Amazing Alaskan Inuit Scrimshawed Creature with Tiny Legs (and Some Losses) jardiniere and this is an especially

and this is an especially lovely one

Executed in black ink and watercolor on rag type paper that itself has some age

clear and clean and not brittle in the least

following its popularity first in Paris after the reopening of trade of Japan in 1858

and tassels to the left

Amazing Alaskan Inuit Scrimshawed Creature with Tiny Legs (and Some Losses) jardiniere and this is an especiallyThis incredible carving shows some damage missing part of the tail (hard to know how long it once was), one inlaid eye (carved of baleen I believe) and with what I believe is a glued repair to the trunk about midway down, and perhaps something once extended from the mouth as well as the surface is rough there but what a fantastic creature nonetheless. What sort of creature I am not sure and have not found another quote like it; perhaps a mythological