#51 "Love", Artist Ernst Oslender

Title: "Love" (zoom in to see the word LOVE)

Medium: Scrimshaw on an ivory piano key

Approximate Size: 10"h 11"w

Framed

Ernst E. Oslender

Ernst E. Oslender is known worldwide as the Scrimshaw artist of genuine Canadian scenes. His designs are entirely engraved by hand on recycled piano ivory, utilizing rejects and leftovers from a company in Solingen, Germany, which prior to 1935 manufactured cutlery handles and piano keys.

Scrimshaw is a technique of engraving on bone and subsequently filling the grooves with India ink. It dates back over two thousand years and was a medium of folk art during the whaling era.