Casket of cetacean bone with bronze mountings, decorated with Celtic interlaced designs on its twenty two panels, long preserved in Eglinton Castle, Ayrshire

Part of object made of a plate of whalebone, squared hollow and various cut marks on surface, from Knowe of Rowiegar chambered cairn, Rousay, Orkney

Fragment of cut whalebone, from Knowe of Rowiegar chambered cairn, Rousay, Orkney

Large dress pin or hairpin of whalebone, with a spatulate head, from Skara Brae, Skaill, Sandwick, Orkney, 3100 - 2500 BC

Large dress pin or hairpin of whalebone with a pointed head, from Skara Brae, 3100 - 2400 BC

Large dress pin or hairpin of whalebone with a domed head, from Skara Brae

Fragments of a pegged bone board, probably for the Viking game Hnefatafl, from Birsay, Orkney, 950 - 1200 AD

Pawn-shaped playing piece of cetacean bone from Sandwick Bay

Decorated draughtsman-like piece of cetacean bone from Freswick, 1000 - 1300 AD

Fife casket of whalebone panels carved in low relief with patterns of interlace and knotwork, held together with metal and with brass mounts and lock, Scotland, 15th or early 16th century

Bugaku fue or flute of lacquered cane bound with whalebone, with seven finger vents: Japan

Ship pipe, of wood and whalebone, carved and painted, with an eagle, a man on a horse pulling a wagon and two other figures: North America, Canada, Haida Gwaii, collected Puget Sound, probably Haida with Russian influence, late 19th century

Whalebone mask carved in form of an eagle's head, with eyes of inlaid copper and attached leather thongs: North America, Canada, Haida, Northwest Coast

Sword made of whalebone with edges grooved and fitted with shark's teeth secured by sinnet: Micronesia, probably Republic of Kiribati, 19th century

Club (totokia), fighting club of wood with cylindrical shaft terminating in a bulb with tapering point, inlaid at the base with a star-shaped piece of whale bone: Polynesia, Fiji, Fijian, 19th century

Ceremonial flywhisk (kahili) of whalebone, tortoiseshell, ivory and feathers: Polynesian, Hawaiian Islands, 1868 - 1933