Ivory carving

“ The practice of ivory carving became extremely popular throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, especially in the Netherlands and in Germany, and the amount of ivory consumed must have been very great. But, with rare exceptions, and these for the most part Flemish, it is art of an inferior kind, which seems to have been abandoned to second-rate sculptors and the artisans of the workshop. ”

“ Ivory is frequently employed in conjunction with ebony, and the effect is often striking. The carving of ivory is practised in many parts of India, and the Berhampore stately state-barges with their rowers all in position, and the elephants with howdahs on their finely-modelled backs, are all that need be mentioned, though there are numberless objects that come from Bombay carved in low relief or perforated. Even after the small ivories and the larger chess-tables, cots and palanquins in which ivory is employed, the sandal-wood carving is amongst the most attractive in the museum. ”

“ A carver easily detects a piece of Indian from African ivory. Fossil ivory is brought in good quantities from Siberia; it is whiter and harder than any other, but is still esteemed and much used. The finest ivory is reserved for crucifixes and large objects. The fang or root of the tusk, being bony and opaque, is used only for common purposes and small inferior articles.
The carving of Dieppe is carried on partly by piece-work, and partly by the masters and their apprentices working together, in their atéliers. The Orphan Asylum often provides apprentices for this work. ”

“ The largest and best known ivory carving of the middle ages is the throne of Maximian, Archbishop of Ravenna. This entire chair, with an arched back and arms, is composed of ivory in intricately carved plaques. It is considerably over three feet in height, and is a superb example of the best art of the sixth century. ”

“ It may be asked why if the Mound-Builders and the mastodon were contemporaneous, have no traces of the ivory tusks ever been exhumed from the mounds? No material is so perfectly adapted for the purposes of carving, an art to which we have seen the Mound-Builders were much addicted, as ivory, both from its beauty and the ease with which it is [Pg 158] worked, to say nothing of the other manifold uses to which it is put, both by primitive and civilized man. ”

“ It was to this Anglo-Saxon Art, conventional as it had become, the human form often being reduced to a geometrical figure, that the Carlovingian craftsmen turned for inspiration. Two classes of ivory carving arose, one copied almost directly from the miniatures in the Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, which were themselves derived from late Roman types ”

“ On the upper leaf Christ is represented in glory, youthful and beardless in type, as is often the case in Carlovingian ivories which come from the Germanic part of the empire. There was a flourishing school of German craftsmen who closely imitated the ivories of the Italo-Byzantine school of the sixth century, the great abbeys having many specimens of ancient ivory carving in their treasuries. ”

“ Many other uses for ivory carvings are found by the Japanese, such as handles of swords and daggers, and some of their beautiful lacquered panels have encrusted eagles and other birds beautifully carved, and perched on the branches of trees, the latter being made from mother-of-pearl, and sometimes the flowers, foliage, and fruit of tinted ivory minutely chased.
India is famed for its extremely elaborate ivory carvings. The elaborated richness of Oriental ornament is seen in the ivory carvings of India more than in almost any other material except the goldsmiths’ work ”

“ There is little to distinguish German ivories in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries from the French; perhaps there is a tendency to greater elaboration in the architecture, and on rare occasions the figures betray the German type; but in the fifteenth century the love of realism gained ground, and the ivory carvers more closely imitated the painters and the rapidly increasing school of wood carving. ”

“ Vitalis, a work of the sixth century, is a fine specimen. Ivory seems to have become scarce in the twelfth century, and bone was largely used for carving, but during the middle ages ivory again became plentiful, and with the renaissance the art of carving reached perfection. ”

“ A curious and intricate effect is obtained in carving some articles in ivory, when "the outside of the specimen is carved with foliage and flowers, through the-interstices of which the inside is hollowed out nearly to the center, where a figure is carved in situ. ”

“ The ivory carvings in Saracenic work are usually found as carved or chased panels, with arabesque designs, and surrounded with geometric linear framing (Fig. 125) .
The best of this type of work was executed in the fourteenth century. Objects made of ivory alone are very rare in Saracenic art. The illustration given of an ivory ink-horn is unique in this material, but ink-horns of the same shape are common that have been made in copper and brass. ”

“ Fossil tusks of the mammoth are found in great quantities in Siberia, and are almost the only material of the ivory-turner’s work in Russia. African and Asiatic elephant ivory are the best, and differ, the former, when newly cut, being of a mellow, warm, transparent tint. Asiatic ivory tends to become yellow by exposure. A fine specimen of carving in ivory is given in Fig. ”

“ The greatest skill of the worker is, perhaps, shown in the original cutting, as here much waste can be made by ignorance or carelessness. Often the cutter finds cavities in the ivory, and not uncommonly bullets, and parts of various weapons. These have been shot into the tender pith at the base of the tusk, and, in time, become incorporated in the ivory. ”

“ Nearly all the carvings in ivory that we have noticed have been statuettes, reliefs, or objects in which the human figure predominates.
As a matter of fact there are very few ivories of any artistic value in which the human figure is not the most important part of the composition, purely ornamental work being very rare. Even in Saracenic work, where the figure and animal representations are not found, the amount of carved ivory work is limited, and the specimens are very scarce. ”

“ Many celebrated artists have doubtless worked in ivory, but there is nothing to prove this except the supposed hand-work of the artists. Michelangelo is credited with working in ivory; Cellini, Donatello, Agostino, Carracci, and other famous names in Italian art have been mentioned as ivory carvers; and in the seventeenth century a celebrated ivory carver named Copé, but better known as Fiamingo, who was Flemish by birth. He made 153many basins, ewers, tankards, and carved figures of children in bas-relief. ”

“ The sight gave me a new zest for life. If only I could manage to survive and carry off that ivory! I would. In this way or in that I swore that I would! Who could possibly die with so much ivory to be had for the taking? Not that old hunter, Allan Quatermain.
Then I forgot about the ivory, for there in front of me, just where it should be, just as I had seen it in the dream-picture, was the bull elephant dying, a thin and ancient brute that had lived its long life to the last hour. ”

“ One-eye says it never paid to carry a tusk weighing less than sixty pounds. Some tusks weigh two hundred—some even more—took four men to carry some of 'em! Call it an average weight of one hundred pounds and be on the safe side."
"Yes, let's play safe," agreed Monty seriously.
"One hundred million pounds of ivory!" said Fred, with a smack of his lips and the air of a man who could see the whole of it. "The present market price of new ivory is over ten shillings a pound on the spot. That'll all be very old stuff, worth at least double. ”

“ The proportion of this residuum is about fifteen pounds to the hundredweight, and sells at from sixteen to twenty pounds per ton. Many efforts have been made to devise some method for the solidification of ivory dust, but as yet without success. Great skill is required in the cutting of ivory, as of wood, to bring out the beauty of the grain. The saw of the cutter occasionally reveals a rifle-ball that has been lodged in the tusk, and that has been completely covered over by subsequent growth. About one-third the length of the tusk, where it enters the head of the elephant, is hollow. ”

“ The pillars supporting the glass are formed of an ingenious twisting of ivory chain and rope work, all cut from the solid ivory, yet so flexible that the chain yields to the touch, as an ordinary one of metal would. Under the oval of the mirror, stands an ivory basket of minute flowers, and over it an ivory cobweb is thrown, on which are seen a spider and a fly, almost as delicately formed as in nature, their organisation seeming all but too solid for their frail support of ivory web. ”

“ The little canals are not packed closely together, but are separated by spaces of about their own diameter. To these tubes, the regularity of their disposition and their delicacy, the ivory owes its fineness of grain, and its remarkable elasticity. By examining them, an expert can distinguish elephant ivory from any other; as they have a peculiarity of making a series of decided bends in their course, from the axis to the periphery, which produces a graining in the ivory, unique and peculiar. ”

“ He found the spot on which the Golden Eagle had rested deserted, but still urged on by his strange sense of locality he finally stumbled upon the ivory cache.
"Um, big fight here," he mused to himself as he gazed about him at the mangled bodies of the gorillas which showed black as ink on the rocks in the sharp, brilliant moonlight. The heap of uncollected ivory was the next thing to attract his eye and with a guttural grunt the negro helped himself to a drink of water from his skin-bag while he sat down to ponder. ”

“ Since the appearance of the folding-fan, various materials have been pressed into its service, including ivory, tortoise-shell, lacquer, mother of pearl, the various woods—especially sandalwood, the more precious metals, silk, skin, and paper.
No nation possesses a keener appreciation of ivory as a vehicle for artistic expression than the Chinese, whose carved balls in concentric spheres of open work are the wonder of western peoples. Ivory fans date from a very remote period, it is believed as early as 990 B.C., and are marvels of patient ingenuity. ”

“ The traders who search for mammoths' tusks around the Arctic coasts of Asia make every effort to send off, each year, at least fifty thousand pounds of fossil ivory to the west along the great caravan road. So great is the demand, however, that this quantity, added to that sent by the elephant-hunters, is not large enough to make ivory cheap in trade or in manufacture. ”

“ Ivory as an Article of Manufacture.—There are several sorts of ivory, differing from each other in composition, durability, external appearance, and value. The principal sources from which ivory is derived are the western coast of Africa and Hindostan: Camaroo ivory is considered the best, on account of its colour and transparency. In some of the best tusks the transparency can be discovered even on the outside. The manufacturers have a process by which they make poor ivory transparent, but it lasts only for a short time. ”

“ Figs. 164 and 165.—Carved ivory figure of a woman (?) standing, the arms deficient; They were fitted into square sockets on each side, and were fastened by large bronze nails, one of which remains. A row of five leopards’ heads hanging from the waist-belt, edged with rows of pellets, or perhaps eyelets, but much defaced. The lips are very thick and the nose broad. The pupils of the eyes are represented by deep circular cavities. No tribal marks apparent, the breasts are not large, but pendant. The whole of the ivory is very much weathered and pitted, especially the legs and base. ”

“ The number of examples of carved ivory during the tenth and eleventh centuries is so great that it is most difficult to make a selection. The Reliquary of the True Cross in the Franciscan Church at Cortona is valuable for comparison with other carvings of the tenth century, for it is dated by an inscription mentioning the Basileus Nicephorus, Conqueror of the Barbarians, who can be no other than Nicephorus Phocas (963-969) . ”

“ Though long-lived—some have in captivity lived over one hundred and fifty years—they propagate very slowly, the most slowly of any known animal; the period of gestation is twenty-two months, and but one at a birth, and they are gradually disappearing before the hunter. One writer states that England's imports of African ivory alone average in one year 15,550 hundredweight, worth from £600,000 to £750,000, or between, three and four million dollars, and predicts the certain decrease of supply and consequent increase of value of ivory. ”

“ I believe the Chinese have alone successfully produced the famous concentric balls of ivory, for which they have been so long and justly famous. Nothing is wasted in the ivory-shop. Even the dust is collected, and sold to the New-York florists, who claim that its results upon roses and other choice flowers are astonishing. ”

“ The quality of ivory varies according to the districts whence it is obtained, the soft variety of the eastern parts of the continent being the most esteemed. When in perfect condition African ivory should be if recently cut of a warm, transparent, mellow tint, with as little as possible appearance of grain or mottling. Asiatic ivory is of a denser white, more open in texture and softer to work. But it is apt to turn yellow sooner, and is not so easy to polish. Unlike bone, ivory requires no preparation, but is fit for immediate working. ”