This weekend, my dad passed our family heirloom on to me. This is a narwhal's tusk that was given to my great-great-grandfather by Robert Perry, the man who discovered the North Pole.

Please note:

I want to see an Antiques Roadshow-style appraisal. This is cool!

I've thought about doing that! There's nothing on this planet I'd ever sell it for, but it sure would be interesting to know.

"it belongs in a museum!"

With doing zero research it might be illegal to sell. If you have an elephant tusk you can't just sell it for example. In some cases it can be illegal to own even if passed down.

That is def one of the most unique heirlooms to hand down. Very cool, thanks for sharing!

Absolutely, I'm just glad that I can share it for other people to see and enjoy!

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Definitely a level 90 first stage relic weapon

"Bye Buddy...hope ya find yer dad..."

Thanks Mr. Narwhal.

Seriously, you got the shaft on your inheritance.

Yes!

Came here to say the same thing!!!

I am literally watching Elf right now and this was the first thing I saw when I opened Reddit

The backstory on why my family got this is that Robert Peary (I misspelled it in the post) and my great-great grandfather were friends in the same fraternity in college. My great-great-grandfather was known for his woodwork and so when Peary had a busted gun stock he brought it to my grandfather to fix it, but my grandfather refused to accept payment since they were old friends. In compensation, Peary gave him this tusk when he returned from his expedition and apparently refused to take 'no' for an answer. Unfortunately I don't have any letters from Peary himself, but I do have a letter from Peary's assistant, Matthew Henson, talking about the tusk.

Now that box only needs a sign reading: "Break glass in case of Monsters".

Dude Henson was a great-great-great cousin on my moms side

Is it not Robert Peary?

Finally something that is genuinely interesting as fuck. What a super cool heirloom and story to pass down.

Narwhal tusks used to be passed off as unicorn horns in medieval Europe. You can see one such example in the Unicorn tapestry room at the Cloisters museum, located at the northern tip of Manhattan.

Not the one reported to be stolen years ago from a museum, I'm guessing. The FBI is looking for a Tusk once owned by Peary. Found it via Google.

Wow, a letter from Matthew Henson is equally amazing and important! Treasure them.

Now Matthew Henson is an important figure in the early tries for the North Pole himself.

One or two small mistakes in the transcription, toward the end it correctly reads:

Go U Bowdoin Bears!

UnexpectedAntiquesRoadshow

I like the part where your grand pa hid the tusk in his butt to keep it save from the vietkong.

"very truly yours" i believe

Nah your grandfather killed a unicorn and this story is the coverup.

Holy shit that must be worth a lot of money.

You REALLY should get that thing appraised for insurance reasons if you haven't.

Best I can give you for that is $5… it’s gonna take up a lot of space and there isn’t a big market for narwhale tusks and takes a specific buyer but I can have my guy come in and appraise it.

Would suck if your great granddad widdled down an old pool cue and made the story up.

You should see how far it can go up your ass

Sure.

This is soooo cool! One correction on the translation by

Best i can do is $100. I gotta make a profit here man, selling this thing is going to cost me money.

TBH, I hope you don't sell this family treasure at a reality show. Very cool though, What does the texture feel like? Like teeth or more pourous?

Pretty sure that says "paleontology department" (not "deferment") and "Peary" (not "play", what you think is an 'l' is the bottom of the 'f' above).

Can also use it for home defense, just in case.

I didn’t even need to load up the article to know it was about the British narwhal invasion of terrorism, what a legend

Hmm, duly noted

Wow. That was posted 2 years ago TODAY!

Thanks I came looking for this.

Can also be converted into a pool stick, just in case.

Can I also use it for The Masters 2022, just in case

KHANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

Can't get those anymore. Not legally anyway.

Nope, it's illegal to trade ivory and you can only legally hunt narwhal if you're a member of an Inuit tribe.

You actually can if you have the paperwork trail showing it was harvested legally.

My family just has a baseball bat called the motivator

That sounds pretty handy if you ask me

Is it wrapped in barbed wire?

Hands down, this is the coolest thing Im going to see on the internet today. Jealous in the best way possible.

I've thought about posting about it for a while now, but since my dad officially gave it to me I felt like now was as good a time as ever. It's less about the internet points and more about just wanting to share this history with random people on the internet!

That is pretty cool! The dentist in my town is obsessed with narwhals. The sign in front says “narwhal tusk research center”.

Maybe he's a Redditor and will see the post!

Hi. Rare book and document dealer here. I hope you are protecting that letter. I suggest getting some archival sleeves to put that and the newspaper clipping in, if you want them to be in good condition for you to pass on to your own children. Something like this:

This is fantastic, thank you very much. I was actually just telling my wife I wanted to get a fire / floodproof safe to keep them in, so I'll add these protectors to the list.

Lol you'd kill my friend whose dad worked at NASA during the Moon landing. We were fingering through unprotected officials documents and all. Had it all spread out over my living room, drunk as shit

I wish I could say "rare book and document dealer here" - what a rad as fuck job

But when does the narwhal bacon?

How come I had to come down this far for it.

At midnight, my good chum.

When you kill the last unicorn hiding from man on the North Pole but don’t want people to know. “It’s from a creature in the ocean I swear!”

Now that you mention it, it is odd that my great-great-grandfather still looks like he's 23 and always makes jokes about his 'immortality'...

"Is that from a unicorn?!"

Narwhals are very rare in the wild. What a precious gift.

They are and they also can't be held in captivity and are illegal to hunt, so it wasn't until I was older than I care to admit before I realized that not everyone had a narwhal tusk to play with...lol

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Welp. They were hunted back in the day by explorers

Narwhal, Narwhal swimming in the ocean...

Causing a commotion!

You’ve got great provenance there. Hope it’s appraised for insurance!

I'll certainly look into doing that, better safe than sorry.

Mr Harry W Martin, Stamps (?), Arkansas

*

I think it says “your father made a new gun stock for Peary..” the f in father makes it look like an L. You can see the e inside the bottom of the f.

All Priceless. Thanks for sharing

Absolutely, I'm glad I can share this unique piece of history with Reddit!

THE ARE THE JEDI OF THE SEA, DON'T LET THEM TOUCH YOUR WINKIE

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Tusk was gifted by indigenous people, who certainly 100% never traversed the North Pole before, lol. The hubris...

Guess everybody’s just gonna gloss over that as if it’s not ridiculous

Yeah. Wtf?!

He never got there, I think he did get within 60 miles

Inuit people who've been hunting in the area for thousands of years: "Yea sure buddy, you discovered it all right"

Is it bad I thought it was a giant joint at first?

"Here is my family heirloom, the largest joint ever rolled by a Sir Snoop III in 1492"

Thought it was a pool cue myself

I had to double check what sub I was on!

Super doobee

I thought it was a javelin before I read the title…

So glad someone else seen it! My perception was totally off when I scrolled to this post!

One day, this giant spliff will be all yours.

Man, no wonder Christopher Columbus wanted to fuck those things

I mean, can you blame him?

Wut.

FYI There are no 'tribes' in Inuit society. That is a term for First Nations (in Canada) and American Indians.

That's cool as shit, and I'm extremely jealous.

Also, Robert Peary was a complete POS:

That's awesome, thank you for sharing that! Ill do some reading on Road Amundsend and see what all he was up to.

But does it bacon at midnight?

Holy crap I had to scroll way too far down for this. Am old

Man, Reddit has changed

In fact, that is the only time that it bacons

I was wondering if this would get referenced. When did this even stop being a thing? Not that I want it to come back

It's an old reference but it checks out.

I feel like this could have been a top post of all time if posted next a pan of bacon and a clock striking midnight. Still ridiculously cool of course, but that was my reddit-corrupted mind's first thought.

What year is it?

Waffles? Don't you mean carrots? HAHAHAHA

The legends, they are true!

Wait, so the Inuit follow them through the expedition...didn't HE also discovered the north pole?

Tell your grand kids it was a tooth of a sandworm.

The rare 2-Handed crysknife! From Shai'Hulud to Shai'OHGOD

I first read this as "this weekend, my dad passed away..." and started to feel sad. But then I realized I misread the beginning.

I was a bit concerned when he gave it to me, like are you not telling me something dad??? But no, he just felt it was time and wanted to pass it down.

Discovered is perhaps the wrong word.

How does someone discover a place that has been inhabited for over 100 thousand years?

Colonists do that. Apparently indigenous people are not human enough for them to be considered as inhabitants with property rights.

...except for the part where Peary hired native inuit guides (the most notable being the advance party composed of Keshunghaw, Seegloo, and Karko) to take him to the North Pole so he could "discover" it...

Not trying to be disrespectful or anything but I'm high AF right now and thought that was a giant joint

Why does it say "made in Taiwan"?

Damn it! I forgot to take off the stickers before I posted.

He didn't discover the North Pole nor was he first.

I thought it was a snooker cue. Lol it’s absolutely amazing that you have something so close to your family. Hopefully there isn’t some sort of “Tusk” curse attached to it. If you haven’t seen the 2014 film don’t worry too much. I’m sure you’ll be fine 😬.

I think I meant some of your relatives when I was stationed in Greenland

If they had two eyes and a nose, among other facial features, then there is certainly a chance they were my relatives!

When I was a child and went on walks I would try to find the straightest stick so I could use it as a pretend weapon like a spear or staff, after 15 years I think I’ve found it.

Believe you me, when I was 8 this WAS the ultimate spear for slaying. I'm thankful that I never tried to throw it, lol.

How does one discover the north pole? like they happened upon it? or knew the concept of poles and was the first to travel there? or developed the concept of poles?

Cool heirloom, but Peary didn't discover the North pole. He was just the first that we know of to get there. Just like Armstrong didn't discover the moon.

He faked his record breaking discovery as well as numerous awful transgressions against the Inuit people. OP should look him up. I wouldn’t be as proud.

He was first according to his own claim with no other verifiable source. He probably was a racist fraud who used Inuit people as stepping stone to earn his fame. I mean who is going to verify if he ever reached there.

I would have thought an Inuit person discovered it first.

DISCOVER the North Pole?

This is interesting as fuck. Thanks for sharing OP.

Get this fucker forged into a family great sword on some GoT stuff with narwhal born inlaid pommel and call it Deep Tide or something

Know any high level enchanters?

Matthew Henson was the first in the party to reach the pole not Peary. But as an African American he didn’t receive the level of recognition as Peary.

It's a marvelous piece of the past, that's for sure.

We’re the child saw him embalmed in an action pose on a school fucking trip!!! - and the resulting shot show when he campaigned to have him taken off display and laid to rest.

Ever fought a terrorist with it

That's a giant toothpick

He killed a narwhal?! NOOOO!

I'm so confused. Why does the tusk only appear in the mirror and not in RL? ...is it a reverse vampire narwal tusk?

This is super cool and though I know you'd never sell it, considering it has provenance and paperwork showing it's origin it would certainly be worth a pretty penny.

.... first white man on North Pole ......

Your dad is just glad to the space back in his closet.

Do you know Sam Witwicki?

are you username ladiesman217, where are the glasses?

Discovered the North Pole? #indigenous

Best I can do is $0.50

Sorry sir, most I'm willing to take is $0.40

Just so you know, the people who gifted that were raped, killed, exploited, and culturally ruined by Peary:

Super cool!

Well in fact, he wasn't even that because he actually had sent Matthew Henson up ahead to scout the path and Henson ended up being the first one to cross the pole!

One definition of "discover" I find in a quick google search is:

Stamps, Arkansas?! That’s cool! I know where that is.

Hey that makes you and 15 other people, lol! It's where a lot of my family is from, though none of us have lived there in 50 years.

Wow, that’s the most badass inheritance I’ve ever seen.

Sick!!!

That’s incredible how friggen cool

Ayo this is sick. I love it

I’ll give you 5 bucks

Best I can do is tree hunnit n fiddy.....

But has it been used to stop any terrorists?

That is definitely the most interesting as fuck thing I’ve seen for a while. I read the whole newspaper article. What year was that published?! There’s a bit of language in there I wasn’t expecting, so just wondering. Absolutely amazing though, a real piece of history!

This is really cool!

At least you didn't try to pawn it off during a presentation in high school so you could afford your first car, Sam Witwicky.

Narwhals, narwhals, living in the ocean, causing a commotion, cause they are so awesome!

Whale face penis.

Is your grandfather Archibald Witwicky?

Today I learned Narwhals are real.

Behold! The Power of the Unicorn Whale!

Definitely the coolest artifact I've seen on Reddit this year.

If you sold your soul to the devil so you could be the greatest billiards player ever, this is what you would get

TIL that narwhals are not made up creatures

There is a whole museum dedicated to him at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, ME. It used to be located in an old mansion but now it's just one floor. When I was a kid, I would stop in on my way home and wander around the dusty old exhibits.

Have you checked to see how far it goes up your ass yet?

Rule 34

"Its interesting... but I don't know a whole lot about this kind of stuff. Luckily, my buddy is an actual Narwhal and can tell me more about it. Do you mind if I give him a call and he can come over and take a look?"

Listen. Don't ask me how I know this. But if you happen to come across a crystal and attach it to the tusk. You can instantly transform into gandalf

That…is so fucking cool. I love the letter. God I just swoon at old letters like that. The history!

It's a actually a tooth from the narwhal. A cool factoid is that they spiral in the same direction. Its very rare that they spiral in the opposite direction.

So when are you going on antique roadshow?

Is the great great grand son of the discoverer of the South pole sitting somewhere seething right now all triggered?

Best I can do is 20$

I hate to break it to you but that's a unicorn tusk.