By ERIC C. RODENBERG
AntiqueWeek Associate Editor

As Roman gods go, Neptune often is portrayed as capricious, ill tempered and vengeful. As the son of the titan Saturn and his wife Rhea, Neptune along with brothers Jupiter and Pluto overthrew their father’s rule and established their own rule of the gods.

As reward for his service, Neptune received control of all the world’s waterways, which he oversaw from a castle at the bottom of the sea. He is often depicted carrying a trident in his hand, surrounded by sea nymphs, who attend him.

From his castle at the bottom of the sea, Neptune was given to operating in deepening darkness, often obscuring his plots. He was a god who didn’t give up his secrets easy.

And, that’s exactly what treasure hunter Marshall Barkman of Greencastle, Pa., is discovering as he enters his own mortal struggle with unveiling the god of the sea. Or at least, the artist behind Neptune.

It began not long ago when Barkman acquired a 24-inch walrus tusk, artfully embellished by a scrimshander with a portrait of Neptune on one side, and what appears to be a Man of War ship on the opposite side. There are other carvings of note, particularly an extraordinary eagle’s head. It may be one of the most skillful works to have surfaced, according to experts.

The Neptune piece is very similar to the scrimshaw work performed on a 6 1/2-inch whale tooth – right down to the banner, exclaiming “King of the Sea” – that sold at Eldred’s auction house in East Dennis, Mass., in 2005. On the reverse of that whale tooth, there was a full-figure engraving of the famous female pirate, “Alwilda” with sabre. That piece of art sold for $11,775, including the buyer’s premium.

There have been a few other Neptune whale teeth to surface, one of which is portrayed in the seminal book Scrimshaw and Scrimshanders, written by E. Norman Flayderman in 1972.

However, the Neptune artist has never been identified.

The difference between an ivory whale tooth and a walrus tusk scrimshaw is significant.

The tooth from a sperm whale can measure up to 7 inches, and is usually blunt and sharply curved; whereas, the much more prized walrus tusk can measure up to 24 inches, giving the scrimshander a greater playing field to display his art.

One other known Neptune tusk is thought to have been discovered in California, according to Barkman.

“For an artist of this caliber to have not been identified is unreal,” Barkman said. “Here we are in 2011 and we have an artist working back to perhaps 1840, and we don’t even know his name.”

Soon after he acquired the piece, Barkman took the tusk to the New Bedford Whaling Museum in New Bedford, Mass.

There, he sat at a board table with curator Stuart M. Frank and 12 other leading scrimshaw experts. They agreed that the tusk appeared to be authentic, and dated from the mid-19th century, Barkman said.

“We had 12 of the foremost experts assembled, and not one of them said they had ever handled a Neptune tusk,” Barkman said. “The museum is internationally noted as having the finest selection of scrimshaw work, and they did not own a Neptune tusk.

“The consensus of the top scrimshanders at this meeting was that the eagle head is without a doubt the finest carved eagle head they have seen on a tusk … I think we owe to ourselves to find out who this artist was.”

Barkman bought the tusk from the family of Naval Captain Bladen Dulany Claggett, a highly decorated World War II submarine captain.

During World War II, Claggett (1912-2009) was awarded the Navy Cross, and two Silver Stars while serving as a ship commander in World War II. The Claggett family, according to Barkman’s research, has a long history in U.S. naval affairs.

Barkman maintains his tusk is the only one in which the Roman god shares the surface strictly with naval scenes and nothing else. He is of the opinion that the shrimshander may have carved it at the behest of one of the Claggett family members, and that it may relate back to as far as the War of 1812.
To bolster his instincts on Neptune’s origins, Barkman plans on spending several days at the Naval museum in Annapolis to research the role the Claggett family played in the early days of U.S. Naval warfare. He also plans to talk in greater depth to family members and historians about events that may have once swirled about the tusk.

“Right now, it’s nothing but a big puzzle for me,” he said. “It’s tough, it will take time, but I’m going to crack this one.”

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