Amazing Alaskan Inuit Scrimshawed Creature with Tiny Legs (and Some Losses) antique treen spice box which is wonderfully strange

which is wonderfully strange

with a detailed udder underneath

This guy sure seems to me as if he always existed-- as if he just washed up on the shore one day fully (or almost fully) formed

and super useful as a trivet on the dinner table or just for a cup of tea

square shoulders

Amazing Alaskan Inuit Scrimshawed Creature with Tiny Legs (and Some Losses) antique treen spice box which is wonderfully strangeThis incredible carving shows some damage missing part of the tail (hard to know how long it once was), one inlaid eye (carved of baleen I believe) and with what I believe is a glued repair to the trunk about midway down, and perhaps something once extended from the mouth as well as the surface is rough there but what a fantastic creature nonetheless. What sort of creature I am not sure and have not found another quote like it; perhaps a mythological