Identifying ambergris is a difficult task if you are not already familiar with the material - the following information serves to help eliminate materials which are NOT ambergris and identify those with potential.

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COLOUR VARIATIONS

One of the most asked questions relating to ambergris is - as one would imagine - "what does it look like?"

When it comes to the colour of ambergris, there are many shades that can reveal its quality.

• Jet black - Fresh ambergris (low value) which smells strongly, and unpleasantly, of manure. Can sometimes be soft with a very slightly malleable feel to it - especially when warmed in the hand.
• Dark grey - Often features a cracked, silvery white effect across its surfaces (like 'crazing' in fine china); the beginnings of oxidation.
• Earthy brown - Less offensive in scent - sweeter and warmer, beginning to become more rounded and appealing to the nose.
• Dull gold/copper tones - Generally never the dominant colour but can often be seen splashing and glimmering across the surface of (and inside) pieces of ambergris.
• Light grey/silver/cream through to pure white - The rarest to come by; some of the lighter pieces may have succumbed completely to the oxidation process. These pieces are most certainly the older/oldest and have the most pleasant 'perfume-like' scent of any type of ambergris.

TEXTURE

Ambergris has a slightly waxy feel to its exterior, or if very dry and aged, one resembling dried clay. When dry, ambergris should have a brittle and grainy, sometimes layered interior. You may be able to see this if your find has a broken edge but, remember that breaking pieces devalues them if they are ambergris! If you need to look inside, break off just enough to expose the interior with a sharp implement like a knife. Small 'orbs' may be visible inside and sometimes on the exterior of a piece.

You should just about be able to create a dent if you press your fingernail into your piece, but it should not be anywhere near as soft as candle wax, for example. You should not be able to peel or scrape off the surface with your nail.

Squid beaks or squid beak shards may be visible, especially in larger pieces, at the most no larger than a thumbnail. They appear black, shiny and shell-like.

Your piece should feel lighter than you would imagine - when compared to how it would feel picking up a stone of a similar size. Ambergris often has an outer shell/crust - and the interior is always slightly or much darker in colour (unless the outer shell has been 'sunburned' - which looks like a shiny oil-like, black or dark brown coating).

SHAPE

Ambergris can present itself in many shapes and sizes

Very rarely, large pieces are discovered still intact having avoided ambergris' common fate of being smashed apart into smaller chunks upon reaching the coastline. These whole pieces can weigh 100kg + and will still exhibit the appearance of different bulbous sections attached to each other in an irregular fashion.

More commonly found, are segments of these larger 'mother pieces' which have broken off and been rolled into smooth-edged rounded individual pieces.

Laboratory Testing

The methods of laboratory testing recommended to identify ambergris, should be based on those published by Rowland and Sutton (2017) and Rowland et al., (2018) and include use of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (FTIR, GC-MS and NMR) techniques. The latter allow the identification and measurement of ambrein, which is the major constituent of genuine ambergris and also measurement and identification of any co-occurring compounds, such as faecal steroids.

Image credit CDC Unsplash

REFERENCES

Rowland, S.J. and Sutton, P.A. (2017) Chromatographic and spectral studies of jetsam and archived ambergris. Natural Product Research 31, 1752-1757 [doi: 10.1080/14786419.2017.1290618].

Rowland, S.J., Sutton, P.A., Belt, S.T., Fitzsimmons-Thoss, V. and Scarlet, A.G. (2018) Further spectral and chromatographic studies of ambergris. Natural Product Research [doi: 10.1080/14786419.2018.1428599].