Vintage Sawfish Rostrum Bill Circa 1920, In a Victorian Glass Dome.

Vintage sawfish bill (carpenter shark) mounted on a rosewood base, displayed in a tall Victorian glass dome with ebonised base (circa 1880)

The glass dome is individually hand blown by skilled victorian artisans, and their survival over a hundred / hundred and fifty years is testimony to their quality.

53cm High. 

Glass dome is in very good order, Sawfish has a few chipped teeth.

The sawfish's most distinctive feature is the saw-like rostrum, covered with electrosensitive pores that allow the sawfish to detect slight movements of prey hiding in the muddy sea floor. The rostrum also serves as a digging tool to unearth buried crustaceans. Should suitable prey try to swim past, the normally lethargic sawfish springs from the bottom and slashes at it with its saw. This generally stuns or impales the prey sufficiently for the sawfish to devour it. Sawfish also defend themselves with their rostrum against intruding divers and predators such as sharks. The "teeth" protruding from the rostrum are not real teeth, but modified tooth-like structures called denticles.