Scrimshaw Whale Tooth, ca. 1850
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APPRAISER:
You threw a heavy sock at me.
GUEST:
I did throw a sock at you.
APPRAISER:
And what do we have that came out?
GUEST:
It's a whale's tooth. It was a piece of our family history, my husband's family history. Either his great-grandfather or great-great-grandfather did a favor for the original artist. He was a whaler, and he gave that to him in appreciation for it.
APPRAISER:
We see a lot of whale's teeth or supposed whale's teeth at the folk art table, and the minute this thing popped out of the sock, I knew that it was right, it's a real whale's tooth. This is probably from the mid 19th century, 1840s, 1850s. It's got a whaling scene on one side…
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
…With the boats, and then on the other side, it gets a little juicier. We have a battle scene with an American ship and a British ship, and one sinking. So have you ever had this appraised, or…?
GUEST:
No, we took it to a person, told us $500, he'd buy it from me, and I refused.
APPRAISER:
In a good auction, that would probably bring $6,000 to $8,000.
GUEST:
Wow! Dang, thank you!
Appraisal Details
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Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."
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