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 elk-hound is a breed of dog imported to Britain from Norway where it was bred to track elk and other large animals. It is a small dog resembling the Inuitdog, with a strong and stout build and erect, pointed ears and a thick coat. Research Elk-Hound
The Malamute (or Malemute) is an Alaskan Inuitdog of the spitz type. They have a dense usually greyish coloured coat and stand about 70 cm tall. The breed was developed by the Mahlemut tribe of Indians as sleigh dogs and are a hardy and good companion breed of dog. Research Malamute
Frederick Schwatka was an American Arctic explorer. He was born in 1849 at Galena, Illinois and died in 1892. In 1878 he undertook a voyage of Arcticdiscovery in search of relics of Sir John Franklin's party. He made sledge journeys from the shores of Hudson Bay to King William Land and returned in 1880 after suffering terrible hardships, with a number of relics obtained from the Inuit. In 1886 and 1889 he carried out explorations of Alaska. Research Frederick Schwatka
The Inuit (also Innuit) are a people inhabiting the Arctic coasts of North America, the east islands of the Canadian Arctic, and the ice-free coasts of Greenland. They are short of stature, averaging around 1.6 meters tall, with broad, fat faces, black eyes, brownish yellow skin and coarse black hair. They live by hunting and fishing. Hunting is done with dog drawn sledges, fishing from a canoe. During the summer they live in tents and in winter huts made from turf and snow heated by oil lamps. They tend to live in small groups of twenty to thirty families and practise a shamanistic religion. In 1912 an expedition discovered white Inuit with red hair and blue eyes and implements which led to the belief that they may be descendants of old NorseVikings who visited North America from 1000 onwards. Inuktitut, their language, has about 60,000 speakers; it belongs to the Eskimo-Aleut group. The Inuit object to the name Eskimos (an insulting Abenaki word meaning 'raw flesh-eater') given them by the Algonquin Indians. Research Inuit
Knud Johan Victor Rasmussen was a Danisharctic explorer. He was born in 1879 at Jakobshavn and died in 1933. He made a number of journeys into the arctic circle to study the lives of the Inuit. Research Knud Rasmussen
Mongoloid refers to one of the three major races of humans, including the indigenous peoples of Asia, the Indians of the Americas, Polynesians, and the Inuit and Aleuts. General physical traits include dark eyes with epicanthic folds; straight to wavy dark hair; little beard or body hair; fair to tawny skin; low to medium-bridged noses; thin to medium lips. Research Mongoloid
The Onkilon were a division of the Inuit family, formerly inhabiting north-east Siberia about East Cape on the Bering Strait. They were wiped out by Chukche invaders around the 16th century. Research Onkilon
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Ivory Carving
