Whale Tooth Scrimshaw. American, ca. 1860. The scrimshawed scene on one side is a sailor playing cards with two skeletons, with Death lurking in the background; the verso shows a skull with bat wings, a recurring motif in eighteenth century headstone art both in Scotland and Talbot County, Maryland. The Scrimshaw Forensics Group of the New Bedford (Mass.) Whaling Museum has examined the piece and concluded it is an American whaleman’s scrimshaw from the mid- to late nineteenth century.