I is the ninth letter and the third vowel of the English alphabet, in which it represents not only several vowel sounds but also the consonantal sound of y.The two principal sounds represented by it in English are the short sound as in pit, pin, fin, and the long as in pine, fine, wine, the latter being really a diphthongal sound. It has also three other sounds: that heard in first, dirk (e, the neutral vowel); that heard in machine, intrigue (which, however, can scarcely be considered a modern English sound); and the consonant sound heard in many words when it precedes a vowel, as in million, opinion, trunnion. I and J were formerly regarded as one character. Research I
The IMF Riots are planned civil disorder which are typified by the series of riots that occurred in Ecuador in March 2001 after the government, at the insistence of the World Bank and IMF, raised the price of cooking gas by 80%. According to former chief economist at the World Bank, Joseph Stiglitz, the riots in Ecuador and their responses were carefully planned by the World Bank and the Intrnational Monetary Fund (IMF). The purpose of the IMF Riots is to destroy the hostnation economically, allowing global corporations to buy up national resources cheaply (also known as rebuilding a country), benefiting the IMF, the World Bank (51% of which is owned by the US Treasury) and the global corporations at the expense of the 'helped' nation. Research IMF Riots
In Greek and English prosody, iambic verses are composed if iambic feet. The iambic foot is dissyllabic. In Greek the first syllable was long, the second short; in English the unaccented or short syllable stands first, being followed by one which is accented or long. Iambics are generally used in groups of five, or pentameters, usually without rhyme, when they constitute ' heroic blankverse'. When rhyming in couplets they are 'rhyming heroics'. Research Iambic Verse
In in prosody, an iambus is a foot of two syllables, a short and a long one or an unaccented syllable followed by an accented one. The iambic metre is the fundamental rhythm of many English verses. The verse of five iambic feet is a favourite metre, being the heroic verse of English, German, and Italian poetry. Research Iambus
Iapetus is the eighth satellite of Saturn. It has a period of seventy-nine days, and an orbitalradius of 2, 225, 000 miles. Like the earth's moon, it always turns the same face towards its primary. Research Iapetus
An ice-axe is a tool used by mountaineers for cutting footholds in the ice. The ice-axe evolved from the alpenstock, which it resembles except for having the addition of a dual axe head, one head shovel shaped and the other pointed like a pick. Research Ice-Axe
An iceberg is a mass of ice that has broken off from a glacier and is afloat in the sea. They are in fact pieces of glaciers detached from the parent mass by the action of the sea and by their own accumulating weight. They present the strangest and most picturesque forms, are sometimes miles in length, and rise to a height of perhaps 250 or 300 feet above the sea, the portion above water being calculated at about an eighth of the whole. Icebergs consist of clear, compact, solid ice, with a bluish-green tint. Their cavities contain fresh water, from the melting of the ice. They are frequently encountered in the North Atlantic and in the southern seas as well, and have caused many a wreck - the most famous perhaps being the Titanic which sank after striking an iceberg. The ice that forms on the surface of the sea, called field-ice, is porous, incompact, and imperfectly transparent. The field-ice forms in winter and breaks up in summer. A small field is called a, floe; one much broken up forms a pack. A piece of ice that breaks off from an iceberg is called a calf. Research Iceberg
An iceboat is a boat-like structure on runners, propelled over ice usually by sails. Modern iceboats have a central tube-like hull, a runner plank extending at right angles to the hull and affixed with a runner at either end, and a third runner, placed either forward or aft, serving as a rudder. In ancient times primitive iceboats were used in the Scandinavian region for haulage and transport.
Iceboating remains a mode of travel in some parts of Europe today. The sport of iceboating began on the Shrewsbury River in Red Bank, New Jersey, around 1840. Subsequent innovations made iceboats the fastest vehicles of the early 1900s, with speeds up to 225 kmh. Modern iceboats are about 6 m long and have sail areas of from 7 to 32.5 sq. m. These boats average about 65 to 95 kmh over the usual 32-km course. Recent innovations include the use of air motors and outboard motors that employ a spiked wheel to drive the boat across the ice, and the use of jet propulsion. Research Iceboat
Ich Dien (German: I serve) was the motto under the plume of ostrich feathers found in the helmet of the king of Bohemia slain at the Battle of Cressy, at which he served as a volunteer in the French army, in 1346. Edward the Black Prince, in respect to his father, Edward III, who commanded at the battle, adopted the motto which has since been borne with the feathers, by the heirs to the crown of England. Research Ich Dien
Iconolatry is the worship of religious symbols or icons.In Christianity iconolatry refers to the worship or adoration of the images of sacred personages connected with the Christian religion, as images intended to represent angels, the Virgin Mary, saints, martyrs, etc. Iconolatry must not be confounded with idolatry, which worships objects as being themselves divine or possessing supernatural power.
The worship or adoration of images was not common in the church for several centuries after Christ, and in its earlier stages it excited strong feelings, especially in the Eastern section of the church, as illustrated by the rise of the Iconoclasts. The second council of Nicasa taught that images were to be retained, but that they were not to be objects of adoration in the strict sense, though it was right to salute, honour, and venerate them, and to burn lights and incense before them. This decree was rejected by Charlemagne and by a council at Frankfort in 794, but the practice of image-worship finally established itself in the West. Roman Catholics maintain that the cultus of images is 'relative,' and that they are not in themselves really adored or honoured, 'but that all adoration and veneration is referred to the prototypes, in as much as images have no dignity or excellence to which such honour properly appertains.' Research Iconolatry
An idea, as used by Plato, is the metaphysical equivalent for the concept or definition, on whose importance in philosophy his master Socrates laid so much stress in ethics. In contrast with the sensible and particular thing or phenomenon, which is apprehended by ordinary perception, the idea is thus supersensible, and belongs to a higher order of reality, an intelligible world, apprehended by thought. In modern philosophy the term was used, at first by the Cartesians, and thence onwards until the time of Kant, in the psychological sense from which the popular use is derived, and which has remained, with some modification, the prevalent sense of the term in English philosophy. Research Idea
Idealism is the system or theory of philosophy that denies the existence of material bodies, and teaches that we have no rational grounds to believe in the reality of anything but ideas and their relations. Idealism is in contradistinction to realism, In relatively modern times idealism has been maintained by Descartes, Berkeley, Kant, Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel. Some of these, as Descartes and Kant, are not, however, pure idealists, inasmuch as they allow at least a problematical existence to sensible things independent of the thinking subject.
Berkeley is perhaps one of the most thorough-going idealists, holding that what is called matter consists merely of ideas, that is, appearances produced in the mind by the direct influence of the Deity. This dogmatic idealism of Berkeley differs from the critical or transcendental idealism of Kant. This consists in the doctrine that all the material of experience is given in sensation, but on the other hand the forms of the experience (space, time, and the categories of the understanding) arise in ourselves a priori, and that accordingly sensible objects are known only as they appear to us and not as they are in themselves.
Pichte, on the other hand, rejected the notion of things in themselves as untenable and self-contradictory, and created the system of so-called subjective idealism, according to which the I or thinking subject produces the appearance of a sensible world by a mode of activity grounded upon its essential nature. The theories of Schelliug and Hegel are developments of the Pichtean doctrine. Research Idealism
The Ides was the day of the full moon in the ancient Roman calendar. It was held to fall on the 13th or 15th of the month. The ides of March, on account of Caesar's assassination having taken place on that day, was an ater dies or black day, and the senate was not allowed to sit. Research Ides
An idiosyncrasy is a distinctive peculiarity of the mental or bodily constitution of any person, or that constitution or temperament which is peculiar to any person. The term sometimes corresponds with antipathy. Research Idiosyncrasy
Idolatry is the worship of idols, that is is the worship of an image, object, or symbol as having in itself some divine or supernatural power, and being able in some way to respond to the worship paid to it, such images or objects being called idols; or the adoration of something merely natural as something supernatural and divine. Many have regarded idolatry as a declension from 'the one true god', and have seen in the various forms of non-christian belief only more or less complete degradations of an original revelation. Others see in idolatry an innate searching after god, and regard it as the first stage of human development, the necessary beginning of a knowledge of god. Idolatry may assume various forms; it may consist in a worship of the powers of nature, or of the heavenly bodies, or in animal worship, or in the worship of images representing mere fanciful and imaginary deities, or in the still lower fetichism. Research Idolatry
An idyl (from the Greek eidyllion, or a 'little image') is the name originally and still most usually applied to a short and highly finished descriptive poem, especially if it treats of pastoral subjects, though this last circumstance is not an essential character of the idyl. All that is necessary to constitute a poem of this class is that it presents to view a complete picture in small compass. Research Idyl
Under English law, everyone is presumed to know the law in the sense that ignorance of the law will not be accepted as an excuse so as to exempt one from the consequences of one's actions. Of course, people often do not know the law, but the admission of ignorance as a ground of exemption 'would lead to interminable investigation of insoluble questions of fact, and would nullify the law by hindering the administration of justice.' Research Ignorance of Law
The Ignorantines were a religious congregation of the Roman Catholic Church devoted to the gratuitous education of children. The movement was founded about 1683 by the Abbe de La Salle. The statutes of the order, approved by Benedict XIII. in 1725, imposed on its members vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience. In 1789 the order counted 1000 members, and possessed 121 houses. They were forced to quit France, but were recalled by Bonaparte in 1806. They were later to be met with in various countries. In France the law of 1882 banished them from the public schools. Research Ignorantines
Ihram is a sacred state in which a Muslim is required to enter before embarking on a pilgrimage to Mecca. The state of ihram decrees that one must not have sexual intercourse, cut one's hair, shave or cut one's toe nails. Research Ihram More information about Ihram
The Illinois Intelligencer was the first newspaper published in Illinois. It was established in 1815, at Kaskaskia, by Mathew Duncan, and was removed to Fayette County in 1820. It was afterward called the Vandalia Whig and Illinois Intelligencer and was suspended in 1839. Research Illinois Intelligencer
The question of immigration or properly alien immigration, has been a topic of controversy since at least the 19th century. In various countries certain classes of aliens have long been prohibited from gaining admission. In the 19th century and start of the 20th century, the United States, for instance, refused admission to such persons as idiots, epileptics, persons suffering from loathsome or dangerous contagious diseases, paupers, criminals (but not political criminals), beggars, anarchists, etc. Chinese labourers as a whole were excluded, and even any persons coming to America under a definite agreement to engage in any kind of labour or service. Similar laws were in force in Australia, where there was a test that a person proposing to settle in the country must be able to write fifty words of a European language.
In the later part of the 19th century the great influx of foreigners into Britain, and into London in particular, drew public attention to the matter. A select committee appointed in 1888 reported in favour of the exclusion of destitute aliens, in 1894 a bill was introduced into the House of Lords, while in 1898 a bill to regulate the immigration of aliens was passed in the Lords, but made no farther progress. In 1902 a royal commission was appointed, and drew up a report, published in 1903, containing valuable information and various recommendations. Among these were the establishment of an immigration department, and the granting of powers to deport criminals, prostitutes, and other undesirable aliens, and to prevent the landing of persons mentally unfit or suffering from infectious or loathsome diseases. In 1904 an Aliens Immigration Bill was introduced and read a second time in the House of Commons. It was based on the recommendations of the commission, and in its favour it was argued that a large amount of British labour had been displaced by aliens, in London especially, that the prevalence of crime among aliens was out of proportion to their numbers, that many of them were paupers, criminals convicted in their own country, or other undesirables. In 1905 another bill on the subject was introduced by the government, which succeeded in passing it in the beginning of August, so that the matter could be dealt with.
In 1905 writers complained about the absence of hitherto strict methods of ascertaining the number of aliens that entered the country and settled, stating that there were no means of checking their numbers year by year. At the census of 1901 the whole alienpopulation in Britain was set down at 286,925, as against 219,523 in 1891. After 1901 there was a further large influx of foreign immigrants into Britain, by far the largest number consisting of Russian and Polish Jews. In 1905 writers were concerned at the number of alien criminals in Britain, citing that in 1900, 3130 aliens were received into British prisons and in 1904 the number was 4774. Research Immigration
Immuring is the ancient torture of burying someone alive in a wall. Nuns of the Roman Catholic church who broke their vow of chastity were formerly immured until they died, their skeletons being found many years later by archaeologists. Research Immuring
Impending Crisis was an anti-slavery book by H R Helper, of North Carolina, appearing in 1857. It earnestly opposed slavery on economical grounds. The book was used as a campaign document by the Republican party in 1860, and 140,000 copies were sold between 1857 and 1861. H R Helper purported to represent the sentiments of Southern non-slaveholding whites. Research Impending Crisis
The Imperial Cancer Research Fund is a scheme first issued in March 1902 by the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Surgeons for systematic cancer research and the collection of statistical, dietetic and topographical information with a view to determining the causes of cancer. Research Imperial Cancer Research Fund
The inch is a unit of the imperial scale of measurement of the length equivalent to 25.4 millimetres. It was defined in 1824 by an act of parliament that 39.13929 inches is the length of a seconds pendulum in the latitude of London, vibrating in vacuo at sea level, at the temperature of 62 degrees Fahrenheit. Research Inch
Independence Hall in Philadelphia was the scene of the American Declaration of Independence, on July the 4th, 1776. The hall was begun in 1733 and completed in 1741. J Kearsely was the architect, and B Wooley the builder. It was first occupied as the Pennsylvania State House in October, 1735. The tower was built in 1750. The Constitutional Convention of 1787 also met there. Research Independence Hall
In 1661 John Eliot, an English missionary among the Massachusetts Indians, published through the Cambridge press the first edition of the New Testament, which he had translated into the Indian language. The whole Bible appeared three years later, and second editions of both were published, the former in 1680, the latter in 1685. Eliot was assisted in the publication of the second edition by John Cotton, of Plymouth, son of the Boston minister. Eliot drew from the Scriptures a frame of government for the commonwealth and for the Indians, but these were suppressed as reflecting on the kingly government. Research Indian Bible
An Indian club is a metal or wooden club, shaped like a large bottle, and formerly swung singularly or in pairs for exercising the arms. More recently they are popularly used by jugglers. Research Indian Club
Indiction is a chronological term for a cycle of fifteen years. It was originally a Roman term, possibly connected with the periodical publication of taxation tariffs. It was first employed in 312. The position of any year in an indiction is found by adding three to the dominical number, and dividing the result by fifteen. The remainder gives the position. Research Indiction
An industrial village was an early 20th century British proposal for the improvement of the condition of the working people of the country, and for preventing their continual influx into towns, as well as to enable the working population of towns to leave these and so obtain better and healthier dwellings, and to live their lives and bring up their families in improved conditions, moral as well as physical. The inhabitants of such villages were envisaged to be peasant proprietors, allotment holders, persons engaged in co-operative farming, persons employed in handicrafts and the like, and the handicrafts would either be self-supporting and flourish by themselves, or might be partly supplementary to the tillage of the soil. Research Industrial Village
Indymedia is a network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues to the public through the Internet. The global anti-capitalism protests on the 18th of June 1999 saw the first co-ordinated attempt by amateur media groups to provide rapid reporting of large scale events both in London and across the globe, and were an astonishing success. In October 2004, the FBI allegedly acting under request from the Swiss and Italian governments seized some twenty Internet servers from their London address rented by Indymedia from their location in London, with the British Home Office assistance. The legal basis for the seizers is unclear, but appears to have been justified by the new draconian 'anti-terrorist' laws that Britain and the USA were able to put in place following the attacks on the USA on September the 11th 2001. Research Indymedia
Infant schools have changed little in their objectives and guides since then. They were established in Britain to teach children between the ages of three and six, and while this is now five to seven years, the basic premise that the schools should 'amuse, interest and instruct' has little changed. When established it was realised that elementary instruction should be simple, pleasing and as much as possible imparted by means of models, pictures and singing. Research Infant School
An 'inn' has been defined as 'a house the owner of which holds out that he will receive all travellers and sojourners who are willing to pay a price adequate to the sort of accommodation provided.' Generally a hotel is an inn. The alehouse, or tavern, is merely a refreshment house, and a fully licensed public-house is not necessarily an inn. Neither is a boarding-house, for the proprietor of the latter makes what arrangements he, or she, pleases with the boarders. But the innkeeper is bound by law to receive and afford proper entertainment to every one who offers himself as a guest, if there be sufficient room and no good reason for refusal (disorderly character, infectious illness, etc.). By the Innkeepers' Liability Act of 1833 no innkeeper was liable to make good loss or injury to goods or property brought to the inn by a guest (except for a horse or other live animal or any carriage) beyond 30 pounds, except where the loss was due to his wilful act or default or that of his servant, or where goods were expressly deposited with him for their safe custody. An innkeeper was bound to undertake custody of such goods when requested to do so. Research Inn
Innocents Day is a festival of the Christian church, celebrated on December the 28th, in memory of the supposed massacre of the children on the command of the king of Judea, Herod, who, upon hearing that an infant had been born who was destined to be king of the Jews seeing the child as a threat to his own position and sent orders that all children in Bethlehem and the surrounding area be killed. Christian belief has it that some 14,000 children were slain in the massacre. Research Innocents Day
The Inquisition was the name of two historic Roman Catholic tribunals. The first, mediaeval Inquisition was established in 1233 by Pope Gregory X in response to the spread of heretical sects, such as the Albigenses and Waldenses in northern Italy, southern France, and Germany. Judges of the Inquisition were chosen from among the Dominicans to try and judge cases of heresy, then considered intolerable by civil and ecclesiastical authorities alike. If found guilty of heresy, the heretic was turned over to secular authorities for punishment. Though burning at the stake was the ultimate penalty for unrecanted heresy, this penalty was uncommon in mediaeval times. The usual punishment was penance, fine, or imprisonment. Torture was used in the civil courts of the time and was also admitted in trials for heresy by Innocent IV in 1252, despite earlier papal denunciations of torture.
During the Catholic Reformation, the functions of the mediaeval Inquisition were assigned to the Holy Office in 1542. Called the Roman Inquisition, it was active against Protestantism and heard charges of heresy against Galileo in what became a famous trial. Its typical function in modern times was the examination of theological writings. The Holy Office was replaced by the Roman Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1965. The Spanish Inquisition was a quasi- ecclesiastical tribunal established in 1478 by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella primarily to examine converted Jews, and later converted Muslims, and punish those who were insincere in the conversion.
Pope Sixtus IV reluctantly approved the Spanish Inquisition, which was largely controlled by the Spanish monarchs. The Grand Inquisitor was always a Dominican, however, and the first and most notorious was T. de Torquemada. The Spanish Inquisition was much harsher than the mediaeval Inquisition and the death penalty was more often exacted, sometimes in mass autos-da-fe. It judged cases of bigamy, seduction, usury, and other crimes, and was active in Spain and her colonies. Estimates of its victims vary widely, ranging from less than 4,000 to more than 30,000 during its existence. By the 17th century the harshness of the Inquisition was greatly reduced and it was abolished altogether in 1834. Research Inquisition
Iron Age hill towns were the earliest type of town to evolve in Britain, not long before the Roman occupation. They were situated on a hill-top, protected in some parts by the steep crags, and enclosed in others by a massive bank of earth and stones bounded by a deep ditch. Iron Age peoples erected the defences and lived within them in pits roofed over with cones of poles covered with twigs, heather or ferns from the moorlands in the vicinity. Research Iron Age Hill Towns
The iron coffin of Lissa was an old form of tortuous execution in which the victim was laid in a coffin face up and watched as the heavy lid slowly, almost imperceptibly, lowered and crushed the victim to death. Research Iron Coffin of Lissa
The Iron Crown is a crown of gold set with jewels, made originally for the kings of Lombardy, and deriving its name from the fact that it enclosed within its round a circlet of iron, said to have been forged from one of the nails used in the crucifixion of Christ. It was supposed to confer upon the holder sovereignty over all Italy. Napoleon I was crowned with the Iron Crown at Milan on May the 26th, 1805. Research Iron Crown
The Iron Maiden of Nuremberg was an instrument of torture consisting of a box large enough to hold a man, with folding doors, the whole studded with sharp iron spikes. When the doors were pressed-to the spikes were forced into the body of the victim who was then left to die. An Iron Maiden of Nuremberg was exhibited in 1892 at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester and in London. Research Iron Maiden of Nuremberg
The Isaac Case was an American fugitive slave case that occurred in 1839 when the Governor of New York refused to arrest three black men charged by the Governor of Virginia with abetting a slave's escape. He maintained that this was not, a crime in New York. Research Isaac Case
Istle is a plant fibre obtained from various species of Agave and several other plants in Mexico and central America, and formerly used during the 19th century for making carpets and cords. Research Istle
Ivory is an opaque, creamy white, hard, fine-grained, modified dentin that composes the upper incisor teeth of an elephant. Ivory is composed of curved layers of dentine alternating in shade, that intersect one another; the resulting lozenge-shaped structure is elastic and finely grained. The layers of a tusk are deposited from the central pulp, so that the innermost layer is the newest. Most commercial elephant ivory is obtained from the tusks of the African elephant, mainly from eastern and central Africa. (Most of the ivory of the western half of Africa is hard, whereas that from the eastern half is soft. Hard ivory is glassier in texture, harder to cut and more likely to crack than soft ivory.)
Fossil ivory, called odontolite, is a blue variety that is found in small quantities in the frozen soil of northern Siberia. Odontolite was produced by the mammoths of the Pleistocene geological epoch; its blue colour results from saturation by metallic salts. Carved ivory has been used for decorative purposes since the time of the ancient Egyptians. Small pieces of ivory are used for high-quality furniture inlays, chess pieces, and small jewellery. Larger pieces of ivory sometimes have been used in the manufacture of billiard balls, piano keys, and toilet articles.
During the late 1980s, as Africa's elephant herds declined, environmentalists led a world-wide effort to shut down the ivory trade; in 1989 the USA and the European Union banned all ivory imports. Tusks of several other animals such as hippopotamuses, narwhals, sperm whales, and walruses are commonly called ivory and have similar physical properties, and many plastic substitutes for ivory have been developed. Several ivory-like vegetable parts are also used in imitation of ivory; the ivory palm, for example, produces large, white, hard seeds, called ivory nuts, the endosperm of which is commonly known as vegetable ivory. In painting, ivory is a delicate colour deeper in tone than off-white, but not so deep as cream. Research Ivory
Ivory carving is the art of carving ivory for ornamental or useful purposes, practised from prehistoric to modern times. The ivory most frequently used is obtained from elephant tusks, but other types of ivory or substitute materials include the tusks, teeth, horns, and bones of the narwhal, walrus, and other animals, as well as vegetableivory and synthetic ivories. The earliest ivory carvings known were made in the Old Stone Age. The inhabitants of Europe in the Perigoridan period more than 20,000 years ago produced great numbers of ivory, bone, and horn carvings, with nude female figures being the most common subject. Representations of animals occur most often in the subsequent Magdalenian period. In Egypt the art of ivory and bone carving was developed in predynastic times, before 3000 BC . Large numbers of carved figures of men and women, as well as carved combs, hairpins, and handles, have been found in Egyptian tombs dating from predynastic and early dynastic periods. Objects found in Egyptian tombs of later date include carved ivory weapon hilts and furniture and caskets inlaid with ivory carvings.
Mesopotamian ivories frequently show strong Egyptian influence. They include a series of tablets carved with figures in low relief, made at the ancient Assyrian capital Nineveh. The Minoans in Crete, and later the ancient Greeks, were noted for their ivory carvings. The Minoans carved small acrobats and snake goddesses.
The Greeks were famous especially in the 5th century BC for their chryselephantine statues, often of heroic size, in which the flesh was represented in carved ivory and the hair and garments in sculptured gold. Among the Romans, in late imperial times, consular diptychs of carved ivory were much in demand. A consular diptych was a two-leafed tablet decorated with portraits and scenes commemorating the inauguration of a consul. It contained a sheet of wax for writing and was given to friends. Ivory carving flourished under the Byzantine Empire, particularly in the 5th and 6th centuries and from the 10th to the 13th century. Christian figures, symbols, and scenes were the subjects most commonly depicted on ivory book covers, icons, boxes, shrines, crosiers, crucifixes, door panels, and thrones. A masterpiece of Byzantine ivory is the Throne of Maximilian. Most Byzantine carvings, however, were in the form of a diptych. In Europe during the reigns of Charlemagne and his successors in the 9th and 10th centuries, elaborately carved ivory book covers, reliquaries, and altarpieces were produced.
Relatively little ivory carving was undertaken in Romanesque Europe, but it reached great heights in the Gothic period. Gothic ivories from the 13th to the 15th century were chiefly religious, as in earlier periods, but were more for private devotions than ecclesiastical use. Popular objects included diptychs with deeply carved figures and elaborate architectural decoration. Especially fine work was produced in Paris. During the 15th and 16th centuries, ivory carving was not popular, but in the baroque and rococo periods in the 17th and 18th centuries it again came into vogue, especially in Germany and the Netherlands. German craftsmen were known for richly ornamented ivories; Flemish craftsmen produced statuettes and other sculpture- inspired ivory carvings. France again became an important ivory- carving centre. The chief centres of the industry were the French cities of Dieppe and Paris, where large numbers of crucifixes and other religious objects were produced.
During the 18th century, however, the demand for ivories diminished. Ivory recovered its popularity in decorative arts in the Art Nouveau style at the end of the 19th century. Old ivory carvings are especially valued by 20th-century collectors of ivory, but very little ivory work is now produced in the western hemisphere. Muslim craftsmen in the Middle East created ivory inlay in intricate arabesque patterns on furniture and other woodwork. In the Far East the best-known ivories are those of India, Japan, and particularly China. Indians carved figures of their gods and ornate caskets, often imitating Italian styles. Japanese netsukes, small carved purse toggles, are often made of ivory. The Chinese have traditionally esteemed ivory and encouraged their artists to work in it. The art still flourishes today; objects created include statuettes, chess pieces, fans, screens, toilet articles, chopsticks, and models of buildings and boats. The Chinese are world famous for their ivory curiosities, particularly the concentric ivory balls carved one inside the other by Cantonese craftsmen. In Inuit, African, and American Indian cultures, carving in ivory, horn, and bone has been practised from the earliest times to the present day. Research Ivory Carving
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
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