman Absalom Boston (1785–1855), a son of emancipated slaves who advanced in the industry to become the very successful captain of the whaleship Industry with an exceptional all black crew. A well-liked and respected man, upon retiring he worked on behalf of Nantucket’s black community and helped to integrate the island’s public schools.

                                                 

Captain Antoine DeSant. Photograph in Collection of Mystic Seaport Museum.

Captain Boston was not alone. Antoine DeSant (ca. 1815-1886)  was born in the Cape Verde Islands and made his way to New London, CT sometime around 1830. He sailed on four whaling voyages as a crew member before the mast aboard the whaleship Tuscarora, and was likely involved in nearly a dozen whaling voyages or more, before becoming an officer on the shipping vessel Portland in 1850. Farther south Barbadian William T. Shorey (1859 – 1919) was another whaleman respected for his skill in harpooning and leadership, who rose to become Third Mate of the Boston whaler Emma F. Herriman, and eventually captain of his own vessel commanding a multi-racial crew. As master of the San Franciscan whaling bark John and Winthrop he became known as “Black Ahab.”

                                                                           

Captain William T. Shorey and family.

Most famous of all was Lewis Temple (1800 – 1854), a former slave from Richmond who moved to New Bedford, became a blacksmith and went on to open his own whaling craft and supply shop, and eventually a harpoon manufacturing plant. Inspired by the native harpoons of Inuit and First Nation whalers he invented the Toggle Iron, a new and improved harpoon which quickly revolutionized the trade and became the new standard harpoon for whaling.

                                                                  

Lewis Temple statue in New Bedford. Photo by National Park Service

Surely the fact that whaling was the last choice for most sailors was an important factor in allowing people of color the opportunity of joining the crews. Then the reality of a small crew of some 30 or so men forced to be solely self-reliant in some of the most remote and inhospitable seas allowed those with talent and drive to prosper and advance irrespective of their race or origin. But there has to be more to it than just the economics of the labor force. After all there were other comparably dismal industries that were similarly the last choice of a desperate worker, where we did not see as equal an opportunity as in whaling.

The very nature of Quaker philosophy must have been equally important. Their steadfast belief in equality, tolerance and compassion provided the perfect setting for equal opportunity. It clearly was not just profit driven, for where was the monetary gain in their drive behind the Underground Railroad, or their early support for Woman’s Suffrage? Embracing the virtues of equality, tolerance and compassion…perhaps it is possible to learn and grow, to heal and overcome this lasting tragedy.

Springtime Musings on Nantucket.

This has of been a very strange and trying time for us on an off-shore island, as it has been for everyone else throughout the world. Like you, we try to stay safe and look out for our neighbors, and soldier on as best we can to live as normally as possible. The off-season is always a very busy time of year for us. It is the time when we can enjoy life on Nantucket to its fullest, we also take the opportunity to catch up on the endless projects that are part and parcel of the antiques trade: hunting and foraging, restorations, research, and reams of paperwork! Some paperwork is dull and laborious and just needs to be done. Other paperwork, namely creative writing, is much harder work, but much, much more fun and rewording.

I have been writing fiction and non-fiction pieces for many years. Certainly when I was still working in evolutionary biology I seemed to be writing one paper after another (there is a massive monograph on The Biological Effects of Sea Ice in the library of the Institute of Marine Science of the University of Alaska at Fairbanks). And there was one winter on Nantucket that I supported myself just by freelance writing. For the last several years I have been writing a series of Antiques Snippets and biographical features for Nantucket’s own Yesterday’s Island, and this year started writing topical articles for the Nantucket Historical Association’s publication Historic Nantucket, their online Nantucket University, and their periodic newsletters. It has been great fun, and very satisfying, although it does feel odd having to race against a deadline once again.

On this Memorial Day Weekend, we thought you might be missing Nantucket and would enjoy a little inside peak. So this week we are sharing an article written for the 50th Anniversary of Yesterday’s Island beginning publication on Nantucket. The paper is published by the Daubs family, some of the very first people I met when I first came to the island in the late 1970s. Stepping back for a glimpse of what it was like living and growing up on Nantucket in 1970, I went for a chat with my friend Harvey Young. You can read the article by clicking on the link here.

Harvey and Robert Young cruising Nantucket in the 70s… that’s the 1970s although the Penny-Farthing Bicycles are from the 1870s. Photo courtesy of NHA.

Thrifty New Englanders: Yesterday’s Rag Becomes Tomorrow’s Magic Carpet.

Thrifty New Englanders: Yesterday’s Rag Becomes Tomorrow’s Magic Carpet.

Hooked rugs might be the all-time best example of thrifty Yankees getting the last gasp out of something… and with style! Rural folk admired the machine loomed carpets that became popular after the 1830s, but couldn’t afford such luxuries. So women along the seaboard of New England and the Canadian Maritimes created their own crafty alternatives by taking bits of rags and left-over scraps of fabric, and pulling them on a pattern through a coarse backing like jute or burlap. Yarn, even in short lengths, was much too valuable to waste, so women used any bit of fabric too worn or unsuitable for clothing, and free grain or seed sacks for the backing.

The first hooked rugs were actually used as blankets and bed coverings, inspired by the heavy “bed rugs” from the previous century. They evolved not just as practical floor coverings, but also became colorful, artful designs that ranged from the abstract or geometric, to figural or scenic displays. Each rug hooker devised their own patterns, and a folk art was born.

Vintage Hooked Rug of Porpoises or Beaked Whales, circa 1930.

As hooked rugs became increasing popular, the variety became more stylized. Edward Sands Frost, an enterprising peddler from Biddeford, Maine, began selling his own stenciled rug designs in the 1860s; he eventually had a repertoire of around 750 patterns (now in the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village) which included flowers, wild and domestic animals, and adaptations from Oriental carpets. As in most crafts, rug hookers were influenced by each other, and regional characteristic or styles developed. Today’s collector highly prizes unique patterns and naïve “outsider” charm.

Vintage Starburst or Moravian Star Hooked Rug, circa 1920.

Rug hooking became so popular that Montgomery Ward and Sears Roebuck began selling their own kits. By the beginning of the 20^th Century hooked rug patterns and supplies were abundant and cheap… and unfortunately ever more cheap in quality and deplorable in design. Rug hooking fell out of favor.

Inspired by the general Arts and Crafts movement, many cottage industries started up to counter what was seen as bad designs made cheaply. Companies such as Abanakee Rugs of New Hampshire and , the Subbekashe Rug Industry in Belchertown, MA sought to supply a better made and designed rug to a growing middle class, and at the same time provide work for those in need. Best known of all were the Grenfell Mission Industries, providing crucial support and opportunity in Newfoundland and Labrador since 1893.  The iconic Grenfell Hooked Rugs were made first with cotton flannelette and later (in the 1930s and 40s) with collected and dyed silk and rayon hosiery. The fine tight texture, and distinctive style and subject matter, make Grenfells among the most sought after antique and vintage hooked rugs.

Grenfell Missions Hooked Rug of Flying Ducks, circa 1930.

Antique hooked rugs remain very popular today, with both the traditional collector as well as the modern decorator. Since they range from the boldly abstract, to the naively quirky, and to the elaborately fancy, there is a hooked rug to grace any room, whether underfoot or on the wall. The hooked rugs illustrated here, and others, are available at the Antiques Depot.

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Third Annual Writing Contest with an Antiques Twist… Now for Adults Too!

Posted on June 14, 2013

The Antiques Depot is once again hosting its short story writing competition as a part of the Nantucket Book Festival. We have been encouraging young people and teens to develop their creative and literary talents, all while exploring the world of rare and special antiques. This year, by popular demand, we have expanded the contest to include a section for adults as well.

Contest Now for Adults Too!!!

 

Contestants are invited to come into the Antiques Depot on Nantucket, and explore the wide variety of treasures from our past on display, to find that one piece that sparks their imagination (no purchase necessary). They may be amazed to learn that antiques aren’t just that fragile china dog on their granny’s mantle… they may find harpoons and relics from old ships, tribal pieces made by American Indians or Pacific Islanders, mysterious objects from the Orient or ancient Egypt, or rare artifacts from age of the Pilgrims or the Revolutionary War!

After asking whatever questions they wish about the object’s identity and history to get started, they can have fun researching and exploring their chosen piece at the library and the many island museums, and then put their new found knowledge and imagination to work by writing a story about their object. The author can write a fictional “biography” that follows their object through the various imagined hands that have owned it over the years since it was made, perhaps exploring some of the ways it had been used. The author may choose to write an exciting story that takes place sometime in the past, where the chosen object plays an important role.

All of the authors are encouraged to think of their object as a real character in their story and address when it was made, where it was from, what was its purpose, what was its life like, what did it witness? The contest is an opportunity to learn about our culture and get a better feel for Nantucket’s past, all while having fun with a creative project. The Antiques Depot is hoping the young authors in particular will discover that exploring antiques will inspire a lasting appreciation of history and heritage.

The story writing contest will launch during the Nantucket Book Festival… stop by and visit our table at the author’s tent in the Atheneum garden on Saturday, June 21 from 10:00 to 4:00. The contest is open to everyone, and the authors will be divided into a groups aged 8 and under, 9 to 12, 13 to 16, and adult. The stories will be judged on the accuracy of information related, creativity and of course writing skill. The stories may be hand-written or printed, may be delivered either in person, by post, or by email, and must be submitted by August 16.

The winners may pick their choice of grand prize from among a Kobo ereader (generously donated by the Nantucket Bookworks), a vintage hand-crafted Ship-in-a-Bottle, a selection of classic Nantucket books (generously donated by the Egan Maritime Foundation), or a gift certificate to the Antiques Depot.

The winning stories will be published in the Antiques Depot Blog, and will also be submitted to the Chamber of Commerce website, the Inquirer & Mirror, Yesterday’s Island, and the Nantucket Chronicle.

Best of luck and we look forward to reading your entries!

The Antiques Depot is located at 14 Easy Street and is open 7 days a week from 10 am to 4 pm. Inquiries are welcome at 508-228-1287, and at info@nantucketantiquesdepot.com. Follow us on facebook and twitter by going to our website at www.nantucketantiquesdepot.com

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Visit www.nantucketchronicle.com/ , your free online resource for everything Nantucket. By Nantucketers, for Nantucketers.

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Once in a Lifetime Irish Silver Collection… and Opportunity.

The Republic of Ireland is in desperate need of a philanthropic angel to preserve an immensely important part of its history and cultural heritage.

The National Museum of Ireland currently has on exhibit a phenomenal collection of 107 choice pieces of Irish silver spanning the history of sterling craftsmanship on the Emerald Isle. On temporary loan from a private collection in Dublin, the exhibit details the evolution of style in silver wares from the dawn of the craft in the early 17^th Century, to the Baroque and Rococo schools of the early 18^th Century, through the Georgian period of the 18^th to early 19^th Centuries, to the Classical and Neo-Classical movements of the Regency, and Revival Periods of the 19^th Century. The collection documents the work of Ireland’s most important silversmiths, and illustrates the many uses of silver in their historic social and economic contexts.

Earliest known Cork silver teapot, by Thomas Lilly, 1723. Part of the silver collection on exhibit at the National Museum of Ireland, in desperate need of a sponsor by the end of February.

With the benefit of this collection, the Museum of Decorative Arts at the Collins Barracks in Dublin curates the premier collection of Irish Silver in the world, surpassing even that of the venerable Victoria and Albert Museum in London. As it should. But unfortunately, not for much longer.

The loan of this seminal private collection expires at the end of February, at which point it will be broken up and sold. The dispersal of this magnificent assembly will be a terrible loss for the Republic of Ireland, for the preservation and recognition of Irish culture, and for antique silver scholars, curators and collectors. This is a rare and wonderful opportunity for a philanthropist (or consortium of generous Irish Americans) to step forward and purchase the collection intact, and donate it to the National Museum. The lot is valued at approximately $2.4m, and can be viewed on the website of the Dublin and London silver dealers L and W Duvallier at antiqueirishsilver.com. What an amazing act of benevolence… and what an amazing tax deduction!

Pair of Cork silver Rococo salvers by George Hodder, circa 1745.

Antique Irish silver is among the finest in history, at the pinnacle of the silversmith’s art. Irish decorative arts benefited tremendously from the prevailing state of an exceptionally wealthy landed aristocracy, occupying a land with a fortuitously talented (and often very well educated) but impoverished population, thus yielding demand and wherewithal on the one hand, and ability and low wages on the other. Irish craftsmanship in the 18^th and 19^th Centuries was superb and arguably unsurpassed, as we see in the carved Chippendale furniture and the brilliant glassware and crystal of the period. Silversmiths were fewer in Dublin than in England or America, so their output was much smaller, and consequently today is much rarer and more valuable. The Irish provincial work from Cork, Galway, Limerick or Kinsale is much rarer still, and consequently even more dear.

A Cork silver toasting cup by John Warner, circa 1775.

Identifiable Irish silver dates back to the royal charter of the Company of Goldsmiths of Dublin in 1637. The earliest Irish silver was plain but well-fashioned, characterized by heavy gauge and relatively simple forms. Silver was originally used mostly in church wares (such as chalices, communion cups and plates, etc.), and did not appear in domestic household use until the end of the 17^th Century when we begin to see candle sticks and two-handled cups. Huguenot silversmiths fleeing France after 1685 brought new ideas and refinement, preparing Irish silver to flourish in the approaching age of elegance.

Heavy pair of Dublin silver Candlesticks by Isaac Dolier, 1750.

Irish silversmiths embraced, even led, the exuberant aesthetic of the mid-18^th Century Rococo style.  New lifestyles demanded new accoutrements, and domestic silver soon included tea and coffee pots, jugs, spoons and serving utensils, salvers, caddies, tureens, tankards and mugs. As the century passed and empires churned, they became masters of the refined Neo-Classical movement, before coming into their own with the socio-politically important Celtic Revival.

A Dublin silver baluster- shaped tankard by Joseph Jackson, 1775.

Irish silver developed outside of the close control of the English guilds, and so explored more freedom in their designs. Their spirit of independence seems to align them closer to American artists in style, than their British contemporaries. Their work is grander, ornate yet symmetrical, bold yet gracious. A connoisseur can, in fact, discern Irish from English silver from its style and design, before examining the hallmarks. Their work attained a quality and elegance which has never been surpassed. Their legacy remains a high point in the realm of antiques.

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All silver items illustrated are part of the collection on exhibit at The National Museum of Ireland, and can be viewed on the website of the Dublin and London silver dealers L and W Duvallier at antiqueirishsilver.com.

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If you enjoyed reading this blog and all things antique, please visit our shop at 14 Easy Street on Nantucket Island (508-228-1287) and our website http://www.nantucketantiquesdepot.com/ ____________________________________________________________

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The Remarkable ‘Time Capsule’ Apartment of Madame de Florian.

The Remarkable ‘Time Capsule’ Apartment of Madame de Florian.

Every once in an increasingly great while you chance upon a circumstance which puts a smile on your face and warms your very cockles. My day was certainly brightened when this story broke in 2010 about a forgotten pre-war apartment discovered untouched in Paris.

The apartment of Madame Marthe de Florian in the 9th Arondissement of Paris

Imagine an affluent lady, an actress and demimondaine, living in a Grand Boulevard apartment near the old Opera House in Paris during the early years of the last century. A child of La belle Epoch, her home is a treasure trove, busy with fine furniture, artwork and

The eclectic taste of Madame de Florian: 18th Century furniture, 19th Century taxidermy, 20th Century art, and a pre-war Mickey.

decorative furnishings. Her many admirers have been generous. She has an eye for quality and the wherewithal to indulge her taste. She lives with exquisite antiques spanning ages of French history, as well as select works informed by the latest artistic movements. Her apartment reflects the full and hectic life of an actress and a socialite during a golden age.

Abruptly, her life was interrupted as France, Europe, the whole world was torn by the madness of World War II. As the Nazi occupation engulfed Paris, Madame de Florian fled to the relative safety of the South of France. She left her apartment as it was, en dishabille, with even a collection of love letters neatly bundled with a blue ribbon. She simply turned the key in her apartment door and escaped to the distant countryside. But unlike all of her peers, when the war ended and the menace was gone, she did not return. Perhaps her sensitive artistic soul could not bear to revisit the scene of earlier horrors. Perhaps she dreaded the ruin and change wrought in her beloved Paris. Whatever her reason, she remained in the South and never returned to her apartment. But she continued to pay the rent for the rest of her life, and so none else ever returned to her apartment either… for over 70 years!

Portrait of Madame Marthe de Florian by Giovanni Boldini, circa 1898; previously unknown, found in the apartment and subsequently solds for $3.4 million.

When she passed away at the age of 91, her heirs discovered that she owned this lease in Paris.  Can you imagine setting foot in a home where no one has trod for a lifetime? Think of the thrill to experience what has been untouched and undisturbed for generations? The first person to enter after all those years described a ‘smell of old dust’… and then started to notice the treasures. They said they felt as if they had slipped into the private chambers of Sleeping Beauty. Madame de Florian’s home, with the exception of one painting, remains undusted and untouched to this day.

An amazing situation, but not unique. Many people have enjoyed, or at least know of family summer homes that have changed little over the years. I was lucky as a child to spend time in the summers at an Adirondack period cottage on a lake in Maine, still pristine with hand-pumped water from the well, outdoor privy in the woodshed, and minimal electricity just encroaching on the oil lamps. The craftsman’s architectural style was beautiful and comforting, with clean wainscoting, built-in corner cabinets, semi-open staircase, and exposed beams. My grandfather’s room had a pine wash stand with pitcher of water and basin, and the chamber pot in the cubby below. I still love all those kitchen gadgets and ware: the wire baskets, racks and skewers for cooking on wood fires, stoneware, and lovingly dinged enameled tinware. The built-in cabinets held a mystery of toys and games from a much earlier time. We ate, worked and relaxed on the wide screened porch with wicker and rockers, plank tables and benches.

Antique lakefront cottage in Maine.

I have been very lucky on Nantucket to have been welcomed over the years into many homes that were truly time capsules, barely touched by the passing of time. I am still moved by an historic home in the center of town, where the clock stopped at the turn of the century. The furniture remains in their exact spots, the art original, the knickknacks and personal mementos are those of the former owner, the very books on the bedside shelf are those chosen and placed there nearly a hundred years ago! The house is a home, yet also a shrine. In a different house, with different people and a different history, this could verge on the creepy. In this case however, it is more akin to a brilliant installation, a tableau vivant.

Along upper Main Street on Nantucket: one never knows what waits behind those walls.

There is another house, a Main Street dowager, where the furnishings have remained intact through generations of the same family for over 200 years. One sits in the same chair, at the same table on the same hand knotted carpet as did the Captain when he returned from whaling voyages before America won its independence. One looks about at the paintings and porcelains chosen and cherished by the first generation. The closets and attic hold all the family correspondence, hand written copies of letters sent, bills and invoices, complete and intact dating back from the first settlers. A nod to modern change and progress: the cabled bells to summon a particular servant from their attic quarters.

The beauty and thrill of these ‘time capsules’ is not just the great collections of period antiques. It is not just a matter of being amazed at the rare circumstance. It is more the breathless wonder of stepping physically into the past. You are not a spectator viewing antiques in a museum. You are a privileged guest, alive and well in the distant past, able this once to see and feel how life was lived. This rare trick of fate brings you into the reality of the past, rather than just imagining history as one tries through books, films and museums. It is the beauty and magic of antiques.

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The photographs of the de Forian apartment have been published widely on the web: sources include Drouot Auctions, Urban Archeology, Home and Garden, Inspirationsdeco, and the Huffington Post.

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Christmas in Ireland: The Christmas Panto!

Christmas in Ireland: The Christmas Panto.

I admit it: I look forward to the annual Christmas Pantomime every year. I had heard about them in old Christmas books, but of course had never been to one. We just don’t have these in the States. When I first came over to Ireland for Christmas , I was thrilled to hear that there were not one, but two different pantomimes held in Cork during December and January. Brilliant! At last!  I was psyched to go, but then was told “No way! The Pantos are for children. An adult can’t go… everyone would think you were a nutter!”  I was crushed.

“Alice in Wonderland” at the Cork Opera House last year.

Determined to see this Christmas tradition, it didn’t take me long to figure out I could invite my young niece and nephew. I could get to see my panto by using little Jack and Orla as camouflage! Twenty years later I still go to the panto every year. We pretend we’re taking the young ones, our Christmas present to our nieces and nephew (now four of them), but we all know they’re really chaperoning me.

The annual Christmas Pantomime is a hugely popular, eagerly attended part of the Christmas season throughout Ireland and the UK.  The Panto is a deliberately campy, over-the-top  stageshow that incorporates ham acting, singing and dancing, corny humor, men in drag, audience participation, topical references, and double entendres…  all aimed for children… but not-so-secretely loved by adults.  Picture a children’s theatre, crossed with a vaudeville music hall, the Rocky Horror Picture Show, MTV, and a touch of Jim Henson. A slice of old fashioned entertainment!

Traditional Harlequin and Columbine.

What are pantos? How did they begin? The Pantomime (which today  luckily has Nothing to do with Mime) is descended from the Harlequin and Columbina plays of the Commedia dell’arte dating back as far as the 16th Century. Simple sketch plays featuring stock characters depicting typical types of people, with bawdy humor, improvisation, and props: kind of a Punch & Judy Show with live actors.

London theatres in the 18th Century carried on this tradition, first as silent performances with only dancing and gestures (thus “pantomime”). Following nicely in the footsteps laid by the Medieval Mummer’s Plays associated especially with Twelfth Night, the Pantomimes quickly became a popular entertainment during the Christmas season. By the mid 19th Century the shows became more elaborate, with witty and topical dialogue, slapstick, and often spectacular and elaborate theatrical effects. The plots evolved from simple skits to a small repertoire based on nursery rhymes and folk tales. We’re talking twisted fairy tales here, with little resemblance and very little regard for the original tales.

Antique poster for a Christmas Pantomime.

There is usually little or no reference to Christmas; the basic subject is adopted from a children’s story such as from Cinderella, Aladdin, Jack & the Bean Stalk, Snow White or other such chestnut, and freely borrows characters and features from other tales, or invents wholly new bits you’ve never heard of nor dreamt. It is assumed that the audience is so familiar with the original story that there is little effort to develop the plot which is instead adapted for comic or satirical effect.*

Hurry! The curtain rises in five minutes! Cork opera House 2013.

The curtain rises. Enter the hero: “Hello boys and girls! I said HELLO BOYS AND GIRLS!!!”  and repeated yet again until the audience responds loud enough.

The mad performance follows a stereotyped routine with a love triangle that includes the hero and heroine, a comic lead played by a man in drag (the Panto Dame), an evil menace, a friendly godmother sort, and a lowly servant or other character who befriends the audience, is menaced by the villain and is besotted with the heroine. Every production includes a scary scene of dark menace, and a slapstick grand chase. And then there’s the famous banter with the audience. The Dame “recognizes” people in the audience:

“Is that Mary? Mary dear, you’re looking wonderful! In this light ye can’t tell you had Botox at all!”

And the audience does indeed participate, with the enthusiasm you would expect of children at Christmas. Not just booing and hissing the villain, or sympathizing “Ahhhhh” with the lowly friend. The cast will prompt the audience, but It’s just a formality… everyone knows the score.  The packed theatre will warn the hero (“Look behind you!”), and argue with the villain (“Oh no they don’t!” “Oh yes they do!” Oh no they don’t!”) You get the idea.

The brilliant cast of this year’s panto at the Cork Opera House.

I suspect most of the audience is there for the song and dance (including the dreaded audience participation bit at the end). The best of the panto for me is the topical humor. Beyond the winks and nods at pop culture, hit songs and celebrities, there are plenty of razor barbs aimed at politics and current events, and naughty double entendres galore. Clever and witty, these bits are played for the adults in the house, but still enjoyed by the children on their own level.

After all these years I’d hate to think of celebrating Christmas without this tradition. The first niece we took, Orla, is now an adult close to setting off for college; nephew Jack… well he’s as tall as the beanstalk, and little Amy and Rachel are growing as fast as they can. They all grow up too fast, and soon I fear will probably be too old for this tradition. On the other hand, so far even Orla still loves going to the Panto with us, and we’ve just gained a new nephew less than a year old… I think my Christmas celebrations are safe for years to come!

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A Festival of Christmas Trees.

A Festival of Christmas Trees.

Christmas! That most wonderful time of year! The holidays start early here on Nantucket Island, with our annual Christmas stroll celebrated on the first weekend of December. To get us all in the mood, and start the season off with the right festive bang, we have the Nantucket Historical Association’s magical Festival of Trees. Now in its 20^th year, the Festival presents over 90 Christmas trees designed and decorated by a wide variety of people and organizations from our community, nestled and overflowing throughout our historic Whaling Museum. Holiday magic indeed!

The Antiques Depot’s “Magic of Christmas”, NHA Festival of Trees 2009.

I am completely crazy about Christmas Trees (it’s a German thing), so of course I am a huge fan of this festival … in fact my wife and I Chaired the event for the last two years and remain on the committee. The Antiques Depot has been putting up a tree in the museum for about ten years now, each one telling a specific tale. Of course Christmas trees weren’t always this expansive… not even in my family where we used to put up seven different trees… and more decorated outside!

Christmas trees began rather simply, as far as we can tell, long before Christmas itself. No one appreciates nature and greenery like the pagans: the ancient Romans used evergreen boughs to decorate their temples during the feast of Saturnalia; the druids worshiped under oak trees and favored mistletoe; and the Germanic tribes and Scandinavians brought pine and fir branches and trees into their homes for a little life during the winter solstice.

The Antiques Depot at Christmas Time.

During the Middle Ages clergymen, and later traveling bands of minstrels, performed Mystery or Miracle Plays to illustrate simple tales from the Bible: those telling about Adam and Eve, their fall from grace, and the promise of a coming savior became associated with Advent. In Germany and France these plays often employed a Paradise Tree decorated with apples, and perhaps holy wafers. In fact the first documented use of a tree at Christmas and New Year celebrations was around 1510 in the far northern Germanic territory around Riga or Tallinn. This was most likely a Paradise Tree rather than a proper Christmas Tree, and after a ceremony it was burnt (like a forerunner of a Yule Log). By the end of the century Germans were parading a festive tree through the streets, often followed by a man on horseback dressed a bishop… good old St. Nicholas we presume.

Steel engraving of Martin Luther’s Christmas Tree, from Sartain’s Magazine, circa 1860

The first proper Christmas Tree, where a fir was brought inside a house and lit with candles, we attribute to Martin Luther in the mid 16th Century, who was said to have likened the tree to the heavenly sky from whence the Christ Child came down to earth on Christmas Eve. Germans love a party, and Luther’s simple tree soon came to be decorated with gold covered apples, sugared plums, cherries and pears, nuts, dates, pretzels, paper flowers, gingerbread figures and dough fashioned into the likeness of various animals. Atop the early trees were at first a Christ Child, and in time the angel which brought forth good tidings, or the star which led the Wise men. And once the glass makers got involved, we were well and truly off and running!

Woodblock Engraving of “The Christmas Tree” by Winslow Homer, from Harper’s Weekly, 1858.

Christmas trees (even Christmas in general) had a rough time taking route in America. The Protestant establishment throughout the colonies had a grim view of Christmas, and the Puritans banned the holiday outright in New England. Hessian soldiers are believed to have celebrated with Christmas trees during the American Revolutionary War, and certainly German immigrants brought the custom with them to Pennsylvania, Ohio, and wherever else they settled. But the custom spread slowly. Even by the mid 19th Century America still wasn’t in the Christmas spirit: schools stayed open on Christmas Day, and ministers wouldn’t allow any such “pagan” trappings within their churches.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s Christmas Tree.

The Christmas Tree didn’t become popular in Great Britain until Queen Victoria’s German husband Prince Albert decorated a Christmas Tree in Windsor Castle.A drawing of the event published in the Illustrated London News in 1848, and republished in Godey’s Lady’s Book in 1850 (with the Queen’s crown and the Prince’s mustache removed to appear more “American”) went a long way in popularizing Christmas Trees in both the UK and the US. When a generous dash of Dickens was added to the punch… well, Christmas was here to stay.

Christmas Trees are now every-where, even in households that don’t celebrate Christmas.  Artificial trees have come to rival natural trees in popularity and over the last century their ornamentation has continued to evolve, reflecting the times in which they live. And there is perhaps no better place to see this in all its wonder and glory, than in the Festival of Trees on Nantucket.

The Night After Christmas (Festival of Trees 2010)

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