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
When the Romans conquered Britain in 43 AD, they set about imposing their civilisation in the way they knew best - by providing it with towns and joining them up by roads. Every town laid out by the Romans was arranged on a chess board or grid iron plan of intersecting streets, and was usually protected by a massive square stone wall with a gate in the middle of each side. Most of these towns came into existence as fortified places; the Roman word 'castrum' or 'chester' means 'a military encampment'. Almost all the towns whose names end in this way, such as Winchester, Chichester, Dorchester and Manchester, as well as those whose name endings have been modified, such as Lancaster, Worcester and Gloucester, began their existence as Roman fortified places. The core of the city was the Forum, a group of buildings which comprised the town hall, the court of justice, a shopping centre and spacious meeting place for the people of the town and its surrounding countryside. Roman ideas in town planning were fundamental to the later development of the English town. Research Roman Towns
Henry Thomas Buckle was an English historical writer. He was born in 1822 and died in 1862. The son of a wealthy London merchant, at an early age he entered his father's counting-house, but at the age of eighteen, on inheriting his father's fortune, he devoted himself entirely to study. The only thing he allowed to distract him from his more serious pursuits was chess, in which he held a foremost place amongst contemporary players. His chief work, a philosophic History of Civilization, of which only two volumes (1858 and 1861) were completed, was characterized by much novel and suggestive thought, and by the bold co-ordination of a vast store of materials drawn from the most varied sources. Three volumes of his Miscellaneous and Posthumous works were edited by HelenTaylor in 1872. Research Henry Buckle
Howard Staunton was a British chess player. He was born in 1810 and died in 1874. He defeated Fournie de Saint-Amant in a famous chess match held at Paris in 1843, and was for many years one of the best chess players in the world, beating such celebrated players as Popert, Horwitz and Harrwitz. Howard Staunton was ultimately beaten himself by Andersen at the London tournament of 1851. He wrote several books on the game of chess including the 1847 'The Chess Player's Handbook' and 'The Chess Player's Text-Book' and the 1849 'The Chess Player's Companion'. He edited 'The Chess Player's Chronicle' and 'The Chess World' and from 1844 until his death was chess editor of 'The Illustrated London News'. Research Howard Staunton
Paul Charles Morphy was an American chess player. He was born in 1837 at New Orleans, Louisiana and died in 1884. The son of a keen chess player, by the age of twelve Paul Morphy had played and beaten the best players in New Orleans, and in 1857 he won first prize at the American chess congress. A student of law at Jesuit college, Alabama, he graduated before he was old enough to practise at 21, and instead continued to play chess, winning the US championship and, travelling to Europe, beating the best chess players of Europe, thereby becoming the first unofficial world chess champion, before returning to the USA in 1864. In 1860 J Lowenthal edited a book entitled 'Morphy's Games Of Chess' which is regarded as a classictitle in the chess world. Research Paul Morphy
Wilhelm Steinitz was a Bohemian chess-player. He was born in 1836 at Prague and died in 1900. Educated at the institute of technology, Vienna, in 1866 he beat Andressen in a match by eight games to six, and in 1868 he won first prize in the British Chess Association Handicap. In 1872 he won the London grand tournament, the 1873 Viennachessconference and in 1876 he defeated Blackburne in seven consecutivegames. For some time he was chess editor of The Field and in 1884 he settled in the USA where he published The International Chess Magazine from 1885 until 1891. Research Wilhelm Steinitz
An android is an automaton figure (a robot) of a human being. One of the most famous androids was the chess-player made by or for the baron of Kempelen in 1784 which caused quite a stir when it was exhibited in Paris, and even played chess against Napoleon. Research Android
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Abbreviations
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