Word of the Week

The decorative arts world has many “squishy” and vague vocabulary words, but few are “squishier” and vaguer than cartouche. Originally, the term comes from Egyptology and is used to describe a oval enclosing hieroglyphics and having a horizontal line at one end. (The line denotes royalty.) The oval had significance not unlike that of a closed circle, in that it was believed that an oval around a person’s name provided protection to that person. The strong association with the god-like royalty of ancient Egypt and the “good luck charm” nature of the symbol meant that it was eventually co-opted by the rest of the population and, as a result, it appears on all manner of structures and objects from the era.

Centuries later, when Egypt was a land divided constantly by conflicts, soldiers, seeing these ovals everywhere, are said to have found them to resemble the paper cartridges used in muskets. (You can see a Civil War-era example here.) The French word for cartridge is cartouche and thus it became, in its original use, the term applied to this particular hieroglyphic element.

Before long, however, the word cartouche began to be applied to any “ornamental enframement” as the Getty’s Art and Architecture Thesaurus puts it. That resource defines the term as being used to denote a space for “an inscription, monogram, or coat of arms, or ornately framed tablets, often bearing inscriptions,” and cartouche is often applied in this sense for the ornamentation surrounding a monogram or inscription on a piece of silver. The piece pictured above has a classic example of a “blank cartouche.”

While to most people the most accurate definition continues to apply only to this ornamental frame around an open space, it is also often used for objects like oval mirrors, which might be described as cartouche form if they have a heavily ornamented and decorated oval frame. In its most diluted “area of ornamentation” usage however, cartouche has also become the term for the central decorative ornamental element at the top of forms like a desk-and-bookcase or a high chest, whether they are oval in shape or not.

Baleen comes from a suborder of whales, Mysticeti, which includes, among others, humpback whales, gray whales, right whales and blue whales.  What sets these whales apart is baleen.  These whales do not have teeth, but have upper jaws filled with two rows of baleen plates fringed with fine baleen hair.  These plates are so closely aligned that they act like a comb or a sieve; whales pull water across them, catching the small plankton they feed on in the baleen ‘hairs’.  Baleen varies widely in size, as the sizes of the whales it comes from vary.  The individual plates can be as small as 2 feet, but as large as 12 feet long!  A single plate can weigh 200 pounds.  Baleen is often called whalebone, which is a bit of a misnomer.  Baleen is not bone, but rather keratin, the same protein that forms hair and fingernails in humans as well as horns and claws in animals.

Archaeology suggests that hunting whales was crucial to the Inuit way of life as early as 1000 A.D.  In a landscape that offers so few materials, every part of a whale was used, including baleen.  Because of the lack of wood for fires for boiling water, baleen was softened by soaking it in urine.  Baleen had another property that made it valuable in the Arctic environment: it doesn’t not frost.  As a result, it was deemed useful for all sorts of utilitarian purposes, such as fishing lines and sled runners.

Europe was slower to realize all the potential uses of baleen, but as early as the 15th century, baleen, not whale oil, was driving the whaling industry.  Baleen was scraped to remove the fine hairs, and then boiled to soften it.  It could be softened to the point that it could be bent, molded and even stretched.  In this soft state, it was also possible to add dyes, most commonly black.  Baleen created items like riding crops and umbrella ribs and smaller bits of it were used to form cane heads and ladle handles.  (Baleen doesn’t conduct heat like metal either, so it made great handles and grips for objects that heated up.)  It was even used to bind violin bows and sword hilts.  Virtually every part of the whale was used, even the smallest fringe hairs on the baleen, which were used to stuff upholstery.

Baleen’s price was closely linked to the fashion trends of England and Europe, being used for busks, pieces of a rigid material slipped into pockets in the front of a corset to keep it straight and upright.  As small decorative objects that could be carved and were placed in a hidden place near the heart, busks were common sweetheart gifts, often beautifully decorated with delicate carvings.  Baleen’s flexibility and durability also made it perfect for forming the hoops in hoop skirts.  Baleen’s price was roughly at its highest when hoop skirts were at their widest.

As the whaling industry declined and better, cheaper plastics were developed, the use of baleen faded.  After the last quarter of the 19th century, most baleen appears in small souvenir objects from the Inuit and Yupik cultures of the Arctic.  As tourism in the region open up, handcrafts helped support the people who lived in these harsh regions.  Carving had long been a tradition, and baleen objects occasionally appear, but more often, baleen was used to inlay ivory carvings.  Basket weaving was also introduced, using small strips of baleen, and many finely woven baskets with carved ivory finials survive today.