Accession Number

1986.008.2274

Creation Date

circa 1700

Exhibition Label

An elephant’s tusk from the 1700 slave ship Henrietta Marie represents another aspect of the colonial-era African Trade, the trade in ivory. Tusks were frequently carried by slavers as a secondary cargo, in addition to the primary cargo of captive African people. The ivory was sold to make things like jewelry, combs, billiard balls, and decorative inlays. This particular example, at 42 centimeters long, is small, and such small tusks were known in the trade as “scrivelloes.” Six intact elephant tusks have been recovered from the Henrietta Marie site, all scrivelloes. These tusks have maintained their general shape and are quite recognizable, but their surfaces are pitted and discolored from their long underwater immersion.