A corset busk cut from a strip of baleen, with a lobed heart-shaped top and a pointed tip. The front is engraved in panels with buildings, trees and figures, inside a border of linked circles. An old handwritten label on the back reads "John Horton, Rehoboth, Mass., 1891".
A busk was a flat stiffener slipped into the front of a woman's corset. Whalemen carved them on long voyages as love tokens for wives and sweethearts at home, so the gift was worn close to her heart, which is why so many have hearts at the top. Baleen is the springy plate whales use to filter food, not bone. Rehoboth is a town in southeastern Massachusetts, near the whaling ports of New Bedford and Fall River.
Condition: Losses to the back and one area of the front. Scratches.
