Whalebone chair

Date1920s - 1930s

Object number00016939

NameChair

MediumWhale vertebra, pine, plywood, iron

DimensionsOverall: 710 x 325 mm

ClassificationsTableware and furnishings

Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Ian Rumsey

Terms

DescriptionRustic chair featuring a whale vertebra as a seat. A pine and plywood ladder-back that was part of another chair has been attached, with four pine legs. The large bones of whales have often been made into novelty objects. This chair would never have been strong or comfortable. It was probably made sixty years ago, with an old chair and a beach-cast bone.HistoryWhaling played an essential part in 19th century life. Industry and households depended on whale products for which there was no substitute. Whale oil was used for lighting and lubrication until 1860 when kerosene and petroleum started to gain popularity. The pure clean oil from sperm whales was a superior source of lighting and the finest candles were made from the whale's wax-like spermaceti. Light and flexible, baleen - the bristle-fringed plates found in the jaws of baleen whales - had many uses in objects which today would be made out of plastic. Chairs made from whale vertebra, presumably as novelties, are now rare, but may have been common last century around whaling stations. According to scrimshaw specialist Janet West, early settlers salvaged all sorts of whalebones to make ingenious rustic chairs. In Tasmania, Lady Franklin had garden seats made from bleached whalebones lying around. It seems apparent that artefacts from the larger parts of whales were made because of a fascination with the huge size of whales, rather than because the bones were functional utilitarian materials. The same desire for novelty appears in the walking sticks that were made from shark’s vertebrae, and in other items such as paintings on whales' eardrums. Overall, objects of this sort are quite stark evidence of the way in which whales and other large or frightening marine creatures were seen as curiosities. Objects like this, although many people might find them repugnant or pathetic, they appeal to the imagination. Many facets of the relationship between humans and animals come to mind in contemplation of them. This chair, with its clumsy makeshift look and awkward proportions, seems to subject the whale who owned the vertebra to great indignity. SignificanceThis rustic chair is quite unique and higlights the varied and interesting products made out of whalebone, either found on the beach or hunted, during the 19th and 20th centuries.