Shawna Scott bought the Victorian-era ivory sex toy at auction to donate it to an Irish museum
When Shawna Scott saw an advertisement for a Victorian-era ivory dildo, she couldn’t believe her luck.
That’s because two years ago, she thought the piece of Irish history had left the country forever.
“I’ve been kind of, like, obsessed with this dildo,” the Dublin-based owner of the online sex shop Sex Siopa told As It Happens guest host Rosemary Barton.
According to Matthew Fine Art Auction, the sex toy was carved out of ivory in the 18th century and sent from China, where its owner was fighting in the 1899 Boxer Rebellion, to his wife in Ireland.
“I guess that was just a thing that people did back then when they weren’t sure if they were going to come home,” Scott said.
‘This will be a dildo for Ireland’
In 2017, the 130-year-old ivory sex toy — known as Lot 475 — was sold to a private collector from the United States for $4,695.97 Cdn.
It was billed at the time as an “antique carved ivory ladies’ companion in scarlet lined leather upholstered carry box with inset bevelled glass panel.”
“I was absolutely devastated that it was going to be leaving the country because we don’t have a whole lot of, like, Irish sexual history artifacts, ” Scott said.
“Our museums tend to prioritize things that have to do … with the [Great Famine] or the 1916 Easter Rising, stuff to do with the revolution, and not so much our own sexual history.”
But it wasn’t over yet.
