A whalebone staybusk pierced with a suspension hole at the top. It is engraved with a dove carrying a letter above crossed olive branches and a British fort. In the centre is engraved within a diamond 'THE CYRUS ARRIVED Octr 20th 1833'. Below the inscription are a church and a bird perched on a tree branch. The reverse of the item shows a right whale.

The 'Cyrus' 1799, Captain Hingston, was a London whaler that returned to Gravesend on 20 October from the southern ocean. Her owners at this date were Jarvis & Co. The design indicates that it is a love token. The right whale is more associated with earlier whaling activity in the Arctic and Bay of Biscay, but they were also caught in the Pacific. They are baleen rather than toothed whales and live in temperate waters, feeding in relatively shallow seas. The staybusk however is made from bone taken from the lower jaw of a sperm whale.