Rare 1890\'s Victorian Era N.O.S. Baleen Whale Bone Corset/Bodice Stays Plus Box
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Rare 1890\'s Victorian Era N.O.S. Baleen Whale Bone Corset/Bodice Stays Plus Box:
$150.00
Rare N.O.S. Baleen Whale Bone Corset/Bodice Stays w/ original Cardboard BoxRare find of unused original 1880\'s \"whalebone\" or whale baleen inside cotton casing for use in ladies bodices/corsets. This assembled set of 8 pieces, some bound in original cotton thread and original labels present to box (that has seen better days). The stays measure 1 x 9\", 4 x 7\" and 3 x 6\". The box would have held many sets of these originally.
Baleen
Until the end of the 19th century it was baleen, rather than oil, that was the primary product sought by the Greenland whalers. Confusingly, baleen was always known as whale-bone by the whalers and by those who used it in manufacture. It is not bone, but a derivative of skin!
Baleen whales eat small, planktonic crustaceans such as copepods and krill, or small shoaling fish including herring and sardines. These whales have no teeth, instead, they feed by straining their food from the sea using a series of baleen plates that are made ofkeratin, the same material that forms your hair and nails and the hooves and horns of cows.
The baleen plates hang from the upper jaws of the whale, spaced 2 cms apart and at right angles to the long axis of the jaw. The outer edge of each plate is smooth but the inner edge becomes frayed into bristles that form a matted sieve.
When the whale is feeding, water is taken in through the open mouth and expelled out through the baleen plates. Any food taken in with the water is trapped on the baleen bristles, removed with the help of the tongue and then swallowed.
The number of plates varies from 300-350 pairs in different species and the length varies greatly from less than half a metre to over 4 metres. Whales that feed on small crustaceans have baleen plates with very fine bristle while those that feed on larger crustacea, such askrill, or on fish, have very coarse bristles.
SpeciesNumber of platesLength of platesType of bristlesBlue320 pairs1 mCoarseBowhead350 pairs4.5 mFineMinke300 pairs0.3 mVery fineHumpback350 pairs0.6 mCoarseBaleen is strong, light, flexible and hard wearing, attributes that make it useful to humans as a construction material, and which reflect the microstructure of the baleen.In cross section, a baleen plate consists of 3-4 layers of horny tubes, which become thinner towards the centre and which are embedded in a fibrous matrix. This is clear even to the naked eye but is best seen under the scanning electron microscope (S.E.M.).
The tubes run the length of the plate and emerge as the hair-like bristles on the inner edge. The plates are constantly worn away at the free ends but are replenished by continual growth at the root, just as is our own hair.
This system of tubes combines minimum weight with maximum strength. A hollow cylinder has much the same degree of rigidity as does a solid one but, of course, the weight is much less.
Baleen plates, light, strong, inert, highly flexible, easily cut into strips, and capable of being moulded into complex shapes, have found many commercial uses in past times. The most profitable, by far, was the manufacture of fashion items, particularly corsets. However, fashion is a fickle business and when not needed for clothing baleen was put to much more prosaic uses including chimney sweep brushes and upholstery stuffing. A Mr Sevey, trading in Boston, Mass., in the late 19th century offered no less than53 items made from whale bone. (In case, after perusing Mr Sevey\'s list of merchandise, you are wondering what a Probang is, or was, try theOnline Oxford English Dictionary!
Rare 1890\'s Victorian Era N.O.S. Baleen Whale Bone Corset/Bodice Stays Plus Box:
$150.00