Eskimo/Inuit Scrimshaw Ivory Cribbage Board

ca. 1920

2.25" H x 12.3125" L x 1.75" W

Hand Made from Ivory in the Shape of a Fish with  a Cribbage Board Carved on His Back

In Good Condition and has a Broken Tail and a Loose Peg

Scrimshaw walrus ivory cribbage boards are traditional functional art objects, typically carved from walrus tusks (or sections of them) by Inuit/Alaska Native (often Iñupiaq or Yup’ik) artists, especially from areas like Nome, the Bering Strait, St. Lawrence Island, or Kotzebue. They feature drilled rows of holes for cribbage scoring pegs and are decorated with scrimshaw (incised/engraved designs, usually inked or pigment-filled) and sometimes carved figures.