#63 • Monumental Billy "Billiken" Komoneseok Scrimshaw Walrus Tusk Cribbage Board

Part of June 2026 Premier Auction (live auction by Alaska Premier Auctions & Appraisals)

High bid $7,500.00

Status: Sold

Category: Ethnographic Objects

A monumental, historically important, and exceptionally detailed scrimshawed walrus tusk cribbage board attributed to celebrated Nome-region Inupiaq artist Billy "Billiken" Komoneseok (1884-1943), among the most accomplished Native ivory engravers working during the opening decades of the twentieth century. Comparable examples by Komoneseok are preserved in the collections of the New Bedford Whaling Museum and the University of Alaska Museum of the North. Measuring more than thirty inches in length, the present tusk ranks among the largest and most ambitious cribbage boards known from the period. Executed in black India ink, the upper surface combines an elongated pegging track with vividly observed scenes of Arctic life. A kayaker approaches a pair of walruses hauled out upon the ice while a ribbon seal watches from the water, the surrounding field animated by bears and additional marine life rendered with remarkable economy and confidence. The broad end conceals a rotating ivory door providing storage for playing pegs, an ingenious feature integrated seamlessly into the composition. The reverse presents an expansive narrative panorama illustrating daily life in the North. Beginning with a figure seated beside an igloo, the scene unfolds across the tusk with hunters carrying seals, another leading a caribou-drawn sled, and finally a musher accompanied by a team of dogs racing toward the narrow tip. The imagery possesses a documentary quality characteristic of Komoneseok's finest work, transforming a gaming object into a visual record of subsistence, travel, and community life. Komoneseok's surviving works are prized for their sophisticated compositions and unusually refined engraving. The scale, complexity, and narrative richness of the present example place it among the most impressive scrimshawed cribbage boards encountered from the Nome Gold Rush era. The wide end contains a concealed peg compartment with rotating ivory cover, while a small ivory foot remains affixed beneath for leveling. No playing pegs are present. Measures approximately 31.5" long x 3" wide x 2" high.