% uu a i a ie Audie Sie tm TRIPTYCH ITALIAN WORKMANSHIP; XV CENTURY. THE VIRGIN ENTHRONED, SCENES FROM THE GOSPELS ST. PETER AND ST. FRANCIS AT THE LEFT, ST. BERNARD AND ST. DOMINIC AT THE RIGHT. MUSEEF DU LOUVRE r~YyYoOoORY AND THE ELEPHANT IN ART, IN ARCHAEOLOGY, AND IN SCIENCE GARDEN CITY NEW YORK DOUBLEDAY, PAGE AND COMPANY ...MCMXVI “Aa- / Ms 1¥%6.\ KI6L * COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE AND COMPANY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUD- ING THAT OF TRANSLATION INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, IN- CLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN TO ALFRED LACROIX, PH.D., LL.D., Etc MEMBRE DE L’INSTITUT DE FRANCE SECRETAIRE PERPETUEL DE L’ACADEMIE DES SCIENCES CURATOR OF THE MINERALOGICAL DEPARTMENT IN THE MUSEUM D'HISTOIRE NATURELLE, PARIS THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR AS A TRIBUTE OF ADMIRATION ~ AND REGARD AUTHOR’S PREFACE Tue publication of a new book on ivory may seem not only uncalled for, but even in some degree presumptuous, when so many excellent works are already at the disposal of those who wish to acquire some knowledge of this interesting sub- ject. To mention only a few of the leading writers on this theme, we have the attractive and comprehensive book en- titled “Ivories” by Alfred Maskell,* and the masterly vol- ume by Emile Molinier, “Les Ivoires,” forming part of his work “Histoire générale des arts appliqués a l’industrie.”’f Another work, one that is perhaps less widely known to the general reader, is J. O. Westwood’s “Descriptive catalogue of the fictile ivories in the South Kensington Museum.’’f This scholarly treatise is in many ways a fit companion to the studies of Maskell and Molinier, for as Westwood includes in his survey the large collection of castings in the South Kensington Museum, his book is exceedingly comprehensive. Another writer who has done splendid work in this field is the German, Hans Graeven, whose choice selection of pho- tographs of the most representative ivory carvings in various countries, as well as his numerous special articles on the *Alfred Maskell, ‘“‘Ivories,’’ London, Methuen & Co. [1905], xii, 444 pp., 88 pl., 4to (Connoisseur’s Library). {Emile Molinier “Les Ivoires,” Paris [1896], 245 pp., ill., pl., folio; Vol. I of his “‘ Histoire générale des arts appliqués 4 l’industrie.” tJ. O. Westwood, “‘Descriptive catalogue of the fictile ivories in the South Kensington Museum, with an account of the Continental collections of classical and medieval ivories,” London, 1876, 24 photos, 9 woodcuts, imp. octavo. Vv v1 AUTHOR’S PREFACE subject, have done so much to enlist public attention and interest.* In citing these few names from among those of the many able writers who have treated of the artistic use of ivory, we have merely aimed to indicate some of the more exhaustive or better known literature, and must refer those seeking for detailed information to the catalogues of the principal libra- ries. The splendid lecture by Sir Richard Owen, delivered before the London Society of Arts in 1856, contained much of value and interest. While admitting the unquestionable excellence and au- thority of these and similar works, the writer of the present book has long felt that it would be possible to accomplish something in this field upon combined and yet different lines. The art of ivory carving and the beautiful produc- tions of this art have been most satisfactorily presented, but it remains possible to enlarge the scope of our investigations so as to combine with the purely esthetic side of the subject a study of the sources of this fascinating material as well as of its physical characteristics. In this connection data regarding the history of man’s knowledge of the elephant, and of the methods followed by the elephant hunters of various times and lands, will better enable us to realize the fact that we owe our pleasure in viewing some masterpiece of ivory carving not only to the artist’s skill, but also to the arduous and often perilous task of the elephant hunter whose activities have supplied the beautiful pearl of the forest. If we are able to add to this some information regarding the evolution, distribution, and habits of the elephant, we shall have made a distinct gain, for our intelligent apprecia- tion of the final results of any exercise of human endeavour is always broadened and deepened by an adequate knowledge *Hans Graeven “‘Friihchristliche und mittelalterliche Elfenbeinwerke in photograph- ischer Nachbildung: Aus Sammlungen in England,” 1898, “‘Aus Sammlungen in Italien,” 1900, and a large number of papers in various periodical publications. AUTHOR’S PREFACE vil of the many stages leading up to such a final result. Indeed it is only those who have trained themselves to comprehend and appreciate all the manifold factors that go to make up any finished product of human skill or genius who can really enjoy it and profit by it. If in the present book the writer has in the slightest de- gree attained the aim he set for himself in its composition he will feel himself amply repaid for the time and pains be- stowed upon it. As this volume is more extensive in its scope than a_ work devoted exclusively to Ivory, it was necessary to con- sult authorities covering a wide field. In this connection it gives me pleasure to acknowledge my obligation to those whose courtesies have enabled me to add so much that would otherwise be difficult of access or impossible to obtain and would never have been printed. Cart AKELEY, Naturalist, American Museum of Natural History, E. A. Buarep, of the Department of Commerce, Harris R. Curips, Hunter and Explorer, Dr. J. WyMAN Drummonp, New York City, H. W. Kent, Secretary of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Carouine E. Ransom, Assistant Curator in the Department of Egyptian Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, J. Martini, Paleeographer, E. Husert LitcHrie_p, Pror. WALDEMAR KAEMPFFERT, F. R. KautpEnsBere, Dr. Witu1am T. Hornapay, Director New York Zodélogical Park, Pror. Henry Fatrrtetp Oszorn, President of the American Mu- seum of Natural History, Miss Curistina D. Martruew, American Museum of Natural History, JoHN Gertz, Art Expert, JaMEs Barnes, Sportsman and Traveller, JAMES L. CLARK, Wiiu1am Fitz Huca WHITEHOUSE, vill AUTHOR’S PREFACE Howtanp Woon, Curator, and Bannock L. Be.pEn, Secretary of the American Numismatic Society, E. R. Howupen, Henry WALTERS, GARDNER C. TEALL, Dr. Louis Livincston SEAMAN, Wiuiam §. Pace, for many data on Congo and Belgian i ivory, E. T. Newett, President of the American Numismatic Society, Pror. James S. Macerecor, Department of Physics, Columbia University, Messrs. Tirrany & Co., ALBERT A. SourHwick, and ArtHur L. Barney, for much aid in obtaining photographs, CHARLES Byron BLAKE, Dr. CHarues S. Brappock, JR., Grorce E. Asupy, Ramon Guiteras, M.D., Tuomas W. ASHWELL, Miss Mary A. Dickerson, Editor of the Journal of the American Museum of Natural History, to whom is due the suggestion that led to the preparation of this volume; all of New York City. Dr. Stewart W. Cutin, Oriental Archeologist of the Brooklyn Institute Museum, Brooklyn, N. Y., Dr. James B. Nis, Assyriologist, Brooklyn, N. Y., Dr. Joun D. Cuark, State Geologist, Albany, N. Y., Dr. Henry Lee Sirs, President, and Henry R. How ann, Superintendent, Buffalo Society of Natural History, Mrs. Exsizn W. Soutuwick CiarKk, Miniaturist, Onaga J., J. W. Barr, Miniaturist, East Orange, N. J., Lizut. G. T. Emmons, Greenholm, Princeton, N. J., Pror. Epwarp C. Kirx, University of Pennsylvania, H. J. Hetnz, Pittsburgh, Pa., Pror. A. V. Witiiams Jackson, Columbia University, Dr. W. D. Marruew, Curator, American Museum of Natural History, Hersert Lane, Leader of Congo Expeditions, American Museum of Natural History, Miss Eruent Quinton Mason, W. SEWALL, AUTHOR’S PREFACE 1X Dr. ArtHur FarrBanks, Curator Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass., Garrit Forsss, Boston, Mass., Hon. Joun D. Barrett, Director, and F. J. YAnus, Assistant Director, Pan-American Union, Washington, D. C., Dr. O. P. Hay, Palzontologist, U.S. National Museum, Washing- ton, D. C., Pror. R. Ratusun, Acting Secretary, U. S. National Museum, Washington, D. C., Dr. Artuur M. Brooks, U. 8. Geological Survey, VisuppHI Donavanik, Siamese Legation, Washington, D. C., Dr. Aves Hrpricka, Curator in Physical Anthropology, National Museum, Washington, D. C., Pror. Ricuarp S. Luu, Professor of Vertebrate Paleontology, Yale University, Peabody Museum of Natural History, New Haven, Conn., Miss C. M. Le Verre, Peabody Museum, Yale University, Pror. G. R. Wretanp, Yale Museum, New Haven, Conn., Grorce A. Wormwoop, Deep River, Conn., formerly of New York, Rey. Dr. W. S. Rarnsrorp, Ridgefield, Conn., AmaAsA Stone Matuer, Cleveland, Ohio, Pror. S. W. Wiiuiston, and Pror. James Henry BreEastep, Egyptologist, University of Chicago, Chicago, II., Dr. BertHoLtp Laurer, Curator of Archeology Department, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IIl., Frank 8. Daceett, Director of the Museum of History, Science and Art, Los Angeles, Cal., Dr. Hector Auuiott, Director, Southwestern Museum, Los An- geles, Cal., Pror. H. R. Fairctouex, Leland Stanford University, Cal., ArtHuR Hutcuinson, Palo Alto, Cal., Grorce H. Barron, Curator of the Memorial Museum, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, Cal., Mrs. D. W. Dr Vere, Acting Curator of the Oakland Public Museum, Oakland, Cal., Dr. Erwin H. Barpour, State Geologist of Nebraska, Lincoln, Neb., CHARLES L. Frear, Detroit, Mich., J. ALLAN, British Museum, London, Eng., J. B. Burtace, Managing Director of Rowland Ward, Ltd., Lon- don, Eng., AUTHOR’S PREFACE L. Le1en Fermor, London, Eng., A. W. FEAvEARYEAR, London, Eng., Licot. F. W. Feavearyear, of the British Army, London, Eng., Sm Cnartes Hercutes Reap, Curator of Archeology, and Dr. E. A. Waits Buper, Curator of Assyrian and Egyptian Depart- ment, British Museum, London, Eng., The late Dr. Ricoarp LypExKsr, Curator, Department of Zodlogy, British Museum (recently deceased), Dr. Crectt Situ, British Museum London, Eng., Dr. H. Smita Woopwarp, Natural History Division, British Museum, London, Eng., Lizut. ALEXANDER H. WHEELER of the West Somerset Yeomanry, Messrs. Hate & Son, Ivory Dealers, London, Eng., Pror. A. Lacrorx, Director of the Department of Mineralogy, Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France; Perpetual Secre- tary Académie des Sciences, Dr. StanisLas Meunier, Professeur-Administrateur au Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Président de la Société Géologique de France, Paris, Mons. Greorces PEuissier, Paris, France, M. Satomon Retnacgu, Director of the Musée de St. Germain-en- Laye, France, Herrn GeHemratuH Dr. Karu FurGop, Director of the Kunst Museum, Gotha, Germany, Dr. Peter JESSEN, Director of the Bibliothek des KGniglichen Kunstgewerbe-Museums, Berlin, Germany, Pror. Marc RosEnBERG, Karlsruhe, Baden, Germany, Cart Hacenseck, Importer and exporter of wild animals, Stellin- gen, near Hamburg, Germany, Messrs. Voiet & HocucEsane, Gottingen, Germany, ARTHUR VON Brigsen, New York, Dr. Lampert of Stuttgart, Germany, Herr L. WeIninNGER, Artist-artisan, Vienna, Austria, Witiarp K. SHAer, Secretary of the London Commission for Relief in Belgium, Hon. Hues S. Grsson, American Legation, Brussels, Belgium, Dr. R. Scuarrr, National Museum of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland, Hon. Henry D. Baxer, American Consul, Bombay, India, J. KELSALL SLoTER, Geological Survey of Mysore, Bengalore, India, F. D. Cuxrsuire, American Consul General, Canton, China, AUTHOR’S PREFACE xl F. Lozewinson-Lussine, Institut Polytechnique de St. Pétersbourg, Laboratoire de Minéralogie et de Géologie, Dr. G. O. CuErc, President of the Uralian Society, Ekaterinburg, Russia, Pror. W. F. Hume, Director of the Geological Survey of Egypt, Cairo, Egypt, Capr. GILBERT CLAYTON, Sudan Agent, War Office, Cairo, Egypt, Dr. K. Inouye, Director of the Imperial Geological Survey of Japan, Tokyo, Japan, Yasuuunisa Moai, ivory carver, son of Mitsutoshi Otoni, wood carver, formerly of Tokyo, M. A. Lame, Director of the Instituto de Geologia y Perforaciones, Montevideo, Uruguay, S. A. Dr. E. T. Metxor, Director of the Geological Survey of South Africa, Pretoria, Africa, Emer R. Morey, former U.S. Consul, Colombo, Ceylon, P. E. Pieris, Colombo, Ceylon, W. J. Yersy, U.S. Consul, Dakar, Senegal, Dr. E. Venapsky, Imperial Academy of Sciences, Petrograd, Russia, Special acknowledgment is due Dr. Edward H. Barbour, Prof. Richard S. Lull, and Dr. William D. Matthew for their valuable assistance in the preparation of the chapter on elephant evolution, and to Thomas F. Ryan, Esq., for much important material regarding the ivory commerce of the Congo and the carving of ivory in Belgium. . vgs Phy Mey CONTENTS XUTHORS (eREBACE .. .0 0S CONTENTS . A List oF fhe ee rearioNs CHAPTER I PREHISTORIC AND ANCIENT CARVED IvorIES Il Meprevat anp Mopern Ivory Carvines TIT Orrentayt Ivory Carvines IV Eversants, Historicau V Evepuant Hountine, Etc. 4 VI Sources, COMPOSITION, AND Ouarinie OF Ivory VIL WorkineG or Ivory VIII VEGETABLE AND ImITATION vone IX Narwuau Horns, Watreus Tusxks, Etc. X EwepHants, Evotution or; Atso Mastopon, Mammorn, Etc. XI Evernant Tusks XII THe ComMMERCE oF Ivory ADDENDA PROBOSCIDEA oan Ivory Carvers oF ALL ee AND Tans List oF CHINESE Ivory CARVERS List oF JAPANESE Ivory CARVERS .... . MED Nee re eg Seah aa aaa RNR NSH etal re aiels xill PAGE xi XV 38 99 136 192 219 Qh] 279 292 323 387 432 474 487 495 509 510 513 as : e 7 s _ , is 3 Ae ate a : hat 4, ; ‘ tm We ah krata So pant LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE Triptycu: The Virgin Enthroned, Scenes from the Gospels Title Italian Workmanship; XV Century. Musée du Louvre SuaB oF Ivory EtcHep witH a Ficure or A HAIRY Mammotu Prehistoric. From La Medicine Valley of fe Vege Denes ee Muséum D Histoire Naturelle, Paris VotivE Heap Rest anp Cuatr-Foort. ST ni tebiewe witiscs Ancient Egyptian Art, III to II Century, B. C. Musée du Louvre VotTivE CASTAGNETS 5 UES SONNE 6 aL a ea Art of First Theban Empire. Musée du Louvre Eayptian Ivory Wanp Published by the Courtesy of the Metnooulitan Macca of Ast, Ivory STATUETTES coh UDR eh MeL? Greco-Ionic Art of the VII or VI Cae B. C. Musée du Louvre ASSYRIAN Ivories: Head of a Bull and Panels . About 900 B. C. British Museum > Ivory Comps AND ASSYRIAN OR PHGNICIAN STATUETTES Assyrian or Pheenician IX to VII Century, B. C. Musée du Louvre Ivory STATUETTE Elamite Art of 2000 to 1500 B. C. Mase ae ae Nene Diculatoy Ragas ANCIENT GREEK Ivory CaRVING. Spake) AM nuke From the Island of Crete. Boston Museum of Fine Arts ANTIQUE Ivory SPINDLES AND CHARMS . ... . III Century, A.D. From Syrian Tombs. Heap or OtymMpPIAN ZEUS. .. ate After the Chryselephantine Statue by Phidias at ‘oleae Reverse of a coin of Hadrian (117-138 A. D.). Bibliothéque Nationale XV 12 13 14 15 20 24 Xvl LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Mepau or Emperor HaprRIan Struck in Elis and Bearing on the Reverse a Repreasaiation of the Great Chryselephantine Zeus of Olympia by Phidias. In the Museum at Florence, Italy Lear or a Diptycu or JusTINIANUS mR eee Consul in 521 A.D. From Autun. Bibliothéque Nationale Lear or A Diptycu or Macnus Ee Sead ae Consul in 518 A. D. From Holland. Bibliothéque Nationale Wine or a Trietycu Deprictine St. THEoporus Byzantine Art of X or XI Century. Musée du Louvre Consular DriptTycn. Ae os ee Leaf of a Diptych of Felix, Consul in 498 A D. Bibliothéque Nationale Lear oF a ConsuLar Diprycu of tie at ON ct Roman Art of the V or VI Century. Musée de Cluny, Paris Ivory PLaQuE Depictine St Pau ste pale Latin Art of the VI Century. Musée de Cluny, Paris ConsuLaR DiprycH or ANASTASIUS . : : Consul in 517 A. D. From Bourges, now in the Bibliotheque Nationale ConsuuaR Diptycu oF PHILOXENUS. Consul in 525 A. D. From St. Corneille de Compiégne. Bibliothéque Nationale Two Leaves or A Roman Diptycn. Left Hand Leaf in the South Kensington Museum. Right Hand Leaf in the Musée de Cluny, Paris Pyx FoR CONTAINING THE Host. fh an ea Latin Art of V or VI Century. Both Sides. Musée de Cluny, Paris Tvory CaskEt Oe es etl y Sag ECR ee ee Carolingian, X Century. J. Pierpont Morgan Collection Pyxis or Carvep Ivory 2 SEN REE VE ih tke Byzantine X or XI Century. J. Pierpont Morgan Collection St. Paut PREACHING OP SEE ei i An Italian Ivory of the VI or VII Cae Musée du Louvre Ivory Puaqut DEPICTING THE CRUCIFIXION Ace Carlovingian Art of the X Century. British Museum Ivory Puaquss: Figuring Four of the Zodiacal Signs . Byzantine Art of the IX Century. Musée de Cluny, Paris FACING PAGE 24 vo Or 28 28 29 29 30 31 32 33 36 36 37 38 39 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Ivory Panex: Adorning the Cover of an Evangelium . Probably a Work of the IX Century. Musée de Cluny, Paris - CoRONATION OF Romanus IV anv or Evupoxia Book Cover of a Copy of the Works of St. Jean de Besancon. Bibliothéque Nationale Triprycu: Central Panel Depicting the Crucifixion Byzantine Art of the XII Century. Bibliothéque Nationale Book Cover oF AN EVANGELIUM J pM NEP AR Carlovingian Art. Bibliothéque Nationale Ivory CaskET ICU AS SLA Arete Fa CEs Manan Oi Roman Art of the X Cannes: Musée du Louvre CaRvED Book Cover Italian Art of the XIII Century. Reale Museo Nazionale, Florence, Carrand Collection RELIEF-CARVING: oe the Christ of the es lypse German Art of the XI Canes: Reale Museo Nazionale, Florence, Carrand Collection CovER OF AN EvaNnGeEtium: Showing Ivory-Carved Figures and with Borderings of Pearls and Precious Stones . Bibliothéque Nationale SipE AND Lip or aN Ivory COFFER ! Moorish Art of the XV Century. Reale Museo Nebionale, Florence Ivory Carvep CovER OF AN EVANGELIUM. t Byzantine Art. Bibliothéque de |’Arsenal, Paris OnE oF THE ARMS OF A CROSS HN EN RU yi Spanish Art of the XII Century. Musée du Louvre CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN ay SEO Ge et French Art, end of XIII Century. Musée du Louvre Mirror Cases 2 COL eR a eC French Art of the XIII en Musée de Cluny, Paris Ivory Triptycu: Carved with Scenes from the New Testa- ment . Me al a i a ae a a eRe French Art of the XIV Cae Musée de Cluny, Paris Triprycu: Scenes from the New Testament Italian Art of the XIV Century. Musée de Cluny, oes XVI FACING PAGE 40 40 40 Al 42 43 43 4A AS 48 49 50 51 52 53 XVI LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Ivory Bas-REeuier: Coloured and Gilded . MA Italian Art of the XIV Century. Musée de Cluny, Paris Episcopat Crozier (Front and back view) . : French Art of the XIV Century. Musée de Gliny, Paris VIRGIN JAN y@emai ei, ee French Art of the XIV Century. Musée du Louvre Lower SIDE oF A CASKET Pe ales a es Byzantine Art of the IX Century. Musée de Cluny, Paris PortaBLeE ALTAR wi gat) Ada German Art of the XII Cae Musée de Cluny, Paris Dietycu with Rewier Carvincs oF SCENES FROM THE Passion . Pee ee Et ee oa ee rr French Art of the XIV Ce Musée de Cluny, Paris Ivory CaskET . . Dae Cee ee at French, End of the XVI Giatiey: Collection of George Salting, Esq. VIRGIN AND CHILD . Franco-Flemish Art, End of the XIV Gentine or ee of fic XV Century. Musée du Louvre Ivory SappLE-Prece Spanish or Sicilian Art; End of the XII ee or Rese of the XIV Century. Musée du Louvre Ivory Harp, FRaNcE : Flemish Art, End of the XIV Genre or Bernine of the XV Gone Musée du Louvre Tue DEPOSITION FROM THE CROSS Sculpture in Ivory Attributed to Michelangelo (?). Reale Museo Nazionale, Florence Ivory “OuipHant’’: Decorated with Hunting Designs. French Art of the XVII Century. Musée de Cluny, Paris Ivory “OuipHant’’: Decorated with Animals and Birds Soltykoff Collection Ivory “OuipHant’’: with Religious Decoration German Art of the XI Century. Musée de Cluny, Pan Har oF THE HANDLE OF A FLABELLUM . .. . . Carolingian (Southern France), XII Century. DRAUGHTSMEN. French (?) and North msde XIII a XIV. Cuinsin Victoria and Albert Museum FACING PAGE 54 55 56 57 57 58 59 60 61 61 62 63 63 63 68 68 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS CarvepD Ivory Box wiry Screw Lip . f German, XVII Century Museo del Collegio Romano SNUFF GRATER Dutch, Early XVIII Century. TANKARD AND COVER Se a ce ea Augsburg, Late XVII Century. British Museum THE VIRGIN AND CHILD Ms) es Ce Byzantine, X or XI Century. Collection of J. Pierpont Morgan STATUETTE OF A SAINT. bys) eg ail de Sn pe Spanish Art of the XV Century. Musée de Cluny, Paris Six Ivory CHESSMEN MN sil tue adl nto hicnh ini Joh Beans Medieval Art. Bibliothéque Nationale REwieFs In Ivory BO ae Se Raa He Os XV Century Work. Musée de Cluny, Paris Lear or A Diptycu SHOWING THE CRUCIFIXION . ¢ XV Century. Musée de Cluny, Paris Lear or Aa Diptycn DEpPIcTING THE CRUCIFIXION AND ENTOMBMENT OF CHRIST 1 AGRA aia eee NN Examples of XV Century French Art. Musée de Cluny, Paris CoNTEMPORANEOUS Russian Ivory CaRVINGs. A Empress Catherine II; Prince Paul Petrovitch; Princess Maria Feodorovna “THe FLORENTINE Boy’’ By the Late A. Moreau-Vauthier. THREE Ivory STATUETTES. Belgian Sculptors, XX Century. Ivory RELIEF Be haat Gt eh at i Dee XVII Century Work. Dr. Henry Lee Smith Collection Liturcicat Box. Bog WAS tlle tana nen ean Mae Carved Ivory of XII Century. From the Museum Czartoryski Two Ivory TRIPTycuHs. oa Aiea RRR RE ea French Art of the XVI Century. George A. Hearn Collection CHARLEMAGNE’S Ivory CuEssMAN: Front View i Indian Art. Bibliothéque Nationale CHARLEMAGNE’S Ivory CHESSMAN: Rear View . ‘ Tndian Art. Bibliothéque Nationale XIX FACING PAGE 68 68 69 72 72 73 TA 7A 7A 75 76 a 92 93 100 101 xX LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Ganesa: The Elephant God of the Hindu Pantheon XVII Century. Collection of Charles L. Freer, Esq., Detroit Carvep Ivory Casket: The Reliefs Depicting Scenes from the Ramayana Given by the Municipality of Delhi to ee Gee a gees Moe Meptevau Ivory-Carvep CHESSMEN ie en Bibliothéque Nationale Ivory Grovur “DourGa VictTorious’’ eA Indian Carving. Musée Guimet, Paris Ivory STATUETTE OF DatRUMA gt odd. a ae Japanese Art: Carved by Sosai. Collection of A. N. Beadleston, Esq. Ivory CABINET witH Sitver Mounts ee Cinghalese, XVII Century. Victoria and Albert Museum Ivory VaAsEs ohn ale ap ake tase tae Chinese Art of the XVII Geni Reale Museo Nazionale, Florence Ivory Snurr Bort.ies . Chinese, XVIII Century. DRINKING VESSEL OF CARVED Ivory French Art of the XVI Century. From the Museum Czartoryski, Cracow, Austrian Poland GROTESQUE CHINESE STATUETTE Probably of the XVIII Century. From the Museum Czartoryski, Cracow, Austrian Poland JAPANESE FIGURE MDE ANOMI Morac tert mar Beginning of the XIX Century. Musée Guimet, Paris Carvep Ivory Fan. Chinese, XVIII Century. Ivory Pacopa a ee ee ee eee Chinese, Latter Part of the XVIII ees Musée Guimet, Paris MANDARINS’ SCEPTRES . Fie ete Re ee eee Chinese Art, XVIII Century. Musée Guimet, Paris Carvep Ivory VaAsE Chinese Work. From Catalogue of Collection of Pines Kae of China Tvory Mopru or A CHINESE WoMAN Used by Chinese Physician. Courtesy of Dr. Berthold Laufer FACING PAGE 108 109 114 115 116 ity 118 119 120 120 120 121 122 123 124 125 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Carvines IN Mammotu Ivory By SIBERIAN NATIVE. RELIEF-CARVING BY SIBERIAN EskKIMo t Carved on Mammoth Ivory. Collection of Henry Talia! Bee ELABORATELY CarRvED Ivory Vase: (OPEN Work) Modern Chinese Art. VIRGIN AND CHILD Spanish Art from Philippine Islands, XVII Cees Witp ELersants—Just Captrurep Ceylon. Courtesy of Dr. Grae S, Bide ik ComBat BETWEEN Two Composite ELEPHANTS GUIDED By DEmMoNsS PTAA) cet waar) tel iy ly nN Drawn by Hindu Artist. Journal of Indian Art and Industry Tyres oF ELEPHANT CoINs Greek, Roman, and Modern. Famous INp1AN ELEPHANT “Gunpa’’ (Killed in 1915) Height 9 feet 3 inches. Aged 20 years. New York Zodlogical Society ScENE FROM A Fatry FoLKLORE TALE OF THE WHITE ELEPHANT RPM MMII NY Wi Aiaeae oe carn ah bali Ceylon. From a aie olbar Contes of Dr. Charles S. Braddock, Jr. A Fresuty Duc ELEpPHant Pir . A Smauu Herp oF ELEPHANTS RESTING IN A Bit oF BRUSH- WOOD Courtesy of Mr. Carl E. eee Journal of the American Museum of Natural History Heap or Buuwu ELEPHANT KILLED BY Mr. Cart E. AKELEY Courtesy of Mr. Carl EK. Akeley. GRovE or PLANTAIN TREES Courtesy of Mr. Carl E. Akeley. Two ELEPHANTS Courtesy of Mr. Carl E. Ay VIEW INTO THE Deptus oF A BamBoo JUNGLE ON Mount Kenia Courtesy of Mr. Carl E. Tees Journal of the American Museum of Natural History Tue WounpDED CoMRADE Sculptor, Carl E. Akeley. Xxl FACING PAGE 126 127 134 135 138 170 171 188 198 199 202 203 206 206 207 212 Xx LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS CovERED ELEPHANT Pit Courtesy of Mr. Carl E. Akeley. Journal of the American Museum of Natural History BREAKING WILD ELEPHANTS Bangkok, Siam. Courtesy of Dr. Charles S. ‘Baahidoee a CapTtuRED ELEPHANTS INSIDE THE CORRAL AFTER AN ELEPHANT Hunt Bangkok, Siam. Courtesy of Dr. Chel S, Binideds a ELEPHANT Herp CrossiInc A RIVER. Near Bangkok, Siam. ELEPHANTS THAT CARRIED THE VACCINATION TRAIN THROUGH THE JUNGLE . Courtesy of Dr. Charles S. Braddock, Jr., Chief Tiayeste af the King of Siam Tuer StrRuctTuRE oF Ivory Transverse Section of Elephant Tusk; pierce Beaeties of ‘Maseaen Tusk; Section Showing Interior. Courtesy of Prof. G. R. Wieland An Ivory CARAVAN At Anakubi, Belgian Congo, in eines 1909. Taken te Mr. ones ie Leader of the American Museum of Natural History, Congo Expedition A ReEcENTLY CARVED Ivory Tortet Set ..... . JAPANESE Ivory Carvers’ WorRKSHOP ' In Tokio. From the Illustrated Lacan Noe A Group or Lanp Snaits, By Ryo Kusan Designed for Use as a Crystal-ball Stand. A BaNaNna . . af ah Cee Realistic Japanese ee Gaaees nee XX Chivas THE DanisH CORONATION CHAIR. In the Rosenborg Castle, Coneaaean Deigiek Gop Givinc ApAM DomMINIOoN OvrErR ALL CREATION : From a Flemish Tapestry. Galleria Antica e Moderna, Florence WHALEBONE PLAQUE English (Winchester School); About 1000 A D. Tieton aaa Albert Museen CruciFix oF Princess GuNHILDE; Walrus Ivory. Scandinavian-Byzantine Art of XI Century. | Royal Museum, Copenhagen Watrus Ivory Tav-Hrap A cues ara North European XII Century. Victoria and Albert Museum FACING PAGE 213 214 214 215 215 220 232 252 276 277 Q77 292 293 304 305 305 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Watrus Ivory DAM Sak OT kL CRE a Seward Peninsula, Alaska. Collection of Commander G. T. Emmons SECTIONS OF WaLRus Tusk : From Behring Sea Coast of Alaska. Collection of Coniidtidee G T. Hisnene FisH-LINE Compete; Work of Eskimo . From Behring Sea Coast of Alaska, Collection of Commander G. 7. miteons Eskimo Ivory Carvines Wehner ciFlis. Wie i, sees a From Behring Sea Coast of Alaska. Collection of Commander G. T. Emmons Expert CHINESE Ivory CARVER. Canton. TEMPLE aT Kanpy, CEYLON. . SEINE Sani Ba Where the Sacred Tooth-relic of Buddha Is Ken “Tue Tootu oF BuppHa’”’ The Great Sacred Relic of Ceylon. ScrimsHaw Work Done By AMERICAN SaILors ABOUT 1864 Etchings on Walrus Tusk. Decoration on Bone of a Whale. Collection of the Author ScRIMSHAW WorK oF AMERICAN SAILOR A Pair of Walrus Tusks. Collection of A. N. Besdiectont ee Tue GrRinpiInc TEETH oF Mastopons, MamMMoTuHs, AND Mopern ELEPHANTS American Museum of Neen Tete Beda Hall Tue BreresovKA Mammotu (Elephas Primigenius) From Northwestern Siberia. In the Imperial Museum of Natural History, Petrograd ARRANGEMENT OF Four SKELETONS Asiatic Elephant; African Elephant; Columbian Mauimaths Tyas Masten. American Museum Natural History, Proboscidian Hall Mammut AMERICANUM From the Rancho la Brea Fossil Been Los Agee Galitewtin. Published by Courtesy of Director Frank S. Daggett Remains oF Mammotun, Mastopon, aNd OTHER EXtTINcT SPECIES From the Deposits at een la Bien, Tae Aree Caen California. In the Los Angeles County Museum of History, Science, and Art Rancuo La Brea Showing Location of Fossil Pits in ne Pee me meted California XXill FACING PAGE 306 308 308 309 310 314 315 320 321 332 333 340 341 358 359 XX1V LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Rancuo LA BREA, SECTION OF “ELEPHANT Pit’’ (Pit No. 9) Showing Teeth of Blepbent a Waviows Bowes! um ee Ta Anecies California EMBRYO OF AN ELEPHANT. sis es Tesoid td Magnan naa At One Third of the Two Years of Gestation: Courtesy of Mr. Carl E. Akeley SnakE River aNnpD Canyon WALLS Cherry County, Nebraska. From Nebraska Cooler Sues MANDIBLE OF TETRABELODON LULLI : Found in Deposits at Snake River, Cherry County, Nebeeets in 1914. Courtesy of Dr. Erwin H. Barbour, State Geologist of Nebraska MountEep SKELETON OF THE CoLUMBIAN MAMMOTH (Elephas Columb) Found near Jonesboro, Grant County, Indiana, in 1903. Now in the American Museum of Natural History, New York Picmy Evepuant “Conao”’ (Elephas Pumilis) . : Aged 11 Years. Height 4 Feet. New York Zodlogical Society ImpeR1IAL Mammotu (Elephas Imperator) From Victoria, Southern Texas. Courtesy of Dr. Erwin H. Raine. Great Tusk or Elephas Columbi “Cinched” with Bandages of Burlap, Plaster, and Lath. Bee for Cite Collection of Hon. Charles H. Morrill SKULL AND Tusks oF Elephas Columbi . : In Position in Loess Bank, Campbell, Franklin County, Nebraska. Ture Two Larcest Tusks IN THE WORLD... One, Weighing 226 Pounds, Is Now in the British Museum. Tusks oF A SOUDANESE ELEPHANT A Record Pair of Tusks Presented to the New York Zoilogical Gane bs the Late Charles T. Barney. Huce ELEPHANT Brought Down by a Well-aimed Shot ee Carl E. ‘austen: Acacta TREE oF FirtreN INcHES DIAMETER . Broken Down by an Elephant. Courtesy of Carl E. aia Fossiz ELEPHANT TuskKs From the Lena River, Siberia. A Fortune 1n Ivory Each Tusk Worth $50 to $100: ee JAGGING WHEELS Made by Sailors from Whale Teeth or “Wyalinns Poss Old Dartmouth Historical Society, New Bedford, Mass. FACING PAGE 359 362 363 376 377 384 392 396 396 410 411 4.22 422 426 442 482 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FOLDING PLATES THe ELEPHANT AND His ANCESTORS Map SHOWING THE DISTRIBUTION OF VARIOUS PLEISTOCENE Mammat Deposits In ALASKA AND THE ADJACENT CANADIAN TERRITORY From Bulletin of the American Museum of Nee eRe IMPORTATION OF Ivory, 1909-1914 Published by the courtesy of Messrs. Hall & Son, London, mae eae Map SHowine THE DistRIBUTION OF THE ELEPHANT IN ANGLO-EGYPTIAN SUDAN ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT Preuistoric Ivory CaRVING . Aw Inuarip Writinc DrEesk 4 I. Inp1an CHESSMEN OF SOLID Ivor II. Inp1ian CHESSMEN oF HoLLow Ivory . III. Kurpiso CHESsSMEN Ivory Imaces Usep as DIcez. Tue ELveeHant. DRAWING FROM A LATE XU Ciara. MS Tue ELEPHANT—ILLUSTRATION TO A XII Century Copy or AN ALEXANDER ROMANCE . Ivory DrcoraTIon oF A HowpaH : ‘ HERE THE Evepuant Is TERMED THE Miner AND pillioss Easity DomEstTICcCATED oF ALL ANIMALS ELEPHANT Figures ForMED BY A COMBINATION OF Atianit LETTERS be Roles SPECIMEN OF HINDU eC RAN DEsIGN. ELEPHANT witH Manout on TrRIUMPHAL ARCH , FIGURE OF GANESA THE ELEPHANT-HEADED Hinpvu Dtvin- ITY MEDAL OF UM eeearrcs : 1. Corn oF ANTIOCHUS Eero eens Dionpecs 2. CoIn oF THE SAME KiNG; DIFFERENT TYPE XXV FACING PAGE 324 350 ATA A72 PAGE 107 113 113 113 129 152 153 161 164 167 168 172 173 174 178 178 XXV1 LIST: OF SEL LUS TRATIONS FACING PAGE Coin REPRESENTING NERO AND His MoruerR. .. . 179 Mepbau SHowine Cuartot Drawn By Four ELErHANtTs 180 Woopcut ILLUSTRATION OF AN ELEPHANT. .. . 185 HEADS OF SOCRATES AND ZANTHIPPE, AND OF eee AND Marinus eee Se ig Ree, et ee, ate eR TENSION AND Comeseron Tuene 5 SES oe AA aes ‘Tar Currine Or A Binary. BALL) 34 oe ee Toots Usep By Hinpu Ivory Carvers . . ... 257, 259 TITLE-PAGE OF JAPANESE WorRK ON Ivory CARVING . . 267 Toots UsEp sy JAPANESE Ivory CARvVERS, AND Metuops oF Hanputinc THEM . . 7, a0 ok a Oe AN Ivory STATUETTE BY A Jipaaner Aner unuereae ING THE VARIOUS STAGES OF Its Carvinc ... 270, 271 OUTLINE OF A STATUETTE TRACED ON A SECTION OF AN ELE- PHANT TusK, AND THE COMPLETED WorK. .. . 273 NeEtsukEés DEsIGNED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE SHAPE oF THE Ivory MareriaL. .. ie.) 0s Ais Fine Saws Usep sy JAPANESE Ivory Chau 0 2 Oe RESTORATION OF Meritherium, THE EARLIEST Fossit Form Leapinc Ur To tHe ELEPHANT... . 824 RESTORATION OF Paleomastodon, ONE OF THE ‘SmAGus IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ELEPHANT . . . . . 394 RESTORATION OF Tetrabelodon angustidens .'. . . . 325 CONTE Ee ee a a UN Toe MANATEE .. : f _ ag ee EVOLUTIONARY Ciscoe OF Puososeek LS ren PROBOSCIDEANS, APPROXIMATELY TO SCALE SUE lane Tue Last Lower Mouars oF PROBOSCIDEANS ._. 336, 337 ANCESTRY OF ELEPHANTS. PROGRESSIVE STAGES OF DE- VELOPMENT . . . | aes Mammotu EtTcHED ON THE a Roce OF THE Coane DES COMBARELERS 2 L265 P 2) SANE HR IUD BEE Ra Tan (TRIUMPH OR MC ASAR) So oe in aa uit oF Me aN i} Rese IVORY Cs oH Rela aT oR En RLEP HAN oe ey CHAPTER I PREHISTORIC AND ANCIENT CARVED IVORIES Tur employment of ivory in the production of ornamental objects dates back to the very earliest times. In the cave dwellings of Le Moustier and La Madeleine in the Dordogne, France, and in the lake dwellings of Switzerland, some ivory objects and many of reindeer horn, carved and incised with a remarkable degree of artistic skill, have been discovered. The ivory used ornamentally at this remote period almost certainly came from dead animals, as does a very considerable part of the African ivory imported to-day. This easier means of obtaining it was undoubtedly then as now a great factor, and while the specimens preserved for us do not offer any special indications as to the reasons governing the choice of this material, we may well suppose that not only its rich- toned, smooth surface, but also the graceful curve of the tusks were determining considerations. More especially the latter must have appealed to the instinctive appreciation of primitive man for what Hogarth has called the “line of beauty,” and this is manifest in the fondness of most primi- tive peoples for curved horns of various kinds as objects upon which to bestow their skill, much or little, in ornamen- tal design. We must always bear in mind, however, that what we are pleased to call “primitive man,” when he had reached the rudimentary civilization of the cave and lake dwellers of France and Switzerland, had advanced, qualita- 3 t IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT tively, as far above the earliest stage of the human race as the member of the most highly civilized race of to-day stands above him. Of all relics of the past, none can be said to vie in impor- tance for the history of ivory with the rude outline of a mammoth sketched upon an ivory plaque, over nine inches long, by the hand of a prehistoric inhabitant of the cave dwellings of La Madeleine, in the valley of the Vézére, com- mune of Tursac (Depart. Dordogne), France. This unique piece was discovered in May, 1864, by Falconer and Lartet, and is now in the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (Jardin des Plantes), Paris. It was described and figured in the Reliquie Aquitanice, published by Lartet and Christy, and also in the Revue Archéologique, Vol. II, p. 245. Some very interesting details have been communicated to the writer by M. Stanislas Meunier, Director of the Museum. He states that the plaque was handed to him personally in 1869, by M. Lartet, and that he well remem- - bers the words in which the fortunate discoverer expressed the surprise and joy he had experienced in finding that some ivory fragments scattered on the floor of the cave fitted into one another, and when properly adjusted, offered the por- trait of an elephant with long hairy fur. From an archzo- logical point of view the reproduction of the photograph sent by M. Meunier is of considerable importance, as the illus- trations heretofore given were derived from a sketch made on the spot by M. Lartet at the time of his discovery, and which was intended to bring out and emphasize the rude scratchings of the primitive artist, as an aid to those who might not have the requisite time to study the original care- fully enough to see the design distinctly. At the Congrés International d’ Anthropologie et d’Archéol- ogie Préhistoriques, held at Monaco in 1906, Doctor Capitan showed a most interesting ivory relic of the age of the cave SIuVd ‘ATTAMOLVN GuYIOLSIH Gd WHAsSoWw “WviIa £ ‘LOLLVT “SNOW Ad 6987 NI GNNOa ANIGIAGYW VI WOud ‘SGWIL OIMOLSIHAUd FO SAIMVYOdNALNOD NVWOH SLI 40 ANO Ag HLOWNVW AYIVH V AO CHYOOIA V HALIM GHHOLA AYOAT AO AVIS ‘GONVUd “ANDNOGHOG “AUHZHA AHL JO AWTIVA © ANCIENT CARVED IVORIES 5 dwellers. This was a large segment of a mammoth tusk bearing two deep and broad grooves. The piece of ivory measured 40 cm. in length and from 15 cm. to 20 cm. in width, and the grooves, evidently made by a graving tool, marked out a part of it 35 cm. long and from 3 to 4 em. wide, running to a point at the end. The grooves were so deep, that only a slight shock would have been needed to detach the piece within them and thus secure a fine ivory poignard. This precious relic of ivory working in the far distant past was found by M. Galou under a loosened rock at the entrance of the Gorge d’Enfer, and Doctor Capitan conjectures that the carver may have been surprised by the avalanche that brought down the rock, and in his haste to escape, have cast away his nearly completed work.* It is assigned to the so-called Magdalenian period, that of the cave dwellers of La Madeleine. Doctor Capitan believes that all this prehistoric ivory work was done either in the manner above indicated, or by thin- ning the piece of ivory by means of repeated percussion. He states that the saw does not seem to have been used at this early date, appearing only in the later reindeer period. A prehistoric ivory carving of surpassing interest and im- portance is the headless and imperfect figure of a woman carved out of mammoth ivory, and found in the Grotto du Pape, Brassempouy (Dept. Landes), France; this has been called the ‘‘ Venus of Brassempouy.”’ It accentuated rudely, and even coarsely, the female torso, and may have had some connection with a worship of the reproductive powers of nature.t| Another female figure, with a similarly exagger- ated outline, lying on the ground beneath a reindeer, is *Congrés International d’ Anthropologie et d’Archéologie Préhistoriques; Compte Rendu de la treiziéme session, Monaco, 1906, Vol. I, pp. 404, 405, Monaco, 1907. This ivory has never been published. tGeorge Grant McCurdy, “Recent discoveries bearing on the antiquity of man in Europe,” in Smithsonian Institution, Annual Report for 1909, pp. 531-583; see pp. 539-540, 6 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT: carved in a piece of that animal’s antler, and was unearthed at Laugerie-Basse. On the wall of the cave of Les Com- barelles, Dordogne, are engraved as many as fourteen rep- resentations of the mammoth, much more realistically portrayed than in the rude etching of this animal noted above. The effect of many of these cave incisings was emphasized - by darkening the outlines with oxide of manganese.* The ‘‘Grotto du Pape” furnished, in 1897, another even more important specimen of the plastic art in ivory of primi- fe YM po # a PONS pMe. till cy ‘iy, Ab a cal WHR Aa ‘i + 4~! || | Preuistoric Ivory CaRvine, called the Venus of Brassempouy. Found at Bras- sempouy-en-Chalosse, in the “Grotto du Pape.” Front and side views; natural size. From M. Hoernes, “‘ Urgeschichte der bildenden Kunst in Europa,’’ Wien, 1898. tiveman. ‘This is also the figure of a woman, of which only the torso and one of the thighs remain. The modelling here is superior to that of the so-called ““Vénus de Brassempouy,”’ the ungraceful exaggeration of this figure not appearing in the more recently discovered sculpture.t Perhaps even *Ibid., pp. 540; 552, Figures. THoernes, “‘ Urgeschichte der bildenden Kunst in Europa,” Wien, 1898, pp. 686, 687, Pl. II, Figs. 11-13. ANCIENT CARVED IVORIES 7 more interesting and significant is a curious sculpture in ivory unearthed near Briinn, in Moravia. This was found at a depth of over four metres in the loess, together with the bones of a rhinoceros, 2 mammoth tusk a metre long, and a human skull. The ivory sculpture, which must when complete have measured 22 or 23 cm. in length, rep- resents the naked figure of a man; the legs had disappeared, but the head, with its pronounced orbital arch, broad, nasal orifice, and long chin, bears a striking resemblance to the features of the human skull found in the same place.* One of the most interesting and important discoveries in prehistoric art, for which the mammoth furnished the ma- terial, was made on October 3, 1913, at La Colombiére, near Poncin (Dept. Ain), France, by M. Jean Pissot.t In ex- cavating an “upper Aurignac”’ deposit there was brought to light what the finder terms “‘a veritable atelier,” embracing engraver’s tools of various types and numerous specimens of the material on which he worked. The object of prime importance was a plaque, either from the shoulder plate or the thigh of a mammoth, on which are engraved two human figures, a man and a woman. This is asserted to be the only example so far discovered of an engraved representation of Quaternary man. ‘The head of the man, figured in profile, is the more clearly defined, and is described by M. Pissot as differing absolutely from the so-called ‘‘ Neanderthal type.” The head is large, with a bulging forehead; the face is long and markedly prognathous. The chin is prominent and bears a short beard, indicated by a number of fine scratches; the eye is figured by two curved lines. The hairiness of the body is strongly indicated. The female form has not the *Ibid, p. 60, Figs. 14, 15 (p. 59). MM. Lucien Mayet and Jean Pissot, “Découverte d’un os de Mammouth gravé avec figurations humaines, dans le gisement aurignacien supérieur de La Colombiére, prés Poncin (Ain),” in Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des Sciences, Vol. 157, pp. 655-658. No. 16, October 20, 1913. 8 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT peculiarly exaggerated outline shown in the ivory sculptures of Brassempouy and in some similar prehistoric sculptures, but still the figure is to a certain extent steatopygous. The dimensions of this unique plaque are 15 by 17 cm. ; There are in the Petrie Collection several specimens -of prehistoric Egyptian ivory carving. In the earliest work here, the form of the tusk was modified but little, or not at all. Exceedingly curious are some rude reproductions of the human form, where the head alone is more or less clearly figured. Two of them show bearded heads bearing a strik- ing resemblance to those engraved on the most archaic of the Babylonian cylinders, a fact which might be taken to indicate that the same or a closely related race evolved the first important elements of civilization, both in Mesopo- tamia and in the Nile Valley. These early Egyptian carv- ings are assigned by Mr. Petrie to some time during the long ‘prehistoric period from 8000 to 5500 B. C., and he believes that they belong to the earlier part of this period. Of the ivory work of historic times in Egypt, no single specimen is more valuable than the tiny head of the great pyramid builder, Khufu, of the Fourth Dynasty, now in the Boulaq Museum, Cairo. Although measuring but a quarter of an inch in height, the features are strongly and firmly marked, and we have good reason to think that the old-time carver has successfully executed his task as portraitist. Toward the end of the pre-dynastic period in Egypt ivory carving of marked excellence appears, revealing a decided advance upon earlier work. A large mass of specimens of this work was unearthed at Hierakonopolis in a trench six feet long; these comprised statuettes of men and women, as well as carved tusks, wands, and cylinders. Although the ivories of this period and of the early dynasties are decidedly artistic in execution, it has been remarked that Egypt never VOTIVE HEAD REST EGYPTIAN ART, III TO II CENTURY, B. C. CHAIR-FOOT IN THE SHAPE OF A HIPPOPOTAMUS HOOF, AND TWO STATUETTES OF FAVORITES OF THE DECEASED FROM AN ANCIENT EGYPTIAN TOMB. MUSEE DU LOUVRE I. VOTIVE CASTAGNETS ART OF FIRST THEBAN EMPIRE. TO THE RIGHT POLISHERS. FROM HECATOMPOLIS MUSEE DU LOUVRE i. BG YPTIAN 1LVORY WAND PUBLISHED BY THE COURTESY OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART Il. IVORY STATUETTES GRECO-IONIC ART OF THE VII OR VI CENTURY B. C. MUSEE DU LOUVRE ANCIENT CARVED IVORIES 9 seems to have produced a school of ivory carving, properly so-called, as China did. The Egyptians appear to have treated this material as they would and did any other, with- out particular consideration of its peculiar qualities. A still further advance in technical and artistic skill characterizes the ivory work of the First Dynasty, and a quaint but thoroughly representative specimen of the ivory carver’s art at this period is the figure of an old king found at Abydos, and now in the British Museum. The senile droop of the _ head and neck, the intelligence, one might perhaps better say the shrewdness, marking the face of the aged sovereign, make this a really fine portrait study in spite of its restricted dimensions.* The head of an Egyptian king, carved in ivory, was exhib- ited at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1879. It had been bought of an Arab at the Tombs of the Kings, Thebes, and from its close resemblance to the celebrated carved wooden statue from Sakkarah, now in the Boulaq Museum, and to which a date of circa 4000 B. C. has been assigned, there is some reason to believe that this may be one of the very early specimens of Egyptian work in ivory. The beard is formed of ebony wood, and a small ‘piece of this wood has been in- serted at the top of the skull, to represent the opening made for the extraction of the brain in the embalming process.t This work was, when exhibited, in the possession of Mrs. Blood. : Two fine specimens of the so-called “magical wands” were recently offered for sale in London at the disposal of the Hilton Price Collection there in July, 1911. The larger of these measured 144 in. from end to end and was about 2 in. *W. M. Flinders Petrie, “The Arts and Crafts of Ancient Egypt,” London, 1909, pp. 31, 32, 134 (see Fig. 21, opp. p. 32). {Burlington Fine Arts Club, Catalogue of Bronzes and Ivories of European Origin, ex- hibited in 1879, London, 1879, p. 48; Cabinet VII, No. 290. 10.60 Cd IVORY ANDTHE ELEPHANT wide. Onits upper rounded surface were somewhat roughly incised figures of a crocodile, of a toad sitting on a basket, of the divinity Ta-urt, of a winged man, of a sphinx, etc. This wand or staff came from Thebes, and had been broken and repaired in ancient times. The other smaller specimen, 93 in. long, had its point roughly cut to represent a bearded head. It came from Naqada and is attributed to the pre- historic period of Egyptian civilization.* Another interesting ivory in the Hilton Price Collection was a scribe’s palette of the Eighteenth Dynasty, an inscrip- tion stating that it had been made for Tehuti-mes, Chief of the Royal Scribes [of Amenophis I]. Two deep holes at one end of the palette evidently served to contain the red and black paints used in forming the Egyptian characters, for traces of these paints were still visible. In a groove hol- lowed in the centre must have rested the reed pens which were employed by scribes of this age. This object is 13% in. long and 12 in. wide; it is in a fine state of preservation and is said to be'a unique specimen of its kind.f Some curious ivory rods were unearthed by Prof. Flinders Petrie in 1895, between Ballas and Naqada, about thirty miles distant from Thebes. These and other objects found here are conjectured by Professor Petrie to have been the work of a primitive Lybian tribe and to date from about 3000 B.C. There were also five small figures in ivory, four of lions and one of a hare. The rods, several of which are now in the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania, may possi- bly have been used as divining rods, or perhaps were pieces for some game; they came from a single tomb. They meas- ure 52 in. in length, some of them being incised with diagonal *Catalogue of the Collection of Egyptian Antiquities, the property of the late F. G. Hilton Price, Esq., London, 1911, p. 113. {Catalogue of the Collection of Egyptian Antiquities, the property of the late F. G. Hilton Price, Esq., London, 1911, p. 112. ANCIENT CARVED IVORIES 11 lines, but most of them cut to represent jointed canes or straws.* In the Cairo Museum are a few ivory amulets, three of them figuring serpents’ heads, the carving being very rudely executed. These are small objects measuring respectively 55 mm., 59 mm., and 49 mm., or from 1% to 2} in.f Early Egyptian ivory carving is represented in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, by several char- acteristic examples. The finest and the best preserved are _ two pieces which probably formed the feet of a state chair, a throne, or a couch. They are shaped into the form of the hoof and ankle of bulls’ legs. The ivory is in appearance as fresh as though only recently worked, although these specimens, found at Abydos, are attributed to the period of the First or the Second Dynasty (about 3400 B. C. or 3000 B. C.). Much less well preserved, but even in its present deteriorated condition showing the work of an artist’s hand, is the small figure of a lion, considered to be a carving of the First Dynasty (about 3400 B. C.); this came from the old Osiris Temple at Abydos (Thebes). Another ivory, from the same early period, and equally deteriorated by long exposure to injury either by soil or weather, is a female figure, the lower part of which has been broken away; this was also brought from the ruins of the Osiris Temple at Abydos. With this minute figure as well as with that of the seated lion, time has dealt so unkindly that the ivory has lost all its beauty of hue and smoothness, and at the first glance one would suppose that wood was the material employed. While the old Assyro-Babylonian civilization goes back as far as that of Egypt, the facilities for securing ivory were *Stewart Culin, “Chess and Playing Cards,” Washington, 1898, pp. 812, 814, Figs. 132, 188, 134; pp. 665-942 of Rep. of U.S. Nat. Mus. for 1896. 1G. A. Reisner “Catalogue générale des antiquités egyptiennes du Musée du Caire,”’ **Amulets,”’ Le Caire, 1907, pp. 38, 39; Nos. 5481, 5482, 5492. 2 IVORY ANB THE ELEERANT dependent upon the gradual development of active commer- cial intercourse with the latter country, and even the oldest ivories of Sumerian origin belong to a later period than that to which the earliest Egyptian works have been assigned. The style of art in the Assyrian _ivories clearly shows that its inspiration came from Egypt, as is apparent to any one who views the exceptionally fine collection of them in the British Museum; quite possibly Pheenician artists served as intermediaries in this branch of art asinsomany others. One of the most carefully executed is a small panel, on which is carved the representation of an Egyptian king holding in one hand a lotus. Another is very finely carved with sphinxes in relief. Then we have, on still others, the face of a woman looking out of a window, the representation of a sacred tree, etc. Some of these works may have been done by Assyrian artists, and others by Egyptians or Phcenicians. These Assyrian ivories were found by Layard in 1845, in what he conjectured to be the treasury of the North West Palace at Nimroud.* The thirty-three objects figured are now in the British Museum.f All of them were in poor condition when found, owing to the drying out of the gelati- nous part of the ivory in the lapse of twenty-eight centuries. They were also so firmly embedded in the earth that great precautions had to be taken in detaching them. However, on their removal to the British Museum their oily content was so skilfully restored by means of an ingenious process that they are now in quite satisfactory condition. Layard was uncertain whether the objects originally formed the decorations of a chest, a throne, or of the walls of the cham- *Sir Austen Henry Layard, “‘ Nineveh and Its Remains,” 2d. ed, London, 1849, Vol. I, p. 29; Vol. II, pp. 9 sqq. {Layard, “The Monuments of Nineveh,” London, 1849 (Ist Series), pp. 19, 20, and Plates 88-90. 900 B. C. IVORIES, RIAN ASS Y HEAD OF A BULL. I. G OUT. H A WOMAN IS LOOKIN RELIEF WITH THE FIGURE OF AN BGYPTIAN KING HOLDING A NT A WINDOW AT WHIC PANEL CARVED TO REPRESE SMALL PA Il. ED IN NEL CARV Tit. LOTUS. IV. PORTION OF A PANEL OR ORNAMENT CARVED WITH THE FIGURE OF A SPHINX. BRITISH MUSEUM ey b. wat I IVORY COMBS ASSYRIAN OR PHCENICIAN WORK; IX TO VII CENTURY B. C. MUSEE DU LOUVRE Il. ASSYRIAN OR PH@NICIAN STATUETTES IX TO VII CENTURY B. C. MUSEE DU LOUVRE ANCIENT CARVED IVORIES 13 ber in which they were discovered. A date of about 980 B. C. was proposed by him for these remains.* A most interesting piece is a complete panel 9 in. long and 6 in. wide, carved with two seated divinities adoring a cartouche with Egyptian hieroglyphics, supposed to signify the name of an Assyrian deity or king; above is a disk with plumes. The dress and general appearance of the figures and the whole style of composition point to Egypt, although certain details are believed to indicate that this may have been the work of an Assyrian, or more probably of a Phceni- cian artist. | In the annals of Tukulti Ninip, King of Assyria (889-884 B. C.), this monarch records the receipt of rich tribute at the city of Anat, in the Euphrates, from Ilu-ibni, prefect of the land of Suhi. Besides three talents of silver and twenty minas of gold, the prefect sent him an ivory throne and three other objects made of ivory.t Even more ancient than any of the Assyrian ivories in the Louvre or in the British Museum, and rivalling in age the early dynastic objects of Egyptian workmanship, are some carvings found at Bismaya, in the very heart of Mesopota- mia, by Dr. Edgar James Banks in the course of his excava- tions there during the early part of the year 1904. These objects, discovered on or near the site of an ancient palace temple of the Sumerian or pre-Semitic period, may have been executed as far back as 4000 B. C., and belong in any case to the fourth millennium before the commencement of our era. The workmanship is somewhat rude, various ani- mal figures being represented, for example a cat, and fishes, both black and white, over 4 in. in length. Although the *Layard, “Nineveh and Its Remains,” 2d ed., London, 1849, Vol. II, pp. 205 sqq. {Layard, ““The Monuments of Nineveh,’ London, 1849 (1st Series), p. 20, Pl. 89. TV. Scheil, “Annales de Tukulti Ninip, roi d’Assyrie,”’ Paris, 1909, p. 19. Bibliothéque de l’Ecole des Hautes Etudes, Fasc. 168. Ww IVORY!) ANBVTHE ELE ERANT carver has given these latter a curved shape, as though they were swimming through water, they were pierced from end to end for suspension as charms or amulets. A stag browsing off the foliage of a tree was the best specimen dis- covered of the ancient Sumerian work.* An example of ivory inlaying was offered by the fragments of a vase on which the artist had depicted a royal procession, in which were musicians bearing seven-stringed harps. Here the skirts of the figures had consisted of ivory inlays, one of which was still in place, the hollowed surfaces indicating where the other similar inlays had been set. The sovereigns of Israel from Solomon’s time indulged in the luxury of ivory ornaments for their palaces, and to Solo- mon himself is attributed the possession of a splendid ivory and gold throne with six steps, each step flanked on either side by the figure of a lion, while two lions were placed one at the right and the other at the left of the seat. The work was probably executed by Phoenician artists, and with ma- terial brought from Egypt by way of Tyre. About three centuries later than the time of Solomon we find recorded in the annals of Sennacherib, in the year 701 B. C., that Heze- kiah, King of Judah, gave “‘ivory couches.and ivory thrones (or seats)”’ as. part of his tribute to the Assyrian.{ In the sixth century B. C., during the Babylonian Captivity, the prophet Ezekiel writes of horns of ivory (lit. “horns of teeth’’?) as articles brought into the great mart of Tyre. In one of the Tel-el-Amarna letters, dating from the four- *Edgar James Banks, “‘Bismaya, or the Lost City of Adab,’’ New York and London, 1912, p. 272. {Op. cit., p. 268; several of these ivories are figured on p. 274, and one on p. 273. {Robert William Rogers, “Inscriptions of Sennacherib,” in Records of the Past, New Series, Vol. VI, pp. 80-101; London, 1892; Column III, Line 36 of inscription known as the Taylor Cylinder, or Prism. See also Bezold, “‘Die Prisma Inschrift des sog. Taylor Cylinders’; Keilinscriftliche Bibliothek, Vol. II, Berlin, 1890, p. 97. The Assyrian name for ivory is shinni piri (elephants’ teeth), and elephants are mentioned in Shalmanassar TI’s Nineveh Obelisk as tribute from the land of Musri. IVORY STATUETTE ELAMITE ART OF 2000 To 1500 B. Cc. FOUND IN THE EXCAVATIONS AT SUSA IN PERSIA, AND REGARDED AS ONE OF THE FINEST ANCIENT IVORY CARVINGS. I. FRONT VIEW. Il. REAR VIEW. MUSEE DU LOUVRE, MME. DIEULAFOY ROOMS SIUV ANI FO WOGSOW NOLSO ‘MNS GHG TO GVH AONV “MOTTA WaIS ‘MUTA DNOW << SSAadoyD AAVNS,, THE ONASHUdAY OL ATADITAT “ALTO TO GNVISI FHL WOU 2 INIAUVO AUOALI MAAUD LNAIONV ANCIENT CARVED IVORIES 15 teenth century B. C. and written in the little-known Mitanni language, there seems to be noted a statue or statues of ivory.* . There was recently brought from the Island of Crete a small ivory statuette, evidently belonging to an early period of the fictile art of the inhabitants of Crete. In form and appearance the figure vividly suggested a faience statuette unearthed in Crete by Sir Arthur Evans, in 1903, in a small inner room of the ancient temple of Knossos, representing a female figure grasping in one hand the head of a snake and holding its tail in the other, while its coils are wound about her body. This faience statuette was found with a number of other objects of the same material, votive offerings, etc., the whole having been enclosed in two large stone chests and apparently constituting the outfit of a shrine or altar. Another somewhat similar but smaller figure, holding in each upraised hand a small snake, was also found in the same depository. The larger figure was believed by Sir Arthur Evans to be intended to represent the great Cretan goddess in her earth-born aspect. While in the Cretan ivory we figure the serpents are lacking, the pose and drapery so closely resemble the faience of Knossos as to strongly suggest that the artist wished to portray the Cretan goddess. It is true that some archeologists consider that the snake-bearing figures merely signified snake charmers whose services may have been used in some of the entertainments offered to the Minoan lords and ladies of olden time; but it seems rather unlikely that such objects should have been carefully con- served in the royal palace. The prehistoric Greek remains of Attica, Crete, and Cyprus prove that ivory was used at an extremely early period in these regions for ornamental purposes, the supply coming, of *P. Jensen, “Vorstudien zur Entzifferung des Mitanni,” in Zeitschrift f. Assyrologie, Vol. VY, p. 189; Leipzig, 1890. 16 IVORY ANDTHE ELEPHANT course, from the African continent. Some of the finest specimens have been afforded by the tombs of Sparta in Attica, dating from the Mycenian period, about 1500 B. C. One of the finest examples found here was a plaque carved with the figures of a bull anda lion. The latter has sprung upon the bull’s back, seizing it by the throat, and the posi- tion and protruding tongue of the victim show the deadly character of the attack. The bull is much more successfully depicted here than is the lion.* Another ivory carving of exceptional merit from these tombs is a very fine-toothed comb, the first zone offering the representation of two sphinxes, while in the second zone are carved three of these enigmatical figures; each side bears the same decoration.{ A curious relic from Phzetos in Crete is an unworked piece of ivory from a large elephant tusk. The remains of the ancient palace at Knossos, in Crete, from the Minoan period, have furnished fragments of some ivory statuettes, one of which has been partly reconstructed. This is the image of an athlete, with every muscle strained for the accomplishment of some arduous feat; the statuette is about 28 em. long.f The work dates from between 1800 and 1550 B. C. The early Greek island art in ivory carving is also illustrated by some objects found at Enkomi, Cyprus. The finest of these is the beautifully carved handle of a mir- ror, showing a genius and a griffon. ‘There is also from here a carved ivory box with a representation of hunting scenes, a production, probably, of the ninth century B. C. This is now in the British Museum collection.** Another fine example of carved ivory was brought to light *René Dussaud, “Les Civilizations Préhelléniques dans le Bassin de la Mer Egée,” 2d ed., Paris, 1914, p. 176, Fig. 131. TOp. cit., Fig. 132. fOQp. cit., pp. 72, 73; see Fig. 49, p. 70. **Op. cit., p. 314; see Fig. 222, p. 311, and also Fig. 199. ANCIENT CARVED IVORIES 17 in the excavations of Knossos, in Crete, during the season of 1902-1903. ‘This was a carving in the shape of a knot with a fringed border, and it evidently possessed a certain symbolic character connected with some of the religious rites or beliefs of the Cretans of about 1500 B. C. As in- stances of the use of this form elsewhere in ancient Greece there are noted two alabaster knots of similar design from one of the graves at Mycenz. This ivory knot of Knossos was found near the great gypsum pillar in the centre of a room of the ancient palace, and on a gold ring from Mycenz is figured a sacred pillar from the entablature of which are suspended two knots of this type; a seal impression from the Palace of Knossos shows similar knots hung upon a tree. This form also appears on a gem from the Herzeum at Argos, the examples being figured here on either side of a bull’s head.* On the site of the Spartan temple of Artemis Orthia have been found a considerable number of very interesting speci- mens of relief carving in ivory.{ Many of these are plaques which were riveted on bronze clasps for their adornment. The ivory plates are of rectangular form, and vary in di- mensions from 11 x 8.25 cm. (44 x 34 in.) down to 3.5 x 2.75 em. (14 x lin.). The greater part belong to the period be- tween 750 B. C. and 650 B. C. The largest and finest of them depicts the slaying of the Gorgon.{ Although con- siderably damaged, enough remains to show the design satis- factorily; the execution is very spirited, and this particular work indicates an Oriental influence, possibly indirectly an Assyrian one, and is believed to belong to a somewhat later *A. J. Evans, “‘The Palace of Knossos,” in the Annual of the British School of Athens, No. IX, London, n. d., pp. 1-154; see pp. 7, 8, and Fig. 4 on p. 8, “Sacred Knot of Ivory.” {R. M. Dawkins “The Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia”’; “Excavations at Sparta, 1907”; in the Annual of the British School of Athens, No. XIII, Session 1906-1907; see pp. 77, sqq. {Op. cit., Fig. 19, p. 79. 18 IVORY ARDE TAL. ELE RPAw period than that of most of the other plaques, perhaps dating from the first half of the sixth century B. C. In addition to these plaques for the decoration of fibule, several examples of ivory animal carvings have been un- earthed here. An especially interesting and artistic work of this kind represents a lioness throttling a calf, and the idea of a chain of destruction, or else of a speedy vengeance for the victim, is illustrated by a third figure in this strange group, that of a man standing alongside the lioness and thrusting a sword into the animal’s neck. This ivory is also attributed to the later period of from 600 B. C. to 550 B. C.* Even more valuable from an historic viewpoint is a relief carving on a large half disk of ivory, the base line of the semicircle measuring 23.5 cm. (9} in.), the extreme width being 11 cm. or 44 in. On this is carved a representation of a warship of the period, not a very formidable one it is true, since the armed crew consists of but three persons, a number of others being engaged in navigating the craft. One of the warriors wears a plumed helmet. The artist has evidently intended to portray the departure of the ship, and the captain seems to be taking leave of a woman, supposedly on land, but given the rather unsteady support of one of the ship’s paddles, as the carver lacked space to figure the shore. Behind the woman is a large bird and the prow of the ves- sel bears the inscription in early Greek characters sop6aia, proving that the carving was a votive offering to the temple of Artemis Orthia. While we have followed Mr. Dawkins’ description as to the purely human quality of the female figure, it is not easy to avoid making the conjecture that this was in reality intended to represent the figure of the goddess of the temple. Around the edge of this semicircle of ivory runs a border with a series of circular depressions which Mr. *Op. cit., Fig. 23, p. 89. ANCIENT CARVED IVORIES 19 Dawkins suggests may possibly have contained inlays of amber.* These products of the ivory carvers’ art were certainly executed in Sparta, although the material must have come from Africa. This is conclusively demonstrated by the evidence of a specimen in which the design has only been sketched out, in summary incision, prior to being definitely worked up.t In the Homerie age the Iliad relates that reins and harness of ivory, sometimes stained a red colour, were valued posses- sions of the heroes, as appears in the following lines: As when some Carian or Meonian maid With crimson dye the ivory stains, designed To be the check-piece of a warrior’s steed: By many a valiant horseman coveted, As in a house it lies, a monarch’s boast The horse adorning, and the horseman’s pride. Tl. IV, 141 sqq., Lord Derby’s translation. The Odyssey tells of palaces resplendent with ivory.t The tombs of Mycene yielded to Schliemann a few ivory objects, the most noteworthy being a thick flat piece which may have served for a dagger handle, decorated with a spiral design.** The elephant itself, however, is not alluded to; indeed, Herodotus writing in the fifth century B. C. is the first writer to employ this name in the Greek form elephas, which has been derived by some from the Hebrew (or Phoenician) eleph, an ox. An ivory casket found at Ruvo, Italy, and now in the *Op. cit., Plate IV; for description see pp. 100 sqq. {Op. cit., p. 78. Odyssey IV, 73. **Schliemann, “‘Mycenz,” New York, 1878, p. 329. 20 IVORY AMD THE ELEPHANT Guilhou Collection, is believed to be Cyprian work of the sixth century B. C. The sides bear archaic figures of women reclining at a banquet, and the casket is surmounted by the figure of a lion. Traces of colouring remain on the mouth and hind legs of the lion and also on the garments of one of the women and on the cushion on which she leans.* _ On the site of the famous Pheenician city of Sidon a small ivory casket has been found. On one of the sides is carved the representation of a woman smelling a lotus flower she holds in both hands. This casket is believed to be the work of a Cypriote artist, both because of its similarity in design to other work from that island and because in the sixth century B. C., the date assigned conjecturally to the casket, ivory was very freely used for ornamental purposes in Cyprus. In 1889 Dr. Ohnefalsch-Richter} dug up on this island a number of swords and knives having hilts inlaid with Ivory. The coffer of Kypselus, dedicated by him about 600 B. C., to the Temple of Hera at Elis, was adorned with bas-reliefs in lvory, as were many ancient coffers. Two plaques used in this way have come down to us, showing the holes through which they were pinned to the wooden framework. These were found at Isca Silurum and represent, respectively, a tragic mask and a nymph leading a boy with a basket of fruit. The ancient sepultures of Spain have preserved some most striking specimens of Phoenician ivory carving, of the type produced for exportation to the many lands with which the Phoenicians had commercial relations. These *Pollak, ‘‘Archiisches Elfenbein,’’ Mitteilungen des Kaiserlich-deutschen Instituts, Vol. XXI., Roma, 1906, pp. 314-330; Pl. XV. +Max Ohnefalsch-Richter, “‘Kypros, the Bible and Homer,” Vol. I, Text, London, 1893, p. 140; the side of the earliest is figured in Vol. II, Pl. CXV, Fig. 4. {King, ‘‘ Antique Gems and Rings,’ London, 1878, p. 296. ANTIQUE IVORY SPINDLES AND CHARMS III CENTURY, A. D. FROM SYRIAN TOMBS ANCIENT CARVED IVORIES 21 are principally ivory tablets and combs, and although owing to the many centuries that they have been buried, the ivory has split up into sections, or even fragments, the surface is usually well preserved and the engraving as clearly defined as when first executed. Several of these objects may be seen in the collection of the Hispanic Mu- seum, New York City. The combs exhibit a number of designs in which human and animal forms are combined; in others, again, the carver has only depicted animal forms. For example, one tablet shows a bull attacked by two lions; on the reverse appears a gazelle between a lion and a griffin. A comb, from the Celto-Punic necropolis of Cruz del Negro, Carmona, is engraved with a design representing a lion lying down and having a bird between its paws; a gazelle is graven on the reverse side. More curious and interesting than these purely animal subjects are two tablets, from the tumulus of Bucarron, representing a combat between warriors and lions. On one of these plaques the valiant combatant is withstanding the attack of two lions, while the other one represents a single combat. The type of the warrior, with his long pointed beard, is curiously suggestive of the so-called “Hittite” art of northern Syria which flourished for many centuries before 1000 B.C., and these or similar types were probably copied and recopied in the commercial art of Phcenicia. From the necropolis of Cruz del Negro came also an Egyp- tian spatula of ivory, and an ivory comb with an engraving of gazelles and griffins, found May 15, 1908. A bone-incrusted bed of the second or. first century B. C. was found in the necropolis of Orvieto, Province of Perugia, and is now in the Field Museum of Natural His- tory, Chicago. This is an example of the Etruscan funeral bed, a resting couch for a deceased person, and is of table shape. The dimensions are: length, 55 in.; width, 30 in.; 2 IVORY (Ay THE ELEPRANT height, 26 in.; the comparative shortness indicating a slight flexion of the dead body. As restored, the inlays on the side are placed as follows: a lion head, a bust, a winged head, a bust, and lastly a lion head; at the corners are figure groups. The rather spindly legs are made up of many pieces, incrusted with bone inlays. Another, but inferior example, is in the Papa Giulio Museo in Orvieto. In one of his scathing denunciations of the venality and rapacity of the infamous Caius Verres, for a time preetor of Sicily, the great orator Cicero, in 70 B. C., recounts how this shameless Roman functionary wrenched off the rich ivory and gold adornment of the Temple of Minerva in Syracuse. The ivory carvings here were of the very highest artistic excellence and famed for their surpassing beauty throughout the Greek world; one of the most notable offered an awe-in- spiring representation of the Gorgon’s head with its writhing serpents. All these splendid carvings, and also the massive gold bosses, elaborately chased, adorning the temple doors, works of art in which the workmanship was even more precious than the metal, were ruthlessly stripped off and borne away to Rome by Verres as though the spoils of war. Indeed, as Cicero says, even a conquering enemy with any claim to civilization would not have wrought such wanton havoc, only possible for barbarians.* The very large size of the pieces of ivory which must have been required by the Greeks in the production of their co- lossal gold and ivory statues, some of which were forty feet or more in height, the face, hands, and feet being of ivory, and even the large size of some of the consular and other diptychs that have come down to us, have raised the ques- tion, how did the ancients secure pieces of ivory of sufficient size? In our day, with the processes now in use, this would not be possible. Hence it has been conjectured that they *M. Tullii Ciceronis, “In Verrem Lib. IV; De Signis’’; Oratio nona, cap. 56. ANCIENT CARVED IVORIES 23 possessed some lost art for welding together separate pieces of ivory. In the late Latin treatise on the arts of the Ko- mans, belonging probably to the tenth century, and which passes under the name of Eraclius, the following directions are given: ‘Take sulphate of potash, fossil salt, and vitriol; these are ground with very sharp vinegar in a brass mortar. Into this mixture the ivory is placed for three days and nights. This being done, you will hollow into a piece of wood as you please. The ivory being thus placed in the hollow, you direct it and will bend it to your will.” But this recipe as well as others given by various ancient writers do not give satisfactory experimental results. Although in some instances tusks of quite exceptional size have furnished very large flat pieces of ivory, it is re- garded as possible, if not probable, that the ancients cut large cylindrical pieces from the median part of the tusk, split these cylinders at a given point, softened them by some process, and then flattened them out, thus securing a piece as broad as the circumference of the tusk. This theory was advanced by Mons. Quatremére de Quincy. Steeping in vinegar and almond oil does really render ivory ductile to a certain extent. While it can be decomposed by caustic alkalis, it cannot be recomposed. Some very interesting, even if possibly not quite exact, information as to the care bestowed upon the ivory material of their statues by the ancient Greeks is afforded us by Pausanias. Treating of the colossal chryselephantine statue of Zeus at Olympia, he notes that around the black stone flagging laid in front of the image there ran a raised edge of Parian marble “‘to keep in the olive oil and water that is poured out,” adding, ‘‘for oil is good for the image at Olym- pia,’ since it counteracted the effect of the moist atmosphere caused by surrounding marsh land. In spite of all precau- tions, we learn that some of the ivory plates did really crack 4% I IVORY ANDY THE ELEPHANT and that the aid of the sculptor Damophon was called in to remedy the evil. He succeeded in fitting them together again with the utmost accuracy, for which task he was greatly honoured by the Eleans. The importance accorded to the care of the great Zeus is shown by the fact that the cleaner of this image had a special seat reserved for him in the theatre of Athens.* In the dry air of the Acropolis at Athens, however, not oil but water was used to prevent the material from drying out. On visiting Epidaurus and view- ing the ivory and gold statue of Asklepios there, the Greek traveller was informed that in this case neither oil nor water was used on the ivory, and when he inquired the reason he was told that directly beneath where the statue rested was a deep excavation—a kind of well—and that the moisture arising from this was just sufficient to preserve the ivory in proper condition.7 It was stated that the injunction to pour oil over this Zeus image emanated from the great Phidias himself, who had enjoined that this should be done “so as to keep it immortal as far as possible.’ t The use of oil immediately on the ivory has been doubted, and Schubart conjectures that it was rather applied to the wooden framework to prevent this from shrinking and thus cracking the ivory plates cover- ing it.** A confirmation of this view is found in Pliny’s assertion (Nat. Hist. Lib. xvi) that in the statue of Artemis at Ephesus, the ‘‘ Diana of the Ephesians,” were many holes into which oil was poured to prevent the framework from splitting. . In his “‘Description of Greece”? Pausanias mentions a *C. I. A. III, Nos. 243, 291; in Fraser’s Pausanius, Vol. 11, p. 182. {Pausanize, Descriptio Greciz, Lib. V, cap. 11, 10. {Methodius in Photius, Bibliotheca, p. 293, b. 1, sq., ed. Bekker. Cited in Fraser’s Pausanias, London, 1898, Vol. III, p. 545. **Zeitsch, f. d. Alterthumswissenschaft, Vol. I, 1849, pp. 407-413. HEAD OF OLYMPIAN ZEUS AFTER THE CHRYSELEPHANTINE STATUE BY PHIDIAS AT OLYM- PIA. REVERSE OF A COIN OF HADRIAN (117-138 A. D.). BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE MEDAL OF EMPEROR HADRIAN STRUCK IN ELIS AND BEARING ON THE REVERSE A REPRESENTA- TION OF THE GREAT CHRYSELEPHANTINE ZEUS OF OLYMPIA BY PHIDIAS. POSSIBLY STRUCK TO COMMEMORATE THE DEDICATION BY HADRIAN OF A REPLICA OF THIS COLOSSAL STATUE IN ATHENS. 2 DIAM. IN THE MUSEUM AT FLORENCE, ITALY PA TOSCHIRS onions ¥ oD oI tif 1 hy rie CONSULAR DIPTYCHS BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE I. LEAF OF A DIPTYCH OF JUSTINIANUS CONSUL IN 521 A. D. FROM AUTUN Il. LEAF OF A DIPTYCH OF MAGNUS CONSUL IN 518 A. D. FROM HOLLAND ANCIENT CARVED IVORIES 25 number of chryselephantine statues, busts, and reliefs, giving In some cases the names of the artists to whom they were attributed in his time. The body or framework of these statues, of which several were of colossal dimensions, was frequently of wood, though sometimes of stone, the ivory being used for the face, hands, and feet, while the hair and - garments and the beard, in the case of bearded gods or heroes, were of gold. Sometimes all parts of the body not covered by drapery were formed of ivory plates. The following are the principal examples of statues in which ivory was employed, noted by Pausanias: Statue of Zeus at Athens, erected by Emperor Hadrian. A colossal statue, probably a copy of the Phidian Zeus at Olympia (Lib. 1, cap. 18, 6).* The Dionysos Eleutherios of Alkamenes, executed some . time between 420 and 413 B. C. (Lib. I, cap. 20, 3). Athene Parthenos of Phidias in Parthenon of Athens (Lib. I, cap 24, 5). The head of the Zeus statue in Megara (Lib. I, cap. 40, 4). By Theokosmos, who is stated to have been aided in the work by Phidias. Statue of Athene in Megara (Lib. I, cap. 42, 4). Wood, gilded; face and extremities of ivory. Parts of the Amphitrite, Poseidon, Palzemion, and Tritons, and the hoofs of the horses in the Bronp on the Isthmus of Corinth (Lib. IT, cap. 1, 8). Statue of Dionysius at Akrokorinthus (Lib. II, cap. 7, 5). Statue of Asklepios by Kalamis in Sikyon (Lib. II, cap. 10, 3). Statue of Aphrodite by Kanachos in Sikyon (Lib. II, cap. 10, 3). Statue of Hera, of colossal size, by Polykletus in the Herzeum at Argos (Lib. IT, cap. 17, 4). *The coin we have reproduced was probably struck in commemoration of this. 296 IVORY (AND THE ELEPRANT Statue of Hebe by Naukydes in the Herzeum at Argos Gib, ae vaa Statue of Asklepios by Thrasymedes in Epidaurus (Lib. IL cap 272)3 Statue of Zeus in Olympia, by Phidias (Lib. IV, cap. 31, 6, Lib. V, cap. 11, 1). , Statue of Nicomedes in Olympia (Lib. V, cap. 12, 7). Busts in the Herzeum at Olympia (Lib. V, cap. 17, 3). Statue of Eurydice (probably the wife of Amyntas II and mother of Philip II of Macedon) in the Herzeum at Olympia. Reliefs on the casket of Kypselus (Lib. V, cap. 17, 5). Table in Olympia, by Kolopes (Lib. V, cap. 20, 2). Statue of Athene in Elis (Lib. VI, cap. 26,3). Said to be by Kolotes, a pupil of Phidias. Statue of Athene in Pellene (Lib. VIII, cap. 27, 2). Stated to have been executed by Phidias. Ancient ivory image of Athene in her temple at Alalko- mene. Carried off to Rome by Sylla. (Lib. IX, cap. 33, 5.) Image of Dionysos, with face, feet, and hands of ivory, in the treasury of Selinius in Sicily, at Olympia. This Greek Sicilian city was destroyed by the Carthaginians in 409 B. C. (Lib. VI, cap. 19, 10). Statue of Endymion, entirely of ivory eee the dra- pery, in the Olympian treasury of Metapontum (Lib. VI, cap. 19, 11). Ancient image of Athene Alea at Tegea, carried off by Augustus with the tusks of the Calydonian Boar, one of which was half a fathom long. This image, entirely of ivory, was the work of Endceus (last half of sixth century B. C.) and was set up in Rome on the way to the Forum of Augustus (Lib. VIII, cap. 46, 1, 5). Of the two ancient reproductions in marble of the great Athene Parthenos of Phidias which have been discovered in Greece, that found in 1880 is the more satisfactory, although ANCIENT CARVED IVORIES 27 the rude workmanship shows that we have here rather a summary indication than a faithful copy of the great and colossal original. The outstretched hand of the goddess, upon which rests a statue of Nike, has an external support in the form of a slender column, and some critics are unwilling to believe that the Phidian statue was so designed. How- ever, when we consider the height of the original Nike figure, about six feet, we must realize that its unsupported weight would have brought a tremendous strain to bear upon the _ framework of the outstretched forearm, a strain quite great enough to warrant the artist in seeking to provide for it by some such means as that shown in the reproduction. It is related that Tarquin had a sceptre and a throne of ivory, and that after his downfall these were given up by the Roman Senate to the Etruscan, Lars Porsenna, on the con- clusion of peace between him and the Roman Republic. It was also with an ivory staff that Marcus Papirius smote the Gaul who had dared to touch his beard to see whether he was man or statue, when the grave and reverend senators sat so immovably in their seats that the victorious Gauls who broke into the Senate chamber were uncertain whether they were living men or only images.* Among the gifts bestowed by the Roman Senate upon the tributary or semi-tributary sovereigns were the ivory curule chair and the ivory sceptre. The Latin historians make frequent mention of this, noting the ivory sceptre given to Eumenes, King of Asia.t One was also sent to Ptolemy, of Mauritania, according to Tacitus. An ivory staff was a well-recognized Roman emblem of honour in the case of consuls and those celebrating a triumph.t It was in many cases surmounted by the image of an eagle; under the em- *Jules Labarte, “Histoire des arts industriels,”’ Vol. I, Paris, 1864, p. 189. {Titus Livius “Ab urbe condita,” XLII, 14. {Juvenal, Sat. X, 43. 28 IVORY AND THE ELEPEANT perors a bust had taken the place of the eagle, in most cases that of the reigning emperor himself.* The origin of the use of these and similar objects has been traced back to Etruscan’ royalty. The Tyrrhenian cities, as a sign of submission, sent to Tarquin with other gifts an ivory seat, and one was given by the Roman Senate to Porsenna as a special mark of favour.t A strikingly beautiful and artistic specimen of ancient Roman ivory carving was unearthed in the neighbourhood of Vienne (Dept. Isére), France, the site of an old Roman settlement in the Gallic province. It is a finely executed female head, showing all the calm dignity and the purity of outline characteristic of the very best classic sculpture. This valuable carving is now in the Musée de Vienne.f There are evidences that ivory was both known and appreciated by the Celts at a very early period, although, because of its relative destructability as compared with amber or glass, but few specimens are now extant. How- ever, both in France and Germany the tumuli of the Hallstat Period, extending down to 500 B. C. and even later, have furnished a few specimens, such as rings and the handles of different toilette articles. Such examples have been un- earthed from the tumuli of Aprimont (Dept. Haute Saéne) and from those of Buchheim in Baden. In this connection may also be noted the use of human teeth as part of the adornments of necklaces and of other objects.** The most wonderful works of art in which ivory was ever used were unquestionably the colossal chryselephantine, or *H. K. E. Kohler, “‘Serapis,” St. Petersburg, 1850, Pt. I, p. 198. Dion. Halicar., V, 35. t“L’art 4 Exposition Universel de 1900” (Exposition Rétrospective), Paris, December, 1900, p. 12, Fig. 1. **Joseph Déchelette, “Manuel d’Archéologie Préhistorique Celtique et Gallo-Romaine,” Paris, 1913, Pt. Il, pp. 831, 875; see Figs. 367, p. 874, handle ornaments No. 1 from Buch- heim, Nos. 2, 3, from Apremont. rt : Dr - 4 B sii SS I. WING OF A TRIPTYCH DEPICTING ST. THEODORUS BYZANTINE ART OF X OR XI CENTURY MUSEE DU LOUVRE CONSULAR DIPTYCH FROM LIMOGES Il. BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE LEAF OF A DIPTYCH OF FELIX, CONSUL IN 428 A. D. SULAR DIPTYCH ROMAN ART OF THE V OR VI CE LEAF OF A CON te NTURY MUSEE DE CLUNY, PARIS ee AUL S NG VORY PLAQUE DEPICTI I II. NTURY LATIN ART OF THE VI CE MUSEE DE CLUNY, PARIS ANCIENT CARVED IVORIES 29 gold and ivory statues of Zeus at Olympia and of Athena Parthenos in the Parthenon at Athens, both executed by the immortal Phidias in the fifth century B.C. The Athena was about 40 feet high, the face, hands, and feet being of ivory, as well as the Medusa’s head at her side. On her hand she bore an ivory Nike, or Victory, over 6 feet in height. These and other similar though less stupendous works, such as the statue of Hera at Argos, the work of Polykletus and that of Asklepios at Epidaurus, made by Thrasymedes, all prove _ that ivory was regarded by the Greeks as of the very highest value and importance in art. In Rome also the beautiful artistic effects to be attained by using this material made it a favourite one with art workers. While the immense statues of the Greek gods have passed away leaving no trace behind, we have from Roman times a number of precious relics of a characteristic use of ivory. These are the consular diptychs and those of certain distinguished private citizens, made of two panels of ivory, hinged on one of their sides so that they could be folded together; these diptychs were at once memorials of events and art works of great beauty. At a much later period, in Christian times, three panels were hinged together forming a triptych, and sometimes there was a central panel having two or more others attached at either side, so that when set upright, with the side panels bent inward at differ- ent angles, a small enclosed space was formed wherein might be placed a precious relic or a statuette of a saint. Of the Roman consular diptychs very nearly fifty have been preserved for us, in whole or in part, and these date from the middle of the third century to the middle of the sixth century A. D.; probably some of those of which we have no specimens belonged to the first or second century. One of the earliest now extant, that of Rufius Probianus, now in Berlin, constitutes the covers of a manuscript relating 30 IVORY AMS TOE ELEP RANT the life of St. Ludgerus.* But these official panels are far surpassed in beauty by some executed for private persons. In the leaf of the diptych of Flavius Felix, consul in 428 A. D., preserved in the collection of the Bibliothéque Nationale in Paris, the consul is shown wearing a richly embroidered tunic, the undergarment, subarmalia profundis, being entirely plain; on his feet are the gilt, patrician shoes, the calcet aurati. In his left hand he holds a sceptre and a globe, added distinguishing marks being the busts of the two reigning emperors Valentinian III and Theodorus II. The other leaf of this diptych was lost or stolen during the French Revolution; that of the Bibliothéque Nationale came from the Abbey of St. Junieu, at Limoges, France. The consular diptych of Flavius Anastasius Paulus Probus Pompelius, to give him his full complement of names, is also in the Bibliothéque Nationale in Paris, and is regarded as the finest of those owned by this institution; the Berlin Mu- seum and the South Kensington Museum each have a replica of one of the leaves. This fine example of Roman carving was donated by Charles the Bald to the Abbey of St. Cor- neille at some time during the ninth century. The J. P. Morgan Collection, long shown in the Metro- politan Museum of Art, New York, contains among its ivory carvings the two leaves of a Roman consular diptych of the sixth century. This bears the name of Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Justinianus, and was probably produced in 516, or possibly in 521 A. D. On one of the leaves is the somewhat pretentious Latin inscription: Munera parva quidem pretio sed honoribus alma, “a gift slight in value but conferring high honour’’; on the other leaf is a dedication to the Sena- tors. This diptych was at one time in the Trivulzi Collec- tion in Milan. *Maskell, “‘Ivories Ancient and Medieval,” pp. 28, 29, South Kensington Museum Art Handbooks No. 2. CONSULAR DIPTYCH OF ANASTASIUS CONSUL IN 517 A. D. FROM BOURGES, NOW IN THE BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE CcOTRA AA ! 3 WAS RT sotertavs eros BN WEES . Fikoxeneys | CONSULAR DIPTYCH OF PHILOXENUS CONSUL IN 525 A.D. THE TWO UPPER MEDALLIONS SHOW PORTRAITS OF THE CONSUL, THE TWO LOWER ONES FEMALE BUSTS, POSSIBLY OF THE CONSUL’S WIFE. FROM ST. CORNEILLE DE COMPIEGNE, NOW IN THE BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE ANCIENT CARVED IVORIES 31 Out of the consular diptychs still extant, thirty-seven bear inscriptions giving the name of the consul, only twelve being anonymous. Whether because this particular consul caused an unusually large number of his diptychs to be made, or simply owing to chance, out of the small total that have been preserved no less than eight are of Areo- bundus, and the difference in artistic quality between the best of these and the least excellent indicates that more care was bestowed upon those destined as gifts to people of es- pecial prominence than upon those to be bestowed upon less notable persons. The greater part of these consular diptychs were executed in the Eastern Empire. The diptych of Anastasius, A. D. 517, has on either leaf a seated figure of the consul; above each of these figures are three portrait medallions, the subjects of which are uncer- tain, and two winged figures with garlands. Below, the left leaf shows two Amazons, each leading a horse by the . bridle, probably in preparation for a horse race; beneath this is represented the manumission of some slaves, one of these, a hunchback, being freed by the consul’s wife, Anas- tasia. The corresponding part of the right leaf contains a representation of a combat in the arena between men and wild beasts. This is one of the most effective of the con- sular diptychs, although in artistic merit it may be sur- passed by a few others. The consular and other diptychs from Roman times had a very practical use as writing tablets, the surface being cov- ered with a coating of wax upon which the writing was made with a metal stylus. They were thus not only valuable and beautiful, but most useful presents. The medieval diptychs and triptychs, on the other hand, had a purely religious significance, and were generally so arranged as to constitute small shrines or tabernacles. The Roman diptych bearing inscribed on one leaf the name 382 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT Nicomachorum and on the other Symmachorum is generally conceded to be the finest work of its kind that has come down to us from ancient times. In the lapse of centuries it has passed through some strange vicissitudes. A_ plausible conjecture sees in it a work executed toward the end of the fourth century A. D., to celebrate an alliance or compact, social or religious, between two patrician families, the Nicomachi and the Symmachi. This latter family was of consular rank, Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, an author of repute, having been chosen consul in 391 A. D.; his father, L. Aurelius Symmachus, held the rank of preetor about the middle of the fourth century. The design certainly seems to indicate a connection with some religious ceremonial, as on each leaf is figured a Bacchante standing before an altar and about to offer a sacrifice of incense. In view of this we must feel it as an irony of fate that less than three centuries after its production the leaves of the diptych were made to serve as doors to a shrine within which were gathered some of the most precious Christian relics. This shrine was brought from Rome by St. Berchaire about 679 A. D. to the newly founded abbey church of Montier-en-Der, in the diocese of Troyes, France, and the shrine with its ivory doors is described in detail in the inventory of the monastic treas- ures made in 1717. How long after this time it remained intact appears uncertain; it is said to have been destroyed by fire, although the saintly relics were preserved. Nothing further is known of the ivory doors, the leaves of the Roman diptych, until 1860, when one of them was fished up out of the depths of a well at Montier-en-Der. This leaf, inscribed Nicomachorum, has since been acquired by the Musée de Cluny, Paris. On investigation it turned out that the com- panion leaf, bearing the inscription Symmachorum, was in the possession of a collector of the city of Montier-en-Der, and from him indirectly it reached the Victoria and Albert ROMAN DIPTYCH PROBABLY MADE AS A MEMENTO OF THE MARRIAGE OF NICOMACHUS FLAVIANUS, SON OF VIRIUS NICOMACHUS FLAVIANUS TO THE DAUGHTER OF QUINTUS AURELIUS SYMMACHUS (CONSUL IN 394 A. D.) THIS MARRIAGE MAY HAVE TAKEN PLACE BETWEEN THE YEARS 392 AND 394. THE FIRST LEAF SHOWS A STANDING FEMALE FIGURE, TURNED TO THE LEFT, BEFORE AN ALTER SET UP BENEATH AN OAK TREE AND SPRINKLING INCENSE UPON A SACRIFICIAL FIRE. ABOVE, THE INSCRIPTION ““SYMMACHORUM.” IN THE SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH ON THE SECOND LEAF JS DEPICTED A WOMAN STANDING, AND HOLDING TWO REVERSED TORCHES, BEFORE A LIGHTED ALTER SHELTERED BY A PINE TREE. ABOVE ARE THE LETTERS NICOMACHO[RU|M. IN THE MUSEE DE CLUNY, PARIS. FROM “LES IVOIRES’ BY EMILE MOLINIER, PARIS, 1896 ST AINING THE HO RY. FOR CONT EaYOX I CENTU BOTH SIDES LATIN ART OF V OR V. NY, PARIS , MUSEE DE CLU 2 3 DIAM ANCIENT CARVED IVORIES 33 Museum, London, where it now reposes. It seems unfortu- nate that the two leaves of this most interesting and valuable memento of the past cannot be reunited. These beautiful diptych leaves, while probably executed in Rome at the end of the fourth century A. D., have been apparently inspired by Greek sculpture of the fourth cen- tury B. C., perhaps that of some Greek stele set up in Rome, and which could be there seen and studied by the carver of the diptych.* Among the treasures of the Kunsthistorische Sammlungen in Vienna may be seen a diptych of the fifth century, on either leaf of which appear allegorical figures denoting respectively Rome and Constantinople, the Western and the Eastern Empires. The genius of Rome is helmeted like a Minerva and holds in one hand a sphere surmounted by a Victory; for Constantinople the artist has chosen a figure of Fortune (Tyche), on her head is a mural crown and in her hands she bears palm branch and cornucopia; to her shoulder clings the child Eros. In the very earliest Christian age there were ivory diptychs inscribed with the names of those who had been baptized, thus constituting a partial parish register; upon others again were carved the names of the bishops of the churches and of great benefactors. Still others bore the names of the saints and martyrs, and, finally, there was a fourth class devoted exclusively to the registration of the dead who had passed away after due reception of the last sacraments. Of ivory is one of the most precious relics of the church in the sixth century—namely, the throne of Maximian, Archbishop of Ravenna (546-556). This cathedra is high-backed and adorned with a series of ivory plaques carved in relief with *O. M. Dalton, “Byzantine Art and Archeology,” Oxford, 1911, pp. 190, 191. +‘ Uebersicht der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des Allerhéchsten Kaiserhauses,”’ Wien, 1899, p. 118 (Hall XIV, Case XXI). 34 IVORY AND OTHE ELE PR WTANT scenes from the Old and New Testaments, such as the history of Joseph, the Annunciation, the Adoration of the Magi, etc.; in addition, many figures of saints and also highly ornamen- tal borders combine to render this a most impressive artistic production. The similarity in design and workmanship of this early monument of Christian art to the ivory work executed about this time in Alexandria renders it probable that this seat or throne was executed in Egypt and brought thence to Ravenna.* On a leaf of a Roman diptych, preserved in the British Museum, is carved a most striking and impressive figure of an angel. This work, executed in the fourth or fifth cen- tury of our era, represents the combination of classic and Christian art at its very best and is almost unique in ex- cellence in this respect, for while the religious fervour of a later time may not have abated, the artistic ability of the carvers soon showed a sad falling off, which continued until the revival in the Renaissance art of the French and Italian schools of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. This angel, clothed in classic garb of the most graceful style, has the port and bearing of a prince of the angelic hosts, blending classic dignity and religious majesty in an incom- parable way. The technical execution is fully on a par with the artistic conception, and no work of Roman art can be pronounced superior to this. That the episcopal chair of Ravenna was not a production of the Alexandrian School, but came from the great Syrian art centre, Antioch, is the contention of the distinguished art critic, Mr. O. M. Dalton. The superior quality of work- manship displayed in some of the panels as compared with others has induced the belief that more than one artist was *See Hans Graeven, “Fragment eines friihchristlichen Bischofsstuhls im Provinzial Museum zu Trier,” Jahrbticher des Vereins von Altertumsfreunden im Rheinlande, Heft 105, Bonn, 1900, pp. 147-163. ANCIENT CARVED IVORIES 35 employed in the decoration of this remarkable ecclesiastical work, although Mr. Dalton suggests that a single artist might have taken more pains with the more conspicuous panels and have treated the others with less care. The splendid carving of the archangel, probably St. Michael, in the British Museum, has also been referred to Antioch, where the best traditions of Greek art long held sway.* In this latter work Strzygowski has seen an influence of the histrionic frescos of Pompeii, in which the short flight of steps by which the actors descended to the stage are flanked by pairs of columns. As such an influence could scarcely be exerted, upon Christian art especially, in any place other than a great centre of population, the conjecture that Antioch was the city where the remarkable carving of the archangel was produced receives additional confirmation.f A very interesting carved ivory panel in the Bargello in Florence, representing the figure of an empress, has been variously dated by different authorities, Molinier referring it to the Empress Irene, regent for her son Constantine VI in 780 A. D., but the work was probably executed at an earlier period, and may figure Ariadne, who was successively mar- ried to the Emperors Zeno and Anastasius I, her son by the latter emperor having died in 507 A. D., to which date, approximately, the panel may be attributed. The curious headgear of the empress was used at a later time in repre- sentations of the Virgin Mary.t Of the ivory-adorned book covers in the Bibliothéque Nationale, one of the finest and most interesting is formed from a Roman diptych. On one leaf is carved a repre- *O. M. Dalton, “Byzantine Art and Archeology,” Oxford, 1911, pp. 203-206; see Fig. 122, 123. {Op. cit., pp. 201, 202. tO. M. Dalton, “Byzantine Art and Archeology,” Oxford, 1911, pp. 213, 214; see Fig. 128. 36 .IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT sentation of Bacchus seated in a car drawn by Centaurs; the other leaf depicts Diana in a chariot drawn by two bulls. The manuscript enclosed by these covers is an example of the so-called “‘Office of Fools,” a semi-travesty of a religious service, tolerated by the Catholic Church on the Feast of the Circumcision, which falls on New Year’s Day. Doubtless the pagan designs were expressly chosen as covers for this popular ritual, one of the concessions made by the Church, perhaps not unwisely, to the fondness of the common people for a frolic on the first day of a new year, although such an observance would be regarded to- day, when the religious and secular aspects of life are so sharply distinguished, as a profanation of holy things. The great Christian church of Santa Sophia, turned into a Mohammedan mosque since the fall of Constantinople in 1453, was enriched with six ivory doors especially com- manded for its embellishment by its founder, Emperor Justinian. An old record says that the ivory was elaborately sculptured and the effect enhanced by gold ornaments.* As there can be no doubt that the ivory panels adorned with figured representations of religious subjects were quickly removed and almost certainly destroyed by the Mohammedan conquerors, there is little reason for surprise that no trace of them remains. Perhaps the present year is destined to be noted in future history as that in which this wonderful historic monument, the peerless Santa Sophia, shall have been restored to Christian worship. There is evidence that work in ivory was extensively done in the early Christian centuries, for among other artists or artisans granted especial exemption by law from certain municipal obligations are noted “the ivory workers (eborarii) who make seats, beds, ete., of ivory.” *See Ridulfus de Diceto, in Stubbs’s ‘‘Rerum Brittanicarum scriptores,” Vol. 71, Pt. 1, p. 93. IVORY CASKET WITH CLAMPS AND HINGES IN GILT METAL, THE SIDES AND LID CARVED WITH SUBJECTS FROM THE PASSION OF OUR SAVIOUR. CAROLINGIAN, X CENTURY. PYXIS OF CARVED IVORY BYZANTINE, X OR XI CENTURY J. PIERPONT MORGAN COLLECTION ST. PAUL PREACHING AN ITALIAN IVORY OF THE VI OR VII CENTURY MUSEE DU LOUVRE ANCIENT CARVED IVORIES 37 They shared these privileges with architects and painters, so that their profession must have been regarded as a very honourable one.* A pyx for containing the sacred Host, executed in the fifth or sixth century by a Latin carver, is one of the most curious ivories of the Cluny collection. The figures sculp- tured around the sides are copied from the representations on early Christian sarcophagi and depict the cure of the paralytic, that of the man born blind, the Samaritan woman, and the resurrection of Lazarus. In this we have a good example of the decadence of classic art in carving. Italian art of the sixth or seventh century, representing the rapidly waning classic tradition, furnishes an interest- ing if not especially beautiful ivory carving in the Louvre Museum. The subject is St. Paul preaching, but the neces- sities of the treatment have forced the artist to make the apostolic preacher turn his back upon the congregation, unless we are to suppose that those in view represent but a small part of his auditors. *See Guido Pancirollus, ““De magistratibus municipalibus; de corporibus artificum”’; in Graevius, “Thesaurus Romanarum antiquitatum,” Vol. III, Venetiis, 1732, col. 83. CHAPTER II MEDIEVAL AND MODERN IVORY CARVINGS Tue ideals that animated classic art gradually lost their vigour in the course of the early Christian centuries, giving place to new artistic aspirations animated by purely Chris- tian ideals. Some of the works noted in the preceding chapter were already produced under these influences, which so dominated medieval plastic art that only in comparatively few instances did the artist—painter, sculptor, or carver— seek his inspiration elsewhere. The leading schools of Carolingian ivory carving were those of Rheims and Metz, the former having the priority, while the latter was never so much localized, indeed, it may be regarded rather as a type of the art owing its origin to the influence of the Rheims carvers than as a separate and de- fined school. One of the best specimens of the early work done at Rheims is in the Staatsbibliothek in Munich. This is a book cover and depicts the Crucifixion. It is character- ized by the very lively gestures of the figures, and by their fluttering garments, this vivacity being a quality of the school of Rheims. More sobriety and seriousness is shown in the carvings grouped under the designation of the Metz. School, of which an excellent example is in the Bibliothéque Nationale in Paris. This carving, from the time of Ludwig der Fromme, is also the cover of an evangelium. It is di- vided into three fields, the upper one offering a representation 38 IVORY PLAQUE CARVED IN HIGH RELIEF, REPRESENTING THE CRUCIFIXION, A GROUP OF ANGELS, AND SYMBOLICAL FIGURES OF SUN AND MOON. BELOW ARE FIGURED THE DEAD RISING FROM THEIR GRAVES AT THE DEATH OF CHRIST. CARLOVINGIAN ART OF THE X CENTURY. BRITISH MUSEUM IVORY PLAQUES FIGURING FOUR OF THE ZODIACAL SIGNS: AQUARIUS AND LEO, CAPRICORNUS AND SAGIT- TARIUS. BYZANTINE ART OF THE IX CENTURY. 2 2 DIAM. MUSEE DE CLUNY, PARIS IVORY CARVINGS — 89 of the betrayal of Christ by Judas in the Garden of Gethsem- ane, the middle field, the denial of Peter, while the lower field depicts the Crucifixion. Here the bodies of the crucified thieves are entirely undraped, a unique treatment in these representations; moreover, they are nailed to natural trees, the cross-pieces being the limbs of the trees.* Of the so-called Metz School of Carolingian carving a characteristic specimen may be seen in the Kaiser Frederich Museum in Berlin. This is a diptych, each leaf measuring 11.3 centimeters (44 in.) in height, and having a width of 8.2 centimeters (34 in.). There are on each leaf six designs without dividing lines, comprising the Annunciation, the Vision of the Shepherds, the Nativity, the Adoration of the Magi, Christ in the Temple, the Baptism of Christ, the Entry into Jerusalem, the Washing of Feet, Christ in the Preetorium, the Crucifixion, the Women at the Tomb, the Ascension. In the crucifixion scene are shown, at the left of the cross, Mary and Longinus, at the right, Stephanon and St. John, above the cross are weeping personifications of the sun and the moon.{ It has been noted that in the work of this type the Christ figure is often disproportionately large as com- pared with the accompanying figures. During the reign of the orthodox emperor Michael Rhan- gabe (811-813 A. D.), when the iconoclastic movement in the Eastern Empire was temporarily checked, Charlemagne sent Halitcharius, Bishop of Cambrai, as envoy to Constan- tinople, and on his return thence the bishop brought back with him, among the gifts from the Greek emperor, sculp- tured ivory tablets. These were used to form ornamental covers for liturgical works. A few years later, in 845 A. D., *Wilhelm Lange, “Die Darstellungen der Kreuzigung Christi in der niederrheinischen Elfenbeinschnitzerei des XI und XII Jahrhunderts.” ‘Thesis. Erlangen, 1912, pp. 20 sqq, Bib. Nat. Codex latinus 9388. -fIbid, pp. 31 sqq. 40 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT Hincmar, Bishop of Rheims, had the works of St. Jerome enclosed in covers adorned with ivory tablets in a gold setting, and he also had a lectionary provided with covers of ivory set in silver.* Two ivory plaques in the Musée de Cluny are specimens of the Byzantine art of the ninth century and are especially noteworthy in that in each case while one side bears a dis- tinctly religious decoration, the other side offers secular designs, including figured symbols of four of the zodiacal signs (two on each plaque) Capricornus, Sagittarius, Aqua- rius, and Leo. Rich foliage work and scrollwork combine to make a very harmonious design, indicating the posses- sion of both taste and skill by the artist. The hieratic art of the ninth century is well illustrated in a representation of the Crucifixion on the cover of an evangelium in the Musée de Cluny, uncompromisingly rigid in composition; the absolute symmetry of the group- ing is as far removed as possible from the ease and grace characterizing the best works of an earlier and a later period, and yet we may not deny the genuine religious spirit m which the medieval artist has wrought. But few ivory statuettes were made by the carvers of the Eastern Empire, this being due in great part to the general influence of iconoclastic ideas in the Empire, even when these were not drastically enforced as was from time to time the case. Intense as was the opposition between Christian and Moslem in the East, it appears likely that the Christian image-breakers drew their inspiration from the rigid ideas regarding images and the reverencing of images that were so strongly held by the Mohammedans. In a not dissimilar way, the Protestant image-breakers of the *Jules Labarte, “Histoire des arts industriels au Moyen Age et 4 l’époque de la Re- naissance,” Vol. I, Paris, 1864, p. 213: Citing Anonymi Gesta episcop. Cameracensium, lib. 1, 42, apud. Pertz, “Mon. Germaniae hist.,”’ Vol. IX, p. 416, and Flodoardi, “Eccl. Remensis hist.,”’ lib. III, cap. 5, Paris, 1611, pp. 159, 160. Pee ota IVORY PANEL ADORNING THE COVER OF AN EVANGELIUM. IT HAS A RICHLY ORNAMENTED BORDER AND IS PROBABLY A WORK OF THE IX CENTURY. MUSEE DE CLUNY, PARIS uae : Fl; ACIAGY® ) eG) Ay my rs {at ef a fat a4 wey isi Py ltd RY aya al a ala Aah cai aia Rates CORONATION OF ROMANUS IV AND OF EUDOXIA EMPEROR AND EMPRESS OF THE EASTERN EMPIRE, 1068 A. D. THE WORKS OF ST. JEAN DE BESANCON. 2 DIAM. BOOK COVER OF A COPY OF BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE TRIPTYCH BYZANTINE ART OF THE XII CENTURY x BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE DIAM. Marnier ite ee bE NES SPS APPIN Phy. ’ eur ¥ a % 1 wen) ‘a Jy & ON ‘ ‘ BLAS en wid ‘3 » a une oagl A » a , ; AL) WEyv on f wats 4 y Ly, ek : ~y =o . oy y >» ‘ x Bs WR Mee” : ? ade oe ar peg | ay an a ee re bs CS 2 Wy a ny rane ye ye ee By Lael wa EVANGELIUM BOOK-COVER OF AN SCE ADORATION OF THE MAGI, > NUNCIATION > AN TESTAMENT NEW E INALLY IN THE CATHEDRAL OF METZ. M TH NES FRO CARLOVINGIAN ART. MASSACRE OF THE INNOCE ORIG NTS. ATIONALE ‘ BIBLIOTHEQUE N IVORY CARVINGS 41 sixteenth century were fired with their unartistic zeal through fervent study of the Old Testament writers, and we must remember that all the leading principles of Mo- hammed’s religious teaching were directly based upon his second-hand knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures. A rhetor named Cyprus is credited with having pro- duced an ivory statuette (or possibly a chryselephantine statue) of Empress Helena, the pious mother of Constan- tine the Great, and to have donated his work to a church; but this is a rare instance, the almost total absence of ivory statuettes in the medieval East being in marked contrast with their abundance in the West, especially among the ivory carvings of the glorious French Renaissance period.* The famous Abbot Suger of St. Denis states that in his time (1122-1152) there was in the abbey church a reading- desk enriched with ivory reliefs of such striking artistic quality that the like could not be produced in his age. That these belonged to the Carolingian Age is the opinion of M. Labarte, as Charlemagne completed the reconstruction of the church which had been begun by his father Pepin, and dedicated it in 775 A. D.T A thoroughly typical example of Carolingian art is a plaque used as the cover of an evangelium in the Biblio- théque Nationale. This work, which came from the Cathe- dral of Metz, surpasses in conception and execution almost all other productions of the Metz school of carvers, so much so, indeed, that some have seen in it a work of an earlier period, perhaps the sixth century, from the hand of an Italic carver who still retained much of the classic spirit. The vitality and virility of the design is exhibited by the treat- *See O. M. Dalton, “Byzantine Art and Archeology,” Oxford, 1911, p. 188. {Labarte, op. cit., pp. 218, 219. From Sugeri, Abb. S. Dionys., ““De rebus in admin. sua gestis,” apud Duchesne, “Hist. France. script.,’”’ Vol. IV, p. 331. 42. IVORY eae. ELEPAaAR Se ment of the Massacre of the Innocents, where some of the soldier executioners are depicted as having seized the chil- dren by their ankles and swung them aloft, prior to dashing out their brains on the pavement before the bloodthirsty Herod. Although the Byzantine ivories of the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries showed an artistic excellence equal to the work of the French ivory carvers of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, there is apparent in the designs and execution a certain monotony and conventionality. As a characteristic specimen may be noted the central leaf of a triptych preserved in the Bibliothéque Nationale in Paris, whereon is depicted Christ bestowing a blessing upon the imperial pair, Romanus (1068-1071) and Eudocia, as indi- cated by inscriptions above the heads of these figures, the entire design showing at once the technical ability of the carver and the lack of originality to be remarked in the work of this place and period.* The diptych of Rombona in the Vatican Museum is per- haps the most characteristic specimen of early Lombardic medieval work executed under Byzantine influence. On one of the leaves is a representation of Romulus and Remus with the wolf, and above, a medallion with the figure of Christ, who is raising his hand to bless the Greek banner; on the second leaf the Virgin is depicted between two cherubim. An inscription. denotes that this diptych came from Agel- truda, wife of Guy, Duke of Camerino and Spoleto, King of Italy and, in 891 A. D., emperor.t What may be considered as the finest ivory triptych exe- cuted by a Byzantine carver is that in the Louvre Museum, known as the Harbaville triptych. It is in perfectly com- *O. M. Dalton, “Byzantine Art and Archeology,” Oxford, 1911, pp. 227, 228; see Fig. 139. TA. M. Cust, “The Ivory Workers of the Middle Ages,’’ London, 1906, p. 97. GHUAHOT NG AHSOW “AUNONGO X WHEL FO LUY NVNOU ~HIdWao HHL LY NOIVINGSHYd HHL GNV ALIAILVN FHL ONILOIdHGC SHAITHN AMOAI HLIM LHMSVO FO dOL GNY AdIS LHUMSVO AUOAIL re! Toi ttietle tit titi tt a. iT ‘ otters rr NOMLOGTTIOOD GNVUNVO ‘AONANOTA “ATVNOIZVN OSOW WTVORN “‘WVId g AMOUINGOD IX GH FO LUV NVWYUD “ASdATVOOdY AHL TO LSIMHO GAL ONIINGASUUdaa YJNIAYVO-HAITAU II AUNENGO VIX GHL tO LAV NVIIVGI UAAOD MOOE GAAAUVDYD I yt — SEA SItaSe Wisish. wa Nello IVORY CARVINGS 43 plete condition and is carved on both the inside and outside faces. The central plaque, divided into an upper and a lower field, offers in the upper part the figure of Christ en- throned; on either side of the elaborate throne stand Saint John and the Virgin; on the lower field are standing figures of St. James, St. John, St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. Andrew. The leaves are similarly divided into two fields: that to the left shows in its upper half St. Theodore Tyron and St. Theodore the Stratalate; below stand St. Eustrates and St. Arethas; above these are medallion heads of St. Thomas and St. Mercurius. On the right leaf, similarly disposed, are figures of St. George and St. Eustache, beneath which are those of St. Demetrius and St. Procopius, the inter- - mediate medallions representing St. Philip and St. Pantaleon. This constitutes what we may call the outside decoration of this richly carved triptych. On the inside, the central leaf bears a large cross, with the starry sky above and plants and animals on the soil beneath; the reverses of the side leaves present images of St. Basil, St. Gregory, St. Nicholas, St. Severin, St. John Chrysostrom, and St. Clement of Ancyra, and medallions of St. Phocal, St. Blasius, St. Cosmas, and St. Damien. The central leaf is 24.2 em. high and 14.2 cm. wide; the side leaves measuring 21.7 em. in height and 7 cm. in width. This work, done in the tenth century, has both the merits and the defects observable in all products of Byzantine art, the unquestionable excellence and dignity of the composition being marred to a certain extent by the stiffness and rigidity of the figures.* A tenth-century book cover in the Hofbibliothek in Vienna is adorned with an ivory plaque offering a representation of St. Gregory the Great. The figure, attired in an ancient raiment, falling in stiff folds, is shown seated on a throne *Musée National du Louvre. Catalogue des Ivoires, par Emile Molinier, Paris [1895- 96], pp. 31 sqq. 44 IVORY VANDVTHE ELEPHANT having accessories of columns and curtains. Around the design, which though somewhat rude is not lacking in power, runs a meander pattern as framework. ‘This specimen of early German art illustrates both the merits and defects of the time and country and is an excellent example of its kind. The inscription surrounding the figure expresses the literary enthusiasm of the time in monastic circles, as it declares that however precious may be the decoration of the book, the *““Sacramentarium”’ of St. Gregory, its contents are still more precious. This copy belonged originally to the Cathedral of Trent. In 1674, the canons of the Cathedral of Metz, feeling themselves under some obligation to Colbert, offered him the ivory treasures of their cathedral. He accepted the gift, and after retaining the valuable and historical objects in his own possession for a time, he donated them to the Bibliothéque Royale. Some further voluntary gifts of ivories were made by the Cathedral chapter of Metz in 1802 to this institution, then and now named the Biblio- théque Nationale. The greater number of these ivory book covers had been provided with a broad binding of elaborate metal work, studded with precious stones, pearls, and enamels; in many instances, in the various revolu- tionary disorders and consequent plunderings, certain of the more valuable stones were plucked from their settings, these sometimes remaining empty, while at other times the gaps have been filled up with enamel work or with glass imitations. A notable instance of this wilful mutila- tion of a precious relic of medieval art is the cover of the **Missel de ’abbaye de Saint-Denis,” written in the eleventh century. Of the three ivory relief figures that originally adorned it, the central one, that of the Christ, has been wrenched off, doubtless because it bore attached to it some especially valuable jewels; there remain the figures of COVER OF AN EVANGELIUM SHOWING IVORY-CARVED FIGURES OF THE VIRGIN AND ST. JOHN, SURROUNDED BY REPRE- SENTATIONS OF PROPHETS, PATRIARCHS, AND SERAPHIM IN METAL WORK, AND WITH BORDERINGS OF PEARLS AND PRECIOUS STONES. > DIAM. BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE oto DIAM. a ave <4 ove SIDE AND LID OF AN IVORY COFFER MOORISH ART OF THE XV CENTURY REALE MUSEO NAZIONALE, FLORENCE IVORY CARVINGS A5 the Virgin and of St. John, each executed in the spirit of reverent devotion characteristic of this early period, and showing at once a good degree of technical skill, and an unusual power of expression.* An unnamed German carver of the eleventh century has chosen as his theme the Christ of the Apocalypse. The inspiration of the work seems altogether Oriental. Christ in the central niche has on or in His right hand the seven angel stars, and bears in the left hand the keys of hell and of death; on either side are set the seven candle- sticks of the seven churches; in two niches both to the right and left of the central one are an angel and a saint, the saint on the left-hand side of the Christ having a braided beard almost suggestive of the figures in Assyrian sculptures. In spite of its lack of artistic finish this relief has an origi- nality that is quite impressive. On a specimen of Hispano-Moorish ivory carving shown in 1879, at an exhibition of the Burlington Fine Arts Club, appears the name of a Moorish ivory carver, Khalaf, and as the carving belongs to the first half of the eleventh century, this is one of the earliest signed works in ivory from the Middle Ages. It is a coffret 6 inches in height, on which is engraved, in Cufic characters, an Arabic inscription that has been rendered as follows: “It is more beautiful than a casket adorned with diamonds. It serves to contain spices, musk, camphor, and ambergris. There is nothing for me so admirable as the sight of it. It inspires me with constancy to support the troubles of my house.” Certainly the artist could not complain in this case of lack of appreciation. This cofiret was owned by Mr. John Malcolm of Poltallock.+ Of all the medieval ivories, none surpasses in importance *Henri Bouchot, “Trésors des Bibliotheques, Ivoires des Reliures,”’ p. 6. {Burlington Fine Arts Club, Catalogue of Bronzes and Ivories of European origin, ex- hibited in 1879, London, 1879, p. 45, Cabinet VII, No. 270. 46 IVORY Aa PeTHE ELEPHANT and interest the “horn of Ulphus” in York Minster.* The custom of confirming the bestowal of a grant of lands by drinking a draught from such a horn and then giving it duly inscribed to the grantee to be preserved as a record of the donation was fairly general during the Middle Ages in many parts of Europe, and this ivory drinking-horn is a specimen of this class. The circumstances attending the solemn attestation of this particular grant to the see of York, which was made a few years after the death of King Canute (1036 A. D.), are thus related from early sources. “About this time also, Ulphe, the son of Thorald, who ruled in the west of Deira, part of the present Yorkshire, by reason of the differences which were like to rise between his sons, about the sharing of his lands and lordships after his death, resolved to make them all alike, and thereupon, com- ing to York, with that horn wherewith he was used to drink, filled 1t with wine and before the altar of God, and St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, kneeling decently, drank the wine and by that ceremony enfeoffed the church with all his lands and revenues. The figure of which horn, in memory thereof, is cut in stone upon several parts of the choir, but the horn itself, when the Reformation in King Edward VI’s time be- gan, and swept away many costly ornaments belonging to this church, was sold to a goldsmith, who took away from it those toppings of gold wherewith it was adorned and the gilt chains affixed thereto; since when the horn itself, being entire ivory in an eight-square form, came to the hands of Thomas late Lord Fairfax, in whose possession I saw it in 1666.” On the death of this Lord Fairfax in 1671 the horn passed into the possession of his next relative, Lord Henry Fairfax, *Archeologia, Vol. I, pp. 168-182, London, 1770; ‘‘An historical dissertation upon the ancient Danish Horn kept in the Cathedral Church of York, Anno Domini 1718.” {Sir William Dugdale, “Historical Account of the Church of York,”’ London, 1715, p. 7. IVORY CARVINGS AT and was by him restored to the custody of the cathedral. It is carved in bas-relief, about the circumference of the lower extremity, with the figures of griffins, a lion, a unicorn, and dogs, interspersed with trees. The original plate, bearing probably the name of the donor, and perhaps a record of his munificent endowment, was lost or removed during the time the horn was in strangers’ hands, but a new plate was affixed by Lord Fairfax engraved with the following Latin inscrip- tion: Cornu hoe Ulphus, in occidentale parte Dairae Princeps, una cum omnibus terris et redditibus suis olim donavit. Amissam vel abreptam Henricus Ds Fairfax demum restituit Anno Domini 1675. Liturgical combs of ivory formed one of the more impor- tant categories of medieval ivory carving, and an exceed- ingly fine specimen, of German workmanship, from the eleventh century, is now in the Louvre Collection. It is of rectangular form, carved on both faces, and is provided with two rows of teeth, the upper being fine and the lower coarse. The front carving shows Samson rending the lion’s jaw; on the reverse side is a foliage decoration with spirals and ten- drils. This comb is 19.5 cm. in height and 10.5 cm. wide.* One of the finest examples of Byzantine art in ivory is a triptych in the Bibliothéque Nationale at Paris. On the central leaf is depicted the Crucifixion, beside the cross are the figures of Mary and of John, in a compartment above appear the archangels Michael and Gabriel, while a com- partment beneath the cross shows representations of Em- peror Constantine and of his mother, St. Helena. The right *Musée National du Louvre; Catalogue des Ivoires par Emile Molinier, Paris [1895-6] p. 48. 48 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT and left wings of the triptych offer one beneath the other the busts of ten saints, five on each wing; on the left wing, John the Baptist, St. Paul, St. Stephen, St. Chrysostom, St. Cosmas; on the right wing, Elias, St. Peter, St. Pantaleemon, St. Nicolaus, and St. Damianus. As will be observed, the arrangement is symmetrical, the saints opposite each other being more especially connected historically or otherwise. In each case the name of the saint in Greek characters ac- companies and explains the bust. Indeed, all the figures are thus explained. Beneath the cross is the iambic inscription: QS SAPE TIETIONOAS QS OF MACON AYEIS ** As man [in the flesh] thou hast suffered, as God, after suffer- ing, thou redeemest.”’* This triptych is 11 in. high and 94 in. wide. A Byzantine carving of the twelfth century in the Biblio- théque de l’Arsenal, Paris, and which forms the centre of the cover of an evangelium exhibits the artist’s sense of the overpowering majesty of the Transfiguration, that sense of the almost crushing power of the divine that is manifested in many Byzantine mosaics, and in the early Italian paint- ings produced under Byzantine influence, in the art of Ravenna, as in the pictures of Cimabue. This overmaster- ing faith in the divine power lends a dignity and force that offsets many artistic failings. | One of the arms of a cross carved out of ivory by a Spanish artist of the twelfth century, and now in the Louvre, shows a curious bordering of birds and animals including a very lifelike parrot and two of the fabled dragons or griffins so dear to medieval fantasy. As a choice bit of bordering the work possesses unquestionable merit, and testifies to the excellence of the Spanish carvers of this period, who *M. Digby Wyatt, “Notices of sculpture in ivory,” London, 1856, Plate opp. p. 42. ee I Pe Re ot Se ee | +s. > 4 ¥ —eow 2 eee @e ad Fi ali ie, e s - Les iris ITI eer rt erties ed GELIUM IVORY CARVED COVER OF AN EVAN YZANTINE ART B ARSENAL, PARIS ’ x BIBLIOTHEQUE DE L DIAM. ONE OF THE ARMS OF A CROSS SPANISH ART OF THE XII CENTURY 3 DIAM. MUSEE DU LOUVRE IVORY CARVINGS 49 may have owed much to instruction or example of Moorish artists although their designs were of course very different. A special class of triptychs, of which a great number were produced by the medieval and Renaissance ivory carvers, have on the central panel or leaf the figure of the Virgin with three angels, two of whom bear tapers, while the third is placing a crown on the Virgin’s head; on the side leaves are depicted scenes from her life. Sometimes, when the figure of the Virgin is not carved in relief, but has the form of a statu- ette beneath a canopy, there are four leaves instead of three only as in the triptych proper. Occasionally, in the more elaborate works of this type, the central leaf bears a repre- sentation of the Crucifixion or the Last Judgment.* Among the many valuable medieval ivories in the J. P. Morgan collection, for some time exhibited in the Metro- politan Museum of Art, New York, may be noted a statuette of the Virgin and Child, the work of a French carver of the fourteenth century. The mother, enthroned, while gazing down fondly upon her son, holds up in her extended hand a small bunch of lilies, toward which the Divine Child stretches forth its hand. Both in expression and execution this work ranks among the very best products of this period, when the art of religious ivory carving stood at its highest point. The French art of the fourteenth century is also shown at its best in the reliefs of a diptych acquired by Mr. Morgan from the Hoentschel Collection. . Here each leaf is divided into four longitudinal sections, those on the upper half offering representations of the flagellation of Christ, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the Coronation of the Virgin, while the four lower sections figure the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Adoration of the Magi, and the Pres- *Dalton, “Catalogue of the ivory carvings of the Christian era and carvings in bone in the Department of British and Medieval Archeology and Ethnology in the British Mu- seum,” London, 1909, p. 95; see Pl. LVI (No. 266); French, 14th cent. 50 IVORY) ASM AEE ELEYRART entation in the Temple. The execution is lifelike and effec- tive, without any striving after effect. More archaic and perhaps even more devotional, although artistically less successful, is a thirteenth century diptych, also of the French School, where the six relief carvings, three on each leaf, give in succession, the Entry into Jerusalem, the Wash- ing of Feet, the Last Supper, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Betrayal by Judas, and the Crucifixion. In marked contrast to the sobriety of this work is a French diptych of the four- teenth century in which the representations are much more likelife and dramatic, but less deeply imbued with a purely religious spirit; there are here but four designs, the Entry into Jerusalem, the Last Supper, the Betrayal, and the Cruci- fixion, but the carver has been strikingly successful in the grouping of the figures and in their individual attitude and bearing. The masterly execution and the dramatic intensity of these compositions would lead us to suppose that this dip- tych belongs to the very end of the fourteenth century. The peerless Morgan Collection embraces among its other treasures of medieval art a remarkable ivory polyptych, of four leaves, carved with a series of representations of the Passion, the work being done in a manner characteristic of Gothic art in ivory carving at its very best. Each of the sad scenes, eight in number, is feelingly depicted, sometimes but three figures entering into the composition, while in others as many as eight are not unskilfully crowded into the narrow compass of the panel. All the carvings are animated by the earnestly religious spirit of the Early Renaissance, to which period this valuable and interesting work belongs. The Coronation of the Virgin, in the Louvre Museum, has long ranked as one of the most important productions of the French carvers of the thirteenth century. While it is impossible to deny that the composition is rather rigid in outline and lacks the beauty of some later works of the French AYANOT OG WAS OW AUAENAO IX JO GN “LUV HONDA NIDYHUIA AHL tO NOILVNOUOD sluvd ‘ANNO ad aasoW ‘wvid £ AUOUNAO WX THE FO LUV HONUUME “SIND “LS NI A THOUWUOW SAUSVO YOUU IVORY CARVINGS 51 School, the spirit of reverence and earnestness it breathes brings it in line with the pre-Raphaelite paintings of the early Italian masters. The two angels suggest in a marked degree the type made so familiar to us by the half-inspired hand of Fra Angelico, who flourished nearly two centuries after the date of this ivory. Much of the polychrome decoration of this carving still remains; the flesh, the hair, and the beard are tinted, the lining of the garments is painted sky-blue. For some time only the principal figures of this group were in the Louvre, for which they were ac- quired at the sale of the splendid Soltykoff Collection. In 1878, however, the city of Chambéry sent to the Exposi- tion d’Art Rétrospective in the Trocadéro two angel- figures, which were quickly recognized by connoisseurs as having formed part of the original group, and the munici- pality of Chambéry consented to cede them by exchange to the Louvre. That this carving may have been that listed in the inventory of Charles V of France, in 1380, is conjec- tured by M. Emile Molinier* who cites the following item: “Ung couronnement de Nostre-Seigneur 4 Nostre-Dame, d’yvire, et trois angelotz de mesmes, assiz en ung siége de cédre.” That three angels are here noted whereas but two are now to be seen is not considered by Molinier as an ab- solute bar to the identification in view of the occasional inexactness of these early lists. Perhaps, however, as the two angels now in place were only recovered by a happy chance, a third stray angel may be hidden away in some of the many collections of medieval ivories. French ivory carving of the fourteenth century is chiefly distinguished for the chaste beauty of its productions in the field of religious art, but it also offers a few notable examples of works designed to illustrate episodes of secular poetry. One of the most important of these works is a casket of *Musée National du Louvre; “Catalogue des Ivoires,” Paris, 1896, p. 115. 52 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT elongated form and with a flat cover, now in the Louvre Museum. On each of its faces appear bas-reliefs depicting scenes from the thirteenth century poem: “La Chastelaine de Vergi.’”’* A brief description of the figures carved on the cover will indicate how well the medieval carver has under- stood his task of illustrator. Of the eight compartments into which the cover is divided by moulding, a fret-work of silver, the first (from the left) shows us a lady with a dog, in conversation with a friend; in the next compartment “la dame de Vergi’”’ is seated on a bench and training her pet by means of a threatening whip; next we see the lady direct- ing her faithful dog to go in search of her friend, who receives him and pats him on the head; the fourth compartment depicts the chatelaine seated on a bench beneath some trees, and discussing with her friend the part that is to be played by the dog in favoring their loves; for, according to the poem, if the friend sees the little animal trotting along through the orchard this is to be a sign for him that his lady-love is alone in her chamber; in the fifth compartment are figured the lady and her friend at their rendezvous; in the three remain- ing compartments of the cover, and on the sides of the casket, the bas-reliefs illustrate the progress of the tale, which is complicated by an unlawful passion for the chatelaine’s friend on the part of the “ Duchess of Burgundy,” who, when her advances are spurned, seeks to spur on her husband, the duke, to kill: the unresponsive object of her lawless regard. However, the true state of the case is revealed to the jealous duke by the lover, and his life is spared; but the vengeance of the duchess is not to be appeased, and by publicly taunt- ing the poor chatelaine with her amorous adventure, she drives her to despair and death, and when the lover, uneasy at not seeing her, seeks her and finds her dead, he kills him- *Musée National du Louvre; ‘Catalogue des Ivoires,” par Emile Molinier, Paris [1895- 96], pp. 141-154. IVORY TRIPTYCH CARVED WITH SCENES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT, AND WITH FIGURES OF THE VIRGIN AND TWO ANGELS IN THREE GOTHIC NICHES. FRENCH ART OF THE XIV CENTURY. 2 DIAM. MUSEE DE CLUNY, PARIS co 240 €0O £0 °*O <0 BVO OP > LPF > 2 MUSEE DE CLUNY, PARIS > ae oe & Pd bs ee ee ae a $$$ ——_—<—_ - Cae aaa aah Ahh hhh khdededheetedidetdtedlidleds SCENES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT , AS NS N rs bY NE A NE N \ \ Py \ . N N . R - . . oO A Ny t “3 nw s eH N N Ny aa H a 5 = N N fom B iN . ES \ Ny i \ \ o JS N N c nN A re . \ Ra fH EPP Paap e . + es) WP KO <0 KO CO KO LO KOLO CIO LE KOKO KE LO CO C4 2 2 n & = 7 ART ; = F 3 eres a y gh ~ a | < M 2 < s > The ‘Exposition Rétrospective,”’ one of the most at- tractive features of the great Paris Exposition of 1900,* contained a number of choice examples of ivory carving, the exhibits being loaned by various institutions, churches, and individual collectors. Among the examples of Ro- man-Greek carving was the diptych of Justinianus (sixth century) later acquired by Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan; several other good specimens of this and the immediately succeed- ing periods served to illustrate the gradual falling off in artistic excellence. A curious book cover from the tenth century, known as the Evangélaire de Morienval, from the church of Notre Dame de Noyon, offered a good example of the medieval ivory carving of Western Europe under Byz- antine influence. Very naturally, the best ivories in this exhibition were of those worked in the thirteenth, four- teenth, and fifteenth centuries by the great ivory carvers of the French Renaissance School. Here the aim was to select a number of thoroughly characteristic specimens, avoiding, as far as possible, the monotony that might re- sult from grouping together a large number of examples of certain types of the Virgin and Child which became more or less conventional in some of. the Renaissance workshops. It is interesting to note in this connection that the best of the statuettes should be thirteenth-century work, the Angel Gabriel and the Virgin of the Annuncia- tion, loaned, respectively, by M. G. Chalandon and M. P. Garnier. Here the restrained dignity of the pose, the classic harmony of the drapery, the earnestness and beauty of the faces, show us the pure art of the Early Renaissance at its best. From the fourteenth century is one excellent example, a seated figure of the Virgin bearing the Divine Child on her lap, an exceedingly well-balanced composition, *See Exposition Universelle de 1900, Catalogue officiel de l’exposition rétrospective de I’ art frangais. I. THE VIRGIN AND CHILD RELIEF IN IVORY, THE BACKGROUND CUT AWAY. BYZANTINE, X OR XI CENTURY COLLECTION OF J. PIERPONT MORGAN Il STATUETTE OF A SAINT SPANISH ART OF THE XV CENTURY. HEIGHT 19 INCHES MUSEE DE CLUNY, PARIS SIX IVORY CHESSMEN MEDIEVAL ARI BIBLIOTH EQUE NATIONALE IVORY CARVINGS 73 showing both strength and beauty of design; this was from the Musée des Antiquités de la Seine-Inférieure. A re- markable diptych (fourteenth-century work, loaned by M. Boy) shows six bold, strongly marked reliefs embodying designs from New Testament history, the Entry into Je- rusalem, the Washing of Feet, the Scene in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Last Supper, the Gift of Tongues, and the Ascension; in the last-named scene, because of the exi- guity of the available space, the artist is able to show only _ the lower part of the garment of the ascending Christ, giving somewhat the effect of a figure disappearing in the flies of a theatre. From the fifteenth century perhaps the most important piece was an Annunciation from the Musée de Langres, the two figures of the Virgin and the Angel Gabriel (kneeling) being sculptured in the round and placed on a base. While the attitudes are animated and the com- position effective in its way, it somehow fails to impress us as do the best of the Early Renaissance figures; the straining after effect is a little too apparent in spite of the unquestionable technical excellence of the work. The very fact that the ivory carver’s task is rendered more difficult by the strictly limited size of the mass or surface at his command forced him to intensify the quality of his design, and to tax his ingenuity to the utmost in his effort to portray his theme effectively within such nar- row limits; indeed, he had to contend with much the same difficulties as those confronting the medallist. In statu- ettes the obligation to adapt the pose of the figure to the curve of the tusk led to certain peculiar and constrained attitudes, and it is an exceedingly curious circumstance that we can trace in some of the stone sculpture of the heyday of ivory carving a strong tendency to copy this slight dis- tortion or twist of the figure although the stone sculptor had no excuse for so doing. This peculiarity can be accounted 7% IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT for only by the strong influence exerted by the observation and study of ivory carvings at a time when any plastic artist must have found pleasure, instruction, and inspiration in contemplating them.* The origin of that branch of decorative art known to the French as ébénisterie is to be sought in the adornment of pieces of furniture or caskets by the insertion of plates of ivory. This was much favoured in the seventeenth century, ebony being the wood most prized for the framework of the furniture or casket. Later on tin was employed in this way, then tortoise shell, and finally woods of various colours were given the preference. The somewhat funereal air of this work in ebony and ivory is said to have led to its disuse. To this may be added the costliness of the material and the difficulty experienced in working it for this purpose. It could not be chiselled into form, but had to be first sawed out and then sculptured by the aid of the graver—a long and delicate operation. The adornment of articles of furniture with ivory inlays has been practised from the most ancient times, an old Assyrian text attesting this usage among the Assyrians. In modern times we have still many excellent examples of this art, one of the finest being a cabinet produced by the Fratelli Stannard, Galleria Colonna, Rome, with an elab- orate ornamentation of ivory plaques, most beautifully de- signed and executed. | The German schools of ivory carving at Geislingen and Erbach are of much more recent origin than that of Dieppe in France; indeed, it was not until well into the eighteenth century that ivory was freely used here, the earlier work *Communicated by Mr. Charles de Kay, in an article about to appear in the Century Magazine. +Henry Havard, “Dictionnaire de l’ameublement,” Vol. III, Paris, n. d., cols. 65, 66. Article Ivoire. Behe Giese a i I,Il. RELIEFS IN IVORY XV CENTURY WORK I. LEAF OF A DIPTYCH SHOWING THE CRUCIFIXION XV CENTURY IV. LEAF OF A DIPTYCH, DEPICTING THE CRUCIFIXION AND ENTOMBMENT OF CHRIST EXAMPLES OF XV CENTURY FRENCH ART MUSEE DE CLUNY, PARIS CONTEMPORANEOUS RUSSIAN IVORY CARVINGS I. EMPRESS CATHERINE II II. PRINCE PAUL PETROVITCH III. PRINCESS MARIA FEODOROVNA IVORY CARVINGS 75 being principally, and often exclusively, of bone. The ac- tivity in these schools has been mainly industrial, compara- tively little art work pure and simple having been produced, and the prosperity of the workshops has been dependent upon the temporary vogue enjoyed by small decorative objects, such as brooches, etc. Nevertheless, many of the carvers could lay claim to the possession of a very considera- ble share of technical skill, and here and there a real artist has appeared among them.* As a specimen of Russian work we have three striking profile portraits, executed in the reign of Catherine II of Russia (1729-1796), one giving a fine likeness of the empress herself, and the other two depicting her son Paul Petrovitch (later Paul I) and the Princess Maria Feodorovna. These profile busts are cut out of ivory plates, a circular band of the material being left to serve as a frame. In this form they could be mounted on hard wood, metal, or velvet; the velvet serving as an excellent background for the ivory portraits. The modern revival of the art of ivory carving in France and Belgium owes much to the initiative of the great French painter and sculptor Géréme, who, in order to widen the artistic field and appeal to a larger class of art patrons, founded the ‘‘Société de l’art précieux,” to foster the pro- duction of small works, which would have better chances of finding their way into a great number of private collections than could the large figures in marble or bronze.f Ivory asa material, was peculiarly favourable to subserve these pur- poses, and lent itself well to a combination with gold, silver, or other metal, this combination greatly enhancing the charm of the work of art. *Somborn, “Die Elfenbein und Beinschnitzerei,” Heidelberg, 1899. +Emile Ducier, « Apropos de l’ exposition du Musée Galliéra”’; in La Revue de Art, Vol. XIV, pp. 61-74; 1903. 76 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT The ivory carvings of the late Moreau-Vauthier, many of which are in this country, may be regarded as representing the height of this art as practised in our day. Although a number of artists have done very praiseworthy work in this department within the past half-century or so, Moreau- Vauthier had at once so much originality, such a thorough understanding of the potentialities of his material, and such an appreciation of the best traditions of the art of ivory carving, that his works may be said to stand in a class by themselves. At an exposition of art for children recently held in the Museum of Modern Art, in the Rue Pierre Charron, Paris, some very pretty ivory trinkets were displayed. One of these was an ivory ring bearing a row of little silver bells with forms of angels in repoussé work, most appropriate to childhood, as this age is more especially that during which the Guardian Angel’s care is most needed and merited. Some pretty little ivory napkin rings with a pierced silver band were also shown in this exhibition. A fine collection of Congo ivory work is contained in the Musée du Congo, or Musée de Tervueren, as it is sometimes called, situated in a suburb of Brussels. It is built upon the site of the royal Chateau of Tervueren which was destroyed by fire some years ago. At the time of the Brussels Exposi- tion of 1897 a small building was erected on this site to con- tain exhibits illustrating the Congo region, and in 1904 the present imposing structure was begun and it was finally completed and opened to the public in 1909. During the first three and a half months after the opening it was visited by 182,500 persons, including 16,000 school children under the guidance of their teachers. The revival of chryselephan- tine sculpture, that blending of gold and ivory to which some of the grandest works of Greek art owed much of their beauty, is attributed to the abundant supply of ivory derived from THE MORE NAEN EBON BY THE LATE A. MOREAU-VAUTHIER IVORY STATUETTES I, ““ALLEGRESSE’’ (JOY), BY DILLENS II. “L’AMOUR”’ (LOVE), BY ROMBAUD Ill. “LA HAINE’’ (HATE), BY GELEYN BELGIAN SCULPTORS—TWENTIETH CENTURY IVORY CARVINGS 77 the Congo region in recent years, and this and other ivory work has received notable encouragement from the Belgian Government. Realizing that the high price of ivory was an insurmountable obstacle for many poor artists the Govern- ment agreed to furnish them the material at cost price and also to give them credit for four years, so that they could be practically assured that they would have received the price of their art works before they would be called on to pay for the material.* Among the products of Belgian art, one of the finest is the “Sphinx” of Christian van der Stappen, first exhibited in the International Exhibition at Antwerp in 1894, where a large number of excellent ivory carvings were shown, nota- bly by Belgian artists, the revival of the art in Belgium being principally due to the liberal action of the Government, under the personal influence of King Leopold II, in facilitating the task of the carvers by placing at their disposal a con- siderable quantity of Congo ivory. Van der Stappen’s *“Sphinx”’ is also one of the most successful efforts to revive and realize the ancient Greek chryselephantine sculpture, the effect of the ivory being most skilfully and artistically en- hanced by the gold and silver employed in the helmet and cuirass of the bust. At the same time the mysterious ele- ment is powerfully brought out in the intent expression of the face, marked with that deep-seated melancholy insepa- rable from a knowledge of the enigma of the universe, the great “world riddle.” Owing to the importance of the modern Belgian School of ivory carving, the following fairly complete list of the more noteworthy works by Belgian artists is here given. It will be seen that almost all the various forms of ivory carving are represented among the productions. *Baron A. de Haulleville “Le Musée du Congo Belge & Tervueren’’; in “La Revue Con- golaise,” Ie Année, No. 2, pp. 208-225; 1910. 78 IVORY*ARMDeSHE ELEPHANT HUYGELEN, FRANS, Born in Antwerp, August 19, 1878. Works: “Femme aux masques;” Vase: “Jeunesse”’; Portrait of Mlle. A.; Coupe 4 fruits “]’Abondance”’; “VIdole”’; Vase: “Printemps.” MATTON, ARSENE, Born at Harlebek, Belgium, December 15, 1873. Works: VINCOTTE, Works: “Le Silence,” seal in ivory and silver; ““Souhait de Roi,” medallion; “La Rosée,” figure; “Jeu d’enfants,” group; “Heureux retour,” group; “Mokoko,” head of a negro child. THOMAS, Born January 8, 1850. Life-size bust of H. M. Leopold IT; Bust, three quarters natural size, of Mme. E.; ““Méduse,” bust; Medallion of Princesse de L. DE CUYPER, FLORIS, Born at Antwerp, August 7, 1875. Works: ROUSSEAU, Works: Annexation of the Congo to Belgium, ivory medallion, obverse and reverse; “Le Glaneur,”’ statuette; *“Début de modéle,”’ statuette. VICTOR, Professor in the Académie Royale des Beaux- Arts de Belgique. Portrait of Mme. R., bas-relief; Hand of a young man; “‘Réverie,”’ male figure; “Ravi,” figure of an adolescent; “Le Baiser,” group; “Téte de jeune fille”’; Album cover; combination of bas-reliefs in ivory, with gold ornamentation, and set with precious stones. IVORY CARVINGS 79 VANDEVOORDE, G., Born at Courtrai, April 28, 1878. Works: “La Tourmente”’; **]’Adolescent,”’ male figure seated. “V’Ingénue,” figure of a young girl. HERAIN, JEAN, Born in Louvain, October 24, 1853. Works: “La Captive”; “Hédéra”’; “Agriculture,” ivory and silver; “La Maternité,”’ ivory and silvered bronze; “Bruxelles port de mer.” DEVREESE, GODEFROID, The Commemorative Medallist of the Works: American Numismatic Society, New York, born at Courtrai, August 19, 1861. ““Désespoir,”’ statuette; ““Chrysis,”’ statuette; Thais,” statuette; “La Vierge,”’ statuette; “Danseuse a la guirlande,” draped statuette; “Danseuse,”’ nude figure, statuette; “H. M. Leopold II,” with a reverse, plaquette; “Their Majesties Albert and Elizabeth,” with reverse plaquette; “Portrait of the artist’s wife,” plaquette; “Mlle Aline D. S.,” plaquette; “M. A. M,” plaquette with reverse; “M. E. A.,” medal. “M.F.D.S,” plaquette; “M. le Député P. T.,”’ medal; “Salomé,”’ plaquette; Medal (as pendant) of Mile. B.; Medal (as pendant) of the artist’s wife; Medal (as pendant) of Mlle. Y. P.; “Mlle. De W.,” pendant. 80 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT SAMUEL, CHARLES, Born in Brussels, December 29, 1862. Works: “Ulenspiegel et Nele,”’ small group; “La Fortune,” statuette in ivory and silver gilt; 2 ex- amples; “Les Lis,”’ statuette; ; “Crépuscule,”’ statuette in ivory and silver gilt; “Nélé,”’ bust in ivory and wood from the Congo; “Candeur,”’ statuette; “Aurore,” statuette; “Jeune flamande,” bust in ivory and wood from the Congo ““Coquetterie,” statuette; oe Eve,” vase, ivory and bronze; “Inspiration,” statuette, ivory and onyx; “La Coiffure,” statuette; “Phryné,”’ statuette; *““ Joueuse de flites,”’ statuette; “Jeune fille 4 la guirlande,”’ statuette; “La Danse,” small group; “Her Royal Highness the Countess of Flanders,” medal; “Jean Rouffart,”’ medal; “Jean Pierre et Marcel Pérez,’ medal; “Saby Halot,”’ medal; “Saby Janssen,” medal. DE BREMAECKER, EUGENE, Born July 14, 1879. Works: “L’Eternel Féminin”’; “Vers la Civilisation.” VAN HOVE, G., Born in 1861; Prix de Rome of 1888. Works: “St. Michael,” wood and ivory; “La veux-tu,” ivory and bronze; “Hlégante,” statuette; Seal, portrait; Book cover for Livre d’Heures; “Confidence,” group; Head of a man, pummel of a cane; “Saint Barbara.” IVORY CARVINGS 81 VERMEYLEN, F., Born at Louvain, November 25, 1857. Works: Two Madonnas; Two Christs; Two medallions: obverse and reverse of the medallion commemorative of the death of King Leopold IT; Portrait of Minister Schollaert, medallion. LAGAE, J., Born at Roulers, March 15, 1862. Works: “Portrait of the artist’s son,”’ child-bust; “L’ange du foyer,” statuette; “Portrait of M. Ed. S.,” plaquette. VAN BEURDEN, ALPH., Born at Antwerp, April 23, 1854. Pro- fessor in the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts, at Ant- werp. Works: ‘“Surprise,”’ statuette; “Saint Jean,” statuette; “Portrait of the late Baron van H.”’; “Hommage au Roi”; “Psyché”’; ‘**Charmeur de serpents’’; ‘Hercule enfant’; “Christ 4 la colonne”’; “A la fontaine,” ivory and bronze; “‘Offrande a Bacchus,”’ ivory and bronze; “*Diane Chasseresse”’; “Téte d ’enfant’’; “Villageoise”’; “Surpris au bain”; *“‘Offrande”’; “Eve”: “Aprés le travail”’; “Cupidon”’; “La Toilette.” MLLE. J. LORRAIN, Born at Virton. Works: ‘‘Enigme”’; “Réve d ’autrefois.”’ 82 IVORY‘ AND:) THE ELEPHANT DE BEULE, AL., Born at Zele, August 27, 1861. Works: WEYNS, J., Works: Saint Michael and the Dragon; “Madone,” statuette. Born at Merxem (Antwerp), March 17, 1849. Homage to King Leopold IT; “Charmeuse au serpent”’; * Abandonnée ”’; *“*V’Oiseleur”’; “‘Joueur de fliite”’; ““Mercurius,”’ statuette; “Warrior,”’ bust in old silver, face in ivory; “Jeanne d’Arc,”’ statuette; “Mme. Van W., ” portrait; “M. E. C.,” medallion; Child’s head (Mlle. L.); Saint Hubert; Saint Cecilia; ivory and silver; ““Avant le bal,’ bust; Various bas-reliefs. WOLFERS, Born at Brussels, April 16, 1858. Works: Tris and lizards, vase; Poppies, vase; Iris and fish, vase; Swan and dragon, vase; “Le Chant du Cygne,” vase; Swan and snake, vase; “L’Exposition Coloniale de Tervueren,” album; “La Parure,” coffret a bijoux; *Junon,” lamp; “Le Premier bijou” (Femme 4 la perle) ; ““Méduse,” pendant; “Le Paon,” eventail; “Eye,” statuette; “Printemps,” statuette; “Réverie,” statuette; “Offrande,” statuette; “Maleficia,” bust in marble and ivory; Various portraits (bas-reliefs), IVORY CARVINGS 83 DUPON, JOSUE, Born at Western Flanders (Belgium), May 22, 1864. Works: “Diane,” statuette; **La Perle,” statuette; ‘‘Belluaire,” statuette; “Sainte Vierge,”’ statuette; “Toilette,” statuette; Van Berchen, statuette; “Phryné,” statuette; “Saint John,” bust; “Judith,” bust; Portrait of M. S., plaquette; Portrait of M. B., plaquette; Portrait of Mile. B., plaquette. The following figures show the quantity of ivory placed at the disposal of artists wishing to execute chryselephantine work by the Government of the Belgian Congo in 1912 and 1913: Number of tusks delivered Ma ee ot 9 Weight in kilograms BURN hee hen 467.9 Quantity returned ee) Ree EPS EY, Ga 287.3 Quantity used (kilograms) SAT ERAS. TELL tae 180. Ivory amulets, though not usual, are sometimes to be found, even in our own day, one having been picked up in Madrid not long since by Mr. W. L. Hildburgh, who has made a special study of Spanish amulets. The form given the ivory, which is painted red, and set in a silver locket, is that of the so-called “fig-hand,’’ so common in Roman times and still a favourite form among the Italians. Its primal significance is rather unsavoury, but in later use (and prob- ably to a great extent with the Romans also) its virtue is that of a protection against the Evil Eye. In its origin this hand is a female emblem, while the horn is a masculine one. Another “‘hand-amulet”’ used against the Evil Eye and 84 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT other enchantments by the Arabs is known in North Africa as the Hand of Fatima; this, however, is an open hand, and probably enough has no connection with the curious “fig- hand.’’* There is in the National Museum of the Society of An- tiquaries of Scotland (No. 183 in Section L) an ivory amulet which at one time enjoyed high repute in Argyleshire as a cure for madness. This was a plate measuring 7% in. in length and about 4 in. in width.f An ivory amulet, figuring a small dog, is said to be worn on a bracelet by Queen Mary of England, and to be valued by her as a luck-bringing talisman, or to ward off evil. As we have seen, the ancient Egyptians already had their ivory amulets, so that in addition to its value as a most delicately beautiful material for ornamental work, ivory is not lacking in the possession of more occult virtues, if ancient tradition and modern fancy are to be trusted. To this ivory dog of Queen Mary may be added, if gossip is to be believed, an auto-amulet, or mascot, favoured by King George V. This is a small bronze figure of Britannia, whose hands bear a royal or imperial crown; a lion is crouching at her feet. This symbol of sovereignty is certainly not an unworthy type of amulet for a British monarch.t What may be regarded as a work testifying to the posses- sion of a remarkable natural endowment by the artist is entitled “The Procession of Elephants” and was cut out of a solid piece of ivory by an American, a travelling salesman for a wholesale shoe manufacturer. Suffering from jaded nerves he took up ivory carving as a relief. He did not enjoy the advantage of an instructor’s teaching, but by means *See. W. L. Hildburgh, “Further Notes on Spanish Amulets,” in Folk Lore, Vol. XXIV, No. 1, March 31, 1913, p. 65. {William Jones, “‘Credulities Past and Present,’’ London, 1880, p. 161. {From the Jewellers’ Circular Weekly, February 5, 1913, p. 153. IVORY CARVINGS 85 of close application and a thorough study of the elephant, he nevertheless succeeded in producing some of the best and most lifelike carvings of the animal that have ever been executed. A striking merit in his work is its high de- gree of originality, for no two elephant figures from his hand are alike. His work is limited in quantity as he has in all executed but six groups, for while his ivory carving proved an artistic success, it failed as a curative agent for nervous ills, the close application causing insomnia and obliging an abandonment of the very promising career. These carvings are especially interesting as they are cut out of a full section of a perfect tusk, which the slightest imperfection or the least error would have spoiled, and they are more realistic and unstrained in action than any Japanese groups. The adoption, in the eighteenth century, of ivory as the favourite, indeed almost the exclusive material for miniature painting, did much to render the miniatures of this century the beautiful works of art they are. So soft and smooth are the tones of the best material that as great a master in this art as Cosway frequently left parts of his figures entirely uncovered by the brush, depending alto- gether upon the delicate tones of the ivory to represent the hue of the skin.* Indeed, for miniature painting ivory is preéminently adapted, the colours applied to its smooth surface blending softly and tenderly. This quality was fully appreciated by the masters of the art of miniature painting such as the Eng- lishman Richard Cosway (1742-1821) and John Smart (1741-1811) and the Frenchmen Augustin (1729-1832) and Isabey (1767-1855), as well as by our own Malbone (1777- 1807) and Baer, only to mention a very few of those who have cultivated this art. *George C. Williamson, “‘How to Identify Portrait Miniatures,” London, 1905, p. 87. s6 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT Another use, and one that has endured for many centuries, is the employment of ivory for fan sticks, either plain or more often delicately carved. The most notable relic of this kind is a fan of purple vellum with ivory sticks, the gift of Queen Theodolinda to the Cathedral of Monza, and still preserved there as one of the chief treasures. It may be interesting to note that the set of turquoise be- longing to another queen, the unhappy Marie Antoinette, and sold with the other French crown jewels in 1888, proved to be not true turquoise but the mineral known as odontolite, or fossil ivory, naturally stained by iron phosphate. The following practical directions as to the protection of ivory paintings, so that they may long preserve the delicate beauty they exhibit when fresh from the artist’s hand, have been kindly supplied by one of our most gifted miniaturists: The back of an ivory miniature painting should be kept as it comes from the ivory merchant—that is, nothing should be fastened, gummed, or glued to its back. Any white or cream-coloured paper, and free from arsenic, is then placed loosely against it. Whatman’s hot-pressed, or stembach papers are entirely safe. In setting an ivory plaque into its frame or bezel, it is advisable to insert a narrow rim of flat metal to keep it from being pressed against the glass. This rim or mat has the special advantage of hiding the outer edge of the ivory where it is cut narrower than the frame or bezel containing it. Ivory, like wood, expands and contracts laterally, making it necessary to cut all ivory paintings perhaps three per cent. narrower, laterally, than the frame may be; unless this is done, a close-fitting ivory will surely buckle, in time. The cutting of ivory less than the thickness of two ordinary visiting cards can be done with any ordinary scissors. This cutting must be done with the grain, and in narrow bits which readily split away or crum- ble. Moreover, all cutting must be from side centres up- IVORY CARVINGS 87 ward, and inverting the ivory to cut the sides of the lower half of any oval. No cutting across the grain should be attempted by an inexpert person.* Having the ivory set into the frame, a proper backing becomes necessary to hold it in its place. For this a piece of aluminum cut to fit the frame is the most serviceable of light metals. By laying a piece of very thin paper, larger than the frame, across the back, and pressing the aluminum back-plate into the bezel, a firm hold is assured. Square or oblong ivories are best secured by dispensing with the mat, placing a sheet of good quality mica behind the paper back- ing and sealing the edges with gold-beater’s skin (so-called ““skin-plaster’’?). The use of photographer’s slide binder is also entirely safe. The sealing should be perfect, to prevent the imperceptible moisture of damp weather finding its way under the glass. Experience has shown us that while an ivory will not deteriorate on account of moisture, the inside of the glass covering will in time show fogginess, though not in so great a degree as do daguerreotypes, where the glass and the metal are more active in collecting a chemical deposit under the glass. CARE OF PAINTINGS ON IVORY The above final remarks remind us that an ivory painting should not be exposed to sudden changes of temperature. A cold piece of glass will immediately attract and condense any latent moisture. It will draw it in under the framing and will hold this moisture for many days. Sunlight would bleach most colours more or less, no matter what make and whether they be oil colours or pastels, let alone water- colours of delicate, pellucid gradation, with practically no body strength. Miniatures kept in the ordinary light of our homes will last indefinitely. There is nothing in their *All thick ivory is best cut with a jeweller’s saw. ss IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT colouring to vitiate or decompose and, in consequence, miniatures that have had good care are as fresh in their pristine colouring as when painted two hundred years ago. Lest we overlook an obvious point, miniatures on ivory are all painted in water-colours—they will wash off readily. Should there be an old miniature in your possession that looks soiled, it may be cleaned with a soft and gritless rubber. Most commercial rubbers are charged with pumice or other cutting powder. There is no cleaner quite so wonderful for all general purposes as pure rubber that is some five or more years old; any expert will verify this. Biting into a rub- ber is the test for pumice. The so-called ink erasers are heavily filled with grit. A new rubber called “art gum” is now obtainable at all art material dealers, and is an excel- lent soft eraser and cleaner. The largest ivory of longitudinal diametrical cut the writer has seen is 54 by 13 in. oblong.* Larger cuttings have been made by cylindrical cutting—such ivory flattened never loses its tendency to regain its original shape, and in consequence can only be used when mounted solidly with moisture-proof glue or cement. MINIATURE PAINTING AS AN ART There is no secret or trick in the art of miniature painting. Most of our ablest painters have acquired their art unaided apart from their previous study of drawing and painting. The work requires good eyesight, and in advanced years one requires both spectacles and magnifying glasses. However, it is not a matter of art to paint small miniatures, nor is it a recommendation to paint detail for its own sake. A highly elaborated miniature may be devoid of art or it may be a masterpiece. Excepting Holbein, there is no miniature painter that has mastered detail without losing charm to *One half of it was used in his “Arcadia,” by W. J. Baer. IVORY CARVINGS 89 some extent. Charm may lie in the exquisite fitness or the balance of parts to the whole. In our own country, Edward Greene Malbone, not only excelled his contempo- raries at eighteen, but in his short life painted many min- iatures that are superior to almost all others, barring a few masterpieces by English, German, and French miniaturists. A highly gifted modern American miniaturist was the late Miss Theodora Thayer, of Cambridge, Massachuseits (died 1903) . Her portrait of “Miss Gray” in the Metro- politan Museum of Art, New York City, is distinctly the work of a true artist. The absence of all useless detail would have earned the applause of Holbein, who might have said of the work: “It is complete, it is charming with- out sentimentality, it is true expression.” One of our great collectors had a number of miniatures by Malbone, Cosway, and other great miniaturists, all of which had warped, rendering the surface uneven in parts. They were handed to a skilful repairer, who asked for a sufficient length of time in which to perform the repairing. By a timely and skilful application of moisture at the proper places he was able to restore the entire collection— some fifty pieces in all—without breaking a single one. It is most important that in mounting a miniature the glass that is to cover it should be placed on the face of the ivory. First, a piece of thin blotter or paper must be placed on the back of the miniature, the edges being concealed by swan- skin or some thin “onion-skin.”’ This being done, all moisture is removed, and the miniature is placed where it will be subjected to no changes of temperature. *“Buckles”’ or “‘spots,”’ as they are termed, are apt to de- velop on imperfectly or unevenly cut pieces of ivory. The ivory miniaturists find that by placing a bit of damp blotter under the miniature, and laying a piece of blotter on the upper side, and upon this successive plates of glass, one half 99 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT inch or so apart, until a pile several inches in height has been made, and then upon this a pile of books, at the end of twenty-four hours a spot can be removed, but the miniature must remain under this pressure for days, until the moisture has all evaporated, or it will buckle. A most interesting memorial of early American ivory carving is a card engraved by Paul Revere (1735-1818), the patriotic silversmith and engraver, for a certain Isaac Greenwood of Boston, the text of which reads as follows?*: Isaac Greenwood, Ivory Turner. Next to Dr. John Clark’s at the North end, Boston. Turns all sorts of work in ivory, silver, and brass with fidelity and despatch at a very reasonable rate. Makes umber. As a beautiful and artistic decoration for book-covers, nothing surpasses carved ivory, with its soft and harmonious tints. Among such decorations an exceptionally fine one adorns the upper cover of the famous Golden Book of Frankfort-on-the-Main, and provides a most beautiful addi- tion to the massive gold of which the cover is formed. The carved ivory relief measuring 16 x 10 in. is affixed to the centre of the cover, the edges of which extend about four inches beyond the relief. This represents Emperor Charle- magne, and beneath the figure is the inscription: “Carolus Magnus. Synodus Franconofurtensis a. d. DCCXCIV.” On a frieze above the emperor’s figure is portrayed the Prussian eagle, over and beneath which runs the inscription: “Sub umbra alarum tuarum protege nos”’ (“Guard us in the shadow of thy wings’’). At the base of the relief is carved the eagle of Frankfort with the German words: “Stark im Recht” (“Strong in the right”). This Golden Book is de- signed to record the names of the most distinguished guests of the city of Frankfort, and besides its ivory relief, the cover is *Communicated by Gardner Teall, June 11, 1913. IVORY CARVINGS 91 richly studded with sapphires, rubies, emeralds, tourmalines, and other precious stones. The German dedication is engraved on the lower edge of the cover, and reads as follows: “Der Stadt Frankfurt a/Main gewidmet zur Erinnerung an ihr MCX Bestehen.” (‘‘ Dedicated to the city of Frankfort- on-the-Main in commemoration of the eleven hundred and tenth anniversary of its foundation’). The date 794 in the inscription beneath Charlemagne’s figure refers to this _ foundation. The names of the munificent donors of this Golden Book are perpetuated by an inscription on the side of the binding to the following effect: “Simon Moritz v. Bethmann und seine Ehefrau Helene Anno Domini MCMIV” (‘Simon Moritz von Bethmann and his wife Helene, A. D. 1904”). Four enamelled coats-of- arms ornament the strip alongside the ivory relief, those of the bishopric and of the municipality.* The leading exponent of that branch of ivory carving in which wood and ivory are skilfully combined was the Bavarian, Simon Troger, born at Haidhausen near Munich (died about 1769). Although a poor shepherd boy, he early showed signs of his ability as a carver, and was so fortunate as to gain the patronage of Elector Maximilian III of Ba- varia. His specialty in later years when he had acquired a mastery of his art was the production of small figures of beggars and gypsies, presenting types similar to those de- picted by Van Ostade and others of the Dutch School of painting and etching. While Troger executed, not unsuc- cessfully, a number of carvings of a more ambitious type, he will always be best known for genre statuettes of the kind we have indicated, where the draperies, often in tatters, were carved out of wood, usually that of the sugar-pine, the face and the exposed part of the bodies being of ivory. As an indication of the prices paid in recent years for some *Jewellers’ Circular Weekly. 92 IVORY ANY DHE -ELEPAANT of the older ivory carvings, it may be noted that, in 1910, the Victoria and Albert Museum of London purchased a Byzan- tine ivory depicting Christ for the sum of £180, and the same institution acquired two years later, for £60, a triptych-leaf carved with an image of the Virgin, this leaf having probably formed part, with that previously mentioned, of a Byzantine triptych.* An ivory relic of the early days of Mexico City was re- cently brought to light in the course of excavations made during the building of a sewer along a new street in that city. This necessitated the removal of an old church, used in late years as the chapel of a nunnery and religious school. In the foundations of the old church the devotees of long ago had buried a number of carvings and trinkets as thank- offerings, objects of no great intrinsic value it is true, but doubtless highly prized as relics or heirlooms by those who dedicated them to the church.f The unique and powerful novel, ‘“‘“Salammbo,” that strange and fascinating attempt of the great French littérateur, Gus- tave Flaubert, to evoke the image of ancient Carthage, has furnished in the figure of its heroine the inspiration for two most remarkable and characteristic examples of modern French art in the domain of ivory carving. These are by the sculptor Théodore Riviére, one being an entirely nude figure of the Carthaginian heroine, her head thrown back and her body rather framed than draped in the heavy folds of a long mantle. There is a feline sensuality in the face, rather suggestive of the tigress than the woman. This is perhaps less apparent in the other ivory reproduction of Salammbo by the same artist, which offers her figure and that of her infatuated admirer, Matho; here again the face *Communicated by Dr. Cecil Smith, Curator of the Victoria and Albert Museum. {This interesting Mexican relic was given by Henry Sayres, a banker of Mexico City, to Dr. Lee H. Smith, president of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences. IVORY RELIEF XVII CENTURY WORK, RECENTLY UNEARTHED DURING EX- CAVATIONS IN A STREET IN MEXICO CITY. IT OFFERS A REPRESENTATION OF THE NATIVITY, WITH FIGURATION OF THE THREE PERSONS OF THE TRINITY. DR. HENRY LEE SMITH COLLECTION LITURGICAL BOX CARVED IVORY OF XII CENTURY FROM THE MUSEUM CZARTORYSKI IN CRACOW, AUSTRIAN POLAND NOILOUTTOON NUVAH *V GOUOD “VIAVd GNV ONVNDIUVW JO SUTLLVE GH WOUd SANDOS LOIdAd SUAVAT AIS -dNVH SIH NI MOIMLSOL-Gd-NIVIN V DNIGTIOH GNV GUNOWHING ‘I SIONVUE “Il “SNVIGNOOUNE WAHL AG TUALdVO UAH “ANDATGNWOOD LY OWV d ANNVAL “LT AWNINGS TAX LO LUV HONGUH SHOALdMIUL AYOAIL ) 2APG.OP HT | uy LR uvubaryr ope, IVORY CARVINGS 93 is cruel and unrelenting, but with something less of the ani- mal than in the single figure we have just described. In both the ivory used for the exposed flesh gains an added beauty from the overlaying or insertion of different and strongly contrasting materials. French ivory carvings were well represented in the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. Among the exhibits may be noted two reliefs, ‘‘Réverie”’ and “La Lecture,” and a most impressive relief of Christ _ by Abel Lafleur. Some of the ivories of the gifted sculptor, Théodore Riviére, shown at this Exposition were the more interesting from the fact that they were still unfinished at the time of the artist’s death in 1912. A completed work by Riviére was an ivory peacock resting on a mahogany tree; for this $1,200 was asked. Two unfinished works were a “Wood Nymph,” carved out of a single block of ivory, and a nude figure in this material; the price of the former was $1,050. MRiviére is said to have carved every piece through with his own hand. There were also two ivories by Mlle. O’Kin, a carved ivory box and an ivory bowl, and several small ivories were contributed by Clément Meére.* Although ivory carving in England has not been encour- aged to the same degree as it has been in Belgium, several works of exceedingly high merit and great originality of conception and design have been executed there, the artists favouring the use of many other materials in connection with the ivory, in order to give greater relief to its peculiar quali- ties. As successful examples may be noted the St. George of the sculptor, George Frampton, the hero-saint’s figure, armour, and accoutrements exhibiting the artistic possibilities offered by a skilful combination of bronze, onyx, and mother- of-pearl with ivory. More in the style of Early Renaissance art is the Lamia of this artist; the face with its intent down- *Communicated by Mrs. Ethel Quinton Mason. 4 IVORYVAROLIB EY ELEPHANT ward gaze and impassibility of feature reminds the beholder of certain types of Italian women of the fifteenth and six- teenth centuries, whose high intellectual endowment lacked the ennobling and purifying influences of warm emotion or moral sensibility. In this bust the dress and drapery are of bronze, and an opal adornment supplements the effect produced by the sharp contrast of the mellow-hued ivory and the sombre bronze. A group that has received much praise is the ‘‘ Mors Janua Vite’? by Harry Bates. Here the fair and delicate figure of a young girl beautifully carved in ivory is thrown into strong relief by contrast with the form of Death, entirely of bronze, suggesting in a striking way the dark portal through which all souls must pass in order to reach the new, eternal life beyond. The universal interest that has been aroused by the most tragic figure among the rulers of our time, the unhappy King Albert of Belgium, whose courageous and sturdy defence of the little strip of his Kingdom still left to him has earned the admiration of friends and foes alike, makes the ivory repre- sentations of this sovereign more interesting to us than works of merely artistic excellence. The most important of these ivory portraits are some me- dals or medallions executed within a year or two by Belgian ivory carvers. Both the King and the Queen of the Belgians have been depicted in this by the sculptor Godefroid de Vreese, these medallions being created to commemorate the foundation of the “Santoria Populaires” of La Hulpe. The originals were presented to the King and replicas are in the possession of Hon. Mr. Waroeque, a member of the Bel- gian Parliament. Another fine ivory portrait-medallion of King Albert has been carved by the Belgian artist, Mr. Josué Dupon, of Antwerp. Of this there exists but a single ex- ample. A memorial of King Albert’s uncle and predecessor, Leopold II, is of more ambitious type, being a large ivory IVORY CARVINGS 95 bust of this monarch, made out of a number of separate pieces of Belgian Congo ivory skilfully put together. Thisis a work of the sculptor, Thomas Vincotte, and is preserved in the great “Colonial Museum” of Tervueren. A copy of this bust in marble is to be seen in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. In the days when whaling vessels were absent from port from one to three years, it frequently happened that the men from New England who manned them had a great propensity for carving or etching. Some of them possessed considerable artistic instinct, and in unoccupied moments they would practise their art upon whale and walrus teeth, or on the bones of the whale’s jaw. Sometimes their subjects would be scenes of places seen on the voyage, but more frequently they carved into the bone the faces of mothers, sisters, sweet- hearts, and wives. The work was often remarkably well done, and was known in sailor’s slang as “scrimshaw work.” The instruments were usually a sail-maker’s needle inserted in a wooden handle, or a finely sharpened jackknife. When the carving was finished they rubbed a black fluid into it, either a dark fluid coming from the cuttlefish, or else ink. Collections of these carvings, or rather etchings, are to be found in the museum in New Bedford, in the Historical Society’s museum in Newport, and in the collections: of Gouverneur Morris, Mrs. William Rockefeller, A. N. Bea- dleston, and many others, where excellent examples are pre- served. | Although the art has never been cultivated in the United States as it has been in some parts of Europe, we have nevertheless had a few very good ivory carvers here, among whom Mr. F. R. Kaldenberg deserves special mention. The fact that his father was engaged in the manufacture of goods made of ivory, as well as of amber, meerschaum, and many other materials, brought him in contact with 6% IVORY AND Tae’ PREP RANT workers in these materials, and created an environment well calculated to develop a taste for such work in the son. The most decisive influence, however, was exerted by a very competent ivory carver, George Steffens, of Nuremberg, who was expert in designing, drawing, and engraving, as well as in sculpturing ivory, stone, and wood. As an eight- year-old boy, Mr. Kaldenberg would often stand behind this worker’s chair and watch him giving an artistic form to one of the different materials he worked on. The boy’s first essays on his own account were diffidently submitted to this trained artist, who, however, was so favourably impressed with them that he undertook to give the youth- ful aspirant regular lessons. At this time, just before our Civil War, art did not receive the encouragement it does to-day, and the gifted Steffens had to content himself with a room on the top floor of a Division Street tene- ment house. Thither the would-be carver hied himself every Sunday morning. Although this impromptu course of study lasted but a few years under this master, its effects were lasting, and when as a young man Mr. Kaldenberg went to Europe, he was able to make a very successful rep- lica in ivory of the famous Venus de Milo, as a proof of what a young American of that time could do. This was 16 in. high, and therefore on a large scale for ivory work. Later the artist carved an ivory bust of Rembrandt, now in the collection of the late Mr. George W. Vanderbilt, and a very attractive Mignon ‘bust, 16 in. high and 8 in. in diameter, made from a solid piece of ivory. But the increasing responsibilities of a business career were found too absorbing by Mr. Kaldenberg to admit of fur- ther cultivating his art at the same time. The great Spitzer Collection, sold in Paris in 1895, was gathered together in the course of many years by the famous dealer and antiquarian, Frédéric Spitzer, a Viennese by IVORY CARVINGS 97 birth. It was magnificently housed in Paris, and had glad- dened the eyes of thousands of invited guests long before the general public was admitted in the days preceding the sale. Much regret was felt that the collection could not be disposed of as an entirety, since the objects had been so carefully grouped, all useless or unworthy material being ‘weeded out, that it was better balanced and better illus- trative of the history and development of art than almost any other private collection of its time. The ivories comprised 175 choice examples, covering the various periods of ivory carving, from the consular dip- tych down to modern work. The finest specimens, as was but natural, were those due to the skill of the great French carvers of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth cen- turies. In his description of the ivories in the first volume of the magnificent catalogue of this collection, M. Alfred Darcel relates that Abbé Didier of Monte Cassini, later Pope Victor III, brought from Constantinople to his mon- astery skilled workers in gold, silver, glass, and ivory, thus founding there in the eleventh century a school of Byzantine art that long exerted a powerful influence upon Italian ivory carvers.* Many of the fine ivories from the Spitzer Collection have found their way into the great art museums of the world. The splendid collection of art objects belonging to the late Charles T. Yerkes, which was disposed of at auction in New York City, April 11-13, 1910, besides its wonderful wealth of rare and beautiful tapestries and its many exam- ples of rich antique furniture, as well as a number of fine statues, contained some most excellent specimens of ivory carving. Of these perhaps the most attractive was an early example of the revived taste for combiming ivory with a precious metal. This is a German work of the eighteenth *Op. cit., p. 22. 9 IVORY AND; THE ELEPHANT century, a group portraying St. George and the Dragon. The horse, the dragon, and the exposed parts of the rider’s body are all of ivory, while the saint’s armour and the trap- pings of his charger are wrought in silver. A jewelled base of silver repoussé supports this fine and spirited group; the earnest intensity of the conqueror’s expression, the impo- tent rage of the dying monster, and the bold attitude of the steed, all conspire to impress the beholder.* Another in- teresting ivory of this collection, both on account of the subject and of the workmanship, is a bronze and ivory figure representing the great French heroine, Jeanne d’Arec, loaded with chains by her ruthless captors. The ivory carving is by E. Barries and the bronze work by Susse Fréres of Paris. Inscribed are the inspired words of the Maid: “Vous avez pu m/’enchainer, vous n’enchainerez pas la future de la France’’; an expression of that intense spirit of patriotism which now animates the sons and daughters of La Belle France. This statuette is 28 in. high. A carved ewer and plaque offer good examples of the style of bacchanalian ivory carvings so favoured by German artists of the seventeenth century; whatever may be the physical beauty of the semi-classic figures, all inspiration is lacking, and these and similar works, in spite of great technical excellences, belong to the decadence of art.f Of an earlier period, and on a higher plane, is an octangu- lar memorial plaque with silver-gilt repoussé setting; along the edge are eight medallions with representations of battle scenes; in the centre a larger medallion depicts an attack upon a fortified city. A portrait head is between two of the bordering medallions, and the date 1506.f *Catalogue de Luxe of the Ancient Rugs, Sculptures, Tapestries, Costly Furniture, and other Objects belonging to the late Charles T. Yerkes, New York, 1910, No. 548. tIbid., No. 550. fIbid., No. 551. CHAPTER III ORIENTAL IVORY CARVINGS In THE time of Masidf, (b. in Bagdad—d. 956 A. D.), the author of the encyclopedic work in Arabic entitled **Meadows of Gold,” and who has been called the Herodotus of the Arabs, the principal source of African ivory was “the land of the Zenjes,”’ in the Upper Nile. This African ivory first went to Oman (probably to Muscat) and was thence despatched to China and India. That so much African ivory was sent to those lands was a subject of regret for Masiidi, who states that otherwise the Mohammedan countries would have been very plentifully supplied with it. A special use of ivory in China, according to this author, was for the palanquins of the great military and civil officials of the empire, as they regarded it as a token of proper re- spect for the emperor to be brought into his presence on an ivory palanquin. For this reason the Chinese especially valued very straight tusks, in preference to those which were curved. In their religious ceremonies the Chinese burned ivory as incense before the sacred images and on the _altars.* In India the ivory was wrought into hilts for daggers and sabres, but the most frequent use was in the carving of chessmen and a kind of checkers. The Arab writer, after noting that several of the chessmen were given the forms of *Macoudi, “Les Prairies d’Or,” text and Fr. transl. by Barbier de Meynard and Pavet de Courteille, Vol. III, Paris, 1864, pp. 7, 8. 99 100 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT men or of animals, asserts that as they were often a span or more in height, the chess-players had a special attendant whose duty was to move the pieces from one square to another.* The great Sassanian monarch Khusrau II, Parwiz, whose reign began in 603 A. D., was the most luxurious of the Persian sovereigns of this dynasty. The famous Persian poet Firdausi, in his Shah Nameh, writes in enthusiastic phrase of this sovereign’s crown, of his jewelled bracelets, and of his ivory throne. His panoply of war was no less superb, for he wore, according to Firdausi, a coat-of-mail the links of which were of gold, while each and every button was adorned with a precious stone.f Sets of chessmen were made of ivory at an early period, usually for royal or princely devotees of this noble game. Among the oldest examples in Europe are six pieces now in the Bibliothéque Nationale in Paris, all that remain of a complete set. They are said to have belonged to Charle- magne and are believed, from their type and style, to have been made in Constantinople in the early part of the ninth century. The figures are elaborately carved and are garbed in the fashion favoured by the Greeks of the time of Charle- magne. India, however, has furnished an even earlier set of chessmen, found in the ruins of Brahmunabad in Sindh. As this city was destroyed by an earthquake in the eighth century, these pieces, which are carved into a severely sim- ple shape without any ornamentation, must be assigned to that century at least. These are now in the East India Museum.t The set of ivory chessmen said to have been given by the *Ibid., p. 9. +Mme. Jane Dieulafoy, ‘La Perse, La Chaldsée et La Susiane,” Paris, 1887, p. 555. {William Maskell, ‘‘Ivories Ancient and Modern,” South Kensington Art Handbooks No. 2, pp. 77, 78. i\MA CHARLEMAGNE’S IVORY CHESSMAN INDIAN ART. UNDER THE BASE IS ENGRAVED THE NAME OF THE CARVER, YUSUF AL-NAHILI. ONE OF A SET GIVEN TO CHARLEMAGNE BY THE KHALIF HAROUN AL-RASHID. FORMERLY IN THE ABBEY OF ST. DENIS. FULL SIZE. < NOW IN THE BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE BASE OF CHESSMAN BEAR- ING SIGNATURE OF THE ARA- BIC IVORY CARVER. 4 DIAM. CHESSMAN CHARLEMAGNE’S IVORY REAR VIEW S BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE ORIENTAL IVORY CARVINGS 101 Chalif Haroun al-Rashid to Emperor Charlemagne, including an ivory elephant, is listed in the inventory made in 1534 of the treasures accumulated in the Abbey of St. Denis, as follows :* Ung jeu complet de schetz d’yvire, et trente tables aussi d’yvire qui estoient 4 Charles maigne non prisez. Ung elephant aussi d’yvire taillé 4 plusieurs person- nages dessus et alentour luy aussi non prisé. Ivory playing cards have been made in the Orient, both in earlier centuries and at the present time. The collection of Mr. Francis Douce, in England, is said to contain some such ecards of Hindu workmanship with gilded figures, and in Persia also ivory has been used for this purpose occasionally. In some sets of these Persian cards of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the cards are not engraved with figures but with groups of objects constituting numerals: A more modern set, from the nineteenth century, bears elaborately designed figures of potentates and knights, similar to our court cards; one of these cards, however, shows a tiger stretched out at full length and arising sun. A curious en- try in an old account dating from 1396 provides that 12 sous parisis shall be paid to Guiot Groslet as recompense for ““a ease to hold the queen’s [Isabella of Bavaria] cards, the little ivory sticks and the rolls of parchment.’ Here we evidently have an instance of the use of ivory counters to mark the points in a card game.t The pieces used in playing the game of pachesi (from pachis, twenty-five), a favourite diversion in India, and popularized not long since in Europe and America, are *Bibl. Nat. MS. fr. 18766; fol. 15 of transcription in writer’s library from the collection of E. Molinier. {Henry René d’Allemagne, “Les Cartes 4 Jouer du Quatorziéme au Vingtiéme Siécle,”’ Paris, 1906, pp. 4, 8, 16, 399. 102 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT frequently formed of ivory, the sixteen pieces employed in the Indian game being divided into groups of fours, distin- guished by special colours, one set for each of the four players. The moves on the board are determined by casting six or seven cowrie shells, the value of the throw depending upon the number of those that fall with their appertures uppermost.* An ancient use for ivory in India was for the legs of bed- steads. The Brihat Sanhita, after proclaiming this material to be the best suited for the purpose, and insisting that the legs must be of solid ivory, proceeds to give the following instructions as to the portion of the tusk which should be thus utilized: “In selecting ivory, about two thicknesses at the root of the tusk, which is hollow, should be rejected, if the animal from which it is taken come from the plains; but if it be a mountain grazer, somewhat less.” +} Of modern work on a large scale, Mr. Kipling notes an elaborately carved ivory couch, on the model of an English sofa, owned by the Maharajah of Benares; this was executed by carvers in his employ.t Some ivory chains, armlets, crosses, etc., are made in India, and we may also note a peculiar ear-ornament called Karna-changa, a favourite adornment of the Tipperas, a tribe dwelling in the hill country toward the northeastern frontier of Bengal. A specimen of this style of ornament was sent to the Calcutta International Exhibition, while at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition was displayed a pair of ivory armlets from Seran, in Bengal. Besides this locality the following are mentioned as furnishing ivory ornaments for personal adornment: Murshidabad, Cuttack, Amritsar, Sialkot, Multan, Pali, Indor, etc.** *Stewart Culin, “Chess and Card Playing,” Washington, 1898. Rep. U.S. Nat. Mus., 1896, pp. 665-942; see pp. 852, 853. tT. N. Mukharji, “Art Manufactures of India,”’ Calcutta, 1888, p. 274. {The Journal of Indian Art, Vol. I, No. 7, p. 51, July, 1885. **J, L. Kipling, Journal of Indian Art, Vol. I, 1885. ORIENTAL IVORY CARVINGS 103 The principal and very extensive use of ivory for such ornaments is shown in the production of the bangles so universally popular in India. In relation to this branch of Indian ivory carving, we cannot do better than cite the following passage from the article by Mr. J. L. Kipling, in the Journal of Indian Art, to which reference has already been made: “The ivory bangle, it has been remarked, is usually a mere ring. The writer has never seen a specimen of open- work or other carving, a mode of treatment that seems suita- ble to the material, and well within the powers of the Indian artisan. The traditional usages of caste have probably a controlling effect. In the Panjab, on the occasion of a marriage, the Mama, or maternal uncle, of the bride is ex- pected to present her with a set of ivory bangles coloured red, green, or black, and ornamented with tinsel spangles, or lines with minute scratched circles, as may be the peculiar fashion of the caste. The higher castes wear these only during the first year of wedlock, after which they are replaced by bangles of silver and gold or other materials. The women of some Hindu castes, however, always wear ivory. In nearly all cases the nature of the material is so disguised by colour it would appear that some cheaper substance might be made to serve equally well. In parts of the North- western Provinces ivory is not used for bangles, but they are common throughout the Panjab, in the greater part of the Bombay Presidency, in Sind, in the Central Provinces, in the Western States of Rajputana, and in parts of Bengal. The ancient town of Pali, a station on the Jodhpur branch of the Rajputana Railway, on the old trade route between Bombay and Delhi through Ahmadabad and Ajmir, main- tains a specialty in bangle turnery which, according to native report, it has enjoyed for centuries, and absorbs the greater part of the ivory that is sent northward from Bombay. This 10a IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT is another instance of the curious tendency of Indian crafts to be localized in out-of-the-way places in a way that is not easily accounted for. There are at Pali whole streets of ivory bangle-turners. Their wares are produced in sets of graduated sizes, covering the arm from the shoulder to the wrist, with an interval for the elbow, and they are worn almost universally in the Western Rajput States.” Ivory is a favourite material for inlays on wood in India, and much of the work done in this style merits praise. The chief centre of this branch of art at the present time is the Panjab, notably at Hushiarpur, where a great variety of household articles are so decorated, such as the small square wooden seats, called chautis, almirahs (cupboards of a special type), wall-brackets, tables, chairs, boxes, desks, rulers, picture-frames, cabinets, etc. The production of each of these objects usually requires the combined efforts of several workmen. Sometimes the ivory inlay is thrown into sharper relief by a bordering of blackened wood. Most of those engaged in this work live in the village of Ghulam Husain Bassi, in the immediate neighbourhood of Hushiarpur. This industry, which is recently revived, is now in a flourishing condition.* : These objects are comparatively inexpensive as shown by the following prices: A table 45 rupees ($15), a wall-bracket 15 rupees ($3), a picture-frame 6 rupees ($2), a wall-shelf 35 rupees ($12), a box 25 rupees ($8 or $9).7 In Rajputana, the town of Etawa, in the district of Kota, is to some extent a rival of Hushiarpur. Here shisham-wood is that principally used to receive the inlays, a fine specimen being a screen shown at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition. An interesting fact is that the industry in Kota is exclusively carried on by the members of two or three families of the *T. N. Mukharji, “Art Manufactures of India,” Calcutta, 1888, p. 245. tbid., p. 247. ORIENTAL IVORY CARVINGS 105 Khati caste; they are exceedingly painstaking in their work, which is slowly and carefully executed. Of this special industry Mr. Kipling treats as follows: “*Of equal and, indeed, superior importance as an industry which may be expected to support skilled workmen is the wood-inlay of ivory and brass of the District. The exten- sion of this trade to articles of European use is mainly due to the efforts of Mr. Coldstream, C. 5. For many years pen-cases, walking-staves, mirror-cases, and the low chauki, or octagonal table common in the Panjab and probably of Arab introduction, have been made here in shisham-wood inlaid with ivory and brass. The patterns were very minute and covered nearly the whole of the surface with an equal spottiness. Mr. Coldstream procured its application to tables, cabinets, and other objects, and during recent years a trade has sprung up which seems likely to grow to still larger proportions. The faults of the inlay are a certain triviality and insignificance of design and its too equal and minute distribution. At various times some of the inlayers have visited Lahore, and have been shown at the School of Art examples of good Arabic and Indian design, and they have frequently been furnished with sketches. When the blackness and ugliness of an Indian village are considered it is really matter for surprise that decorative invention survives in any form. There are numbers of artisans, many of whom are in the hands of a Hindu dealer who is naturally but little concerned in the artistic quality of the wares he sells. Blackwood, the old heart-wood of the Kunwm (Diospyros tomentosa), incorrectly called abnus or ebony by the workmen, is occasionally used both as a ground, and in combination with ivory, as an inlaying material, especially in the familiar herring-bone pattern. Brass is also em- ployed, but with less effect, for when foliated work in small patterns is worked in brass, it is necessary that the metal 106 [VOR YVAND? THE’ ELEPRANE should have a better surface than it generally receives in the Hushiarpur work.’’* Hushiarpur inlayers are said to have been employed by Runjit Singh, the Lion of the Panjab, in the early part of the last century for the decoration of some of the woodwork in the Golden Temple at Amritsar, but on the whole this industry did not flourish under nativerule. Of late, however, an active demand has arisen among Anglo-Indians and travellers, resulting in a largely increased production and in the exportation of this work in considerable quantity to England and other parts of Europe as well as to America, where it competes successfully with the best Chinese work of the sort. These inlayers are able to utilize an inferior quality of ivory, and also the fragments left over in the manu- facture of bangles and other ornamental or useful objects, so that their ivory costs them as little as from 4 cents to 80 cents a pound. If the supply of ivory runs short camel- bone is occasionally substituted, and this is not easily de- tected when the work is fresh, but the bone is liable to decay and does not retain its polish as does ivory. An even less- satisfactory substitute is a wood called chikni, which when freshly polished has somewhat the tint of ivory.f Cabinetwork and furniture of ebony inlaid with ivory are made in Mysore, the taste here being conservative and favouring the retention of the old models, Carneatic and Mogul. The prices obtained for this Mysore work are fairly good, a teapoy (table for the tea service) selling for 50 rupees ($16), a chair for 100 rupees ($33). One piece of inlay work produced here secured a gold medal at the Calcutta Inter- national Exhibition; this was a door 6 feet by 12 feet made expressly for the Bangalore Palace at a cost of 1,500 rupees *J. L. Kipling, Journal of Indian Art, Vol. I. TT. P. Ellis, “Ivory Carving in the Punjab,” in the Journal of Indian Art and Industry, Vol. IX, No. 75, p. 47; July, 1901. Ce ESSSSSaSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS SSS SSS DSSSSSSSSSSS SSS SSS SSS SSS Bienes panars 3 riled 46. 5 . s @yve- Yat) MEANT aoe An InLaip Writine Drsk; ivory and bison horn. Vizagapatam. Made in India —From the Journal of Indian Art and Industry. 108 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT ($500). It may be here noted that in the tomb of Tippu Sultan are very beautiful doors inlaid with ivory.* Perhaps the best-known Indian ivory inlaying is the so- called Vizagapatam work, from the Madras Presidency. Sandalwood is chiefly used here, and a great number of small but attractive articles are produced, such as work-boxes, inkstands, card-cases, chess-boards, etc. Asa rule the ivory inlay is decorated with figures etched in black and showing mythological subjects or floral patterns, usually, however, from European and not from Hindu originals. As these objects are executed with a very considerable degree of technical skill they command these relatively good prices: Sandalwood and ivory inkstand 50 rupees ($16), watchstand 25 rupees ($8 to $9), chess-board 55 rupees ($18), blotting- book 40 rupees ($13), box 135 rupees ($45), picture-frame 10 rupees ($3.25). The decoration on the ivory veneer used by the ivory workers of Vizagapatam is obtained by incising the pattern on the surface of the ivory and then filling in the incised lines with black lac. While as an ornamental addition to the boxes in question this inlay is freely used, quite frequently caskets, tables, cabinets, etc., are entirely composed of it. Inlaid boxes of various kinds, the ivory being inserted in small pieces, are made in large quantities in Bombay and in Surat, Baroda, Ahmadabad, and Kach, where many other small inlaid articles are also produced. Of this class of work that able critic of Oriental art, Sir George Birdwood, says: ““A good deal of ornamental furniture is also made in ‘Bombay inlaid work,’ so familiar now in the ubiquitous glove-boxes, blotting-cases, book-stands, workboxes, desks, *T. N. Mukharji, “Art Manufactures of India,” Calcutta, 1888, p. 248. tT. N. Mukharji, “‘Art Manufactures of India,”’ Calcutta, 1888, p. 247. tConsul Henry D. Baker of Bombay, India, “Report on Ivory and Elephants in India,” June 8, 1914. GANESA THE ELEPHANT GOD OF THE HINDU PANTHEON, XVII CENTURY COLLECTION OF CHARLES L. FREER, ESQ., DETROIT CARVED IVORY CASKET THE MUNICIPALITY OF DELHI TO KING GEORGE AND QUEEN MARY ON THE OC- CASION OF THEIR CORONATION AS EMPEROR AND EMPRESS OF INDIA. SCENES FROM THE GREAT HINDU EPIC, THE RAMAYANA, 1 2 DIAM. GIVEN BY THE RELIEFS DEPICT ORIENTAL IVORY CARVINGS 109 and card-cases which go by the name of ‘Bombay Boxes.’ They are made in the variety of inlaid woodwork, or mar- quetry or tarsia, called pique, and are not only pretty and pleasing, but interesting on account of its having been found possible to trace the introduction of the work into India from Persia step by step, from Shiraz into Sind, and to Bombay and Surat. In Bombay the inlay is made up of tin wire, sandalwood, ebony, sappan (brazil) wood, ivory white, and stained green, and stag horn. Strips of these materials are bound together in rods, usually three-sided, sometimes round, and frequently obliquely four-sided, or rhombic. They again are so arranged in compound rods as, when cut across, to present a definite pattern, and in the mass have the appearance of rods of varying diameter and shape, or of very thin boards, the latter being intended for borderings. The patterns commonly found in Bombay, finally prepared for use, are chakar-gul, or ‘round bloom,’ katki-gul, ‘hexag- onal bloom,’ tinkonia-gul, ‘three-cornered bloom,’ tiki, a small round pattern, and gandiric, ‘plump,’ compounded of all the materials used; also ekddnd, ‘one grain,’ having the appearance of a row of silver beads set in ebony; and port lihur, jafran marapech, jeri, baelmutana, sankru hansio, and prohansio, these eight last being bordering patterns. The work was introduced into Sind from Shiraz about a hundred years ago.” The best modern ivory carving is said to come from the establishment in Delhi conducted by Lala Fagir Chand, the art having been carried on and transmitted by four genera- tions of his ancestors. He employs about twenty workers, with whom the industry is also hereditary; they are princi- — pally, though not exclusively, of the Brahmin caste. The general conditions are very simple, the factory being located above the shop in a small room which the ivory carvers have to share with wood carvers and miniature painters. Space 1100 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT is so restricted that some of the workers are glad to ensconce themselves on the stairs or on balconies. Their tools are of a very primitive character and the conditions under which they have to work anything but favourable, but with the patience under difficulties so natural to the Hindu artisan, they are able to execute their tasks with considerable success. An exceptionally fine piece of work that issued from this Delhi factory as many as sixty years ago, an exquisitely carved Hindu Pantheon, has only quite recently found a purchaser. The wages earned by these ivory carvers seem ridiculously small, but possibly compare not unfavourably with the very low average wage earned by other Hindu workers. Experienced carvers receive from $1.60 to $16 a month, according to their ability and the class of work they perform. The apprentices whose course lasts from five to seven years receive nothing during this time, and when their apprenticeship has closed but 16 cents a month at first. The work done by the Hindu ivory carvers of the present day appears to be of a routine quality in the main, and is rarely characterized by much originality. Still the art is practised in many different localities in India and a wide range of objects are produced. In the Calcutta Interna- tional Exhibition were displayed specimens from Murshida- bad, Gya, Dumraon, Darbhanga, the Tributary States of Orissa, Rangpur, Bardwan, Tipperah, Chittagong, Dacca, and Patna. Of these the preference can be given to the productions of Murshidabad, because of their high finish and also because they show the ingenuity in working out minute details so characteristic of Indian ivory carving at its best. These merits are all the more praiseworthy in view of the primitive tools used by the carvers. Unfortunately, from one cause or another, the number of those engaged in this work is continually diminishing. Travancore may also be ORIENTAL IVORY CARVINGS Ill noted as a locality in which some of the best Indian carving is done. A particular fancy for such objects has induced some of the chiefs of Orissa and certain of the wealthy landlords of Behar to give constant employment to one or more ivory carvers so that they may exercise their art without being dependent upon the chance of selling their product. Some of the objects so produced are quite valuable, as, for example, a mat-made of strips of ivory that was sent to the Calcutta Exhibition by the Maharajah of Darbhanga; this was valued at 1,325 rupees ($440). At one time the production of such mats was a specialty of Sylhet, in Assam, but few are now made there; indeed, the art of ivory working is practically extinct in Assam to-day. In 1879 the usual prices for these mats was from £20 to £60 apiece ($100 to $300).* Travancore has produced some good examples of Indian work, such, for instance, as the ivory throne with a footstool sent as a gift to Queen Victoria and shown in the London Exhibition of 1851. Sir Purdon Clarke also noted a very beautiful ivory casket from the same region in the Exhibition. At present a great many attractive small objects are made here, among these paper weights variously carved, with the design of a boa constrictor entwined about the body of an elk, a bird and a snake, an areca tree, a bird’s nest, etc. Many fair specimens of Indian ivory carving are figured in the Journal of Indian Art and Industry.{ One represents the victory of Durgah over Mahishasura, king of the demon race called the Asurs. While the artistic qualities of this composition can hardly be considered very remarkable, it *See James Donald, “Ivory Carving in Assam,” the Journal of Indian Art and Industry, Vol. IX, No. 75, p. 57, July, 1901. tAndrews, “The Elephant in Art and Industry,” in the Journal of Indian Art and In- dustry, Vol. X, pp. 55-64, 112 IVORY, ANDTHE ELEP RAN shows the work of a practiced hand.* Anivory casket made in Travancore in the seventeenth century is elaborately carved and has higher artistic worth.f Indian ivory carving offers no more attractive work than a statuette representing Ganesa, the elephant god of the Hindu Pantheon. The details are all finely wrought and testify to a complete mastery of the technique of ivory carving on the part of the artist. Ganesa is seated, in an almost erect posture, upon a small rock base having numer- ous niches and grottos in which are carved a number of figures including two archers with bows and arrows, a huntsman, two elephants, a lion, an ox, an ape, a monkey, a boar, and other animal designs more or less obscure. In the foreground of the base appears the emblematic rat, an almost invariable accompaniment of Ganesa figures. The god holds in his trunk the leg of a human figure which hangs suspended head downward. ‘This admirable carving forms part of the collection of Charles L. Freer, Esq., of Detroit, Mich., who has kindly consented to have it figured in the present work. The Northwest Provinces of India have but little to show in the way of ivory carving. Scattered: throughout this region there are quite a number of workers willing enough, and to a certain extent capable enough to do good work in this branch, but there is little or no demand to stimulate their efforts. At Lucknow there is a little more activity, but not sufficient to adequately promote the industry; here are produced combs, small toys, utensils for the application of antimony to the eyes as a cosmetic, chessmen, card-cases, small models of the Taj, paper-knives, paper-weights, han- dles for sticks, etc., small boxes, and scissors. The art has been handed down from father to son, and is at least free *Tbid., Pl. 91. }Ibid., Pl. 87. ORIENTAL IVORY CARVINGS 113 from European influences. In Nagina combs are a specialty _and some good inlaying work is done; Agra produces models of the Taj. A fine set of chessmen in the Lucknow Museum is believed to have been produced in that locality, and a modern carver offered to execute an ivory set with the kings on their thrones, and with camel and elephant figures Ill. Kurpisn Curssmen. University of Pennsylvania. Height, 1 to 12 in. —From Stewart Culin “Chess and Playing Cards” (Report of National Museum pp. 665-942). for 100 rupees ($33). As an illustration of the inactivity of the industry in these parts of India, it is stated that when the Rajah of Kashipur and the Deputy Commissioner of Almora wanted to sell their stock of ivory, they could not market it in the Northwest Provinces, but were forced to send it to the Panjab. Such ivory as is sold offers a wide 1144 IVORY) AND THE ELEPRART range of prices according to the size of the pieces and the elasticity and tint of the material, from 2 rupees to 20 rupees being paid for a seer, that is from about 16 cents to $1.60 a pound.* The art of miniature painting on ivory is cultivated to a certain extent in India, principally by Delhi artists who are Mohammedans and claim Persian descent. They usually take up their residence in Bombay or Calcutta and get from 10 rupees to 100 rupees for a miniature painting. The devel- opment of the art in Delhi is traced to the fondness of the Mohammedan rulers for illuminated Persian manuscripts, these serving as patterns or inspiration for the ivory painters. Thus we have portraits of emperors and empresses, as well as of famous court beauties, and views of the Taj Mahal at Agra and of the Juma Mosque at Delhi. More realistic inspiration is drawn from modern photographs which are copied in colours. Much of the work is of a purely decora- tive character, the miniatures being set in ebony caskets, for example; some are given a jewelled mounting to be worn as ornaments. Water colours are exclusively employed. Mr. Kipling considers that the use of photographic models has served to raise the standard of these Indian miniaturists, in that it has freed them from the stiff, conventional lines per- petuated by tradition, and has measurably brought them back to nature; this is especially notable in the treatment of landscape themes. The Delhi artists are reproached with an undue attention to mere delicacy of execution, their favourite phrase, ek bal qalm, “a brush of a single hair,” indicating this. ; A noted Indian master in the art of miniature painting on ivory is Ismail Khan, who executed work for the late Queen *L. M. Stubbs, in the Journal of Indian Art and Industry, Vol. TX, No. 75, pp. 41-44: July, 1901. TT. N. Mukharji, “Art Manufactures of India,” Calcutta, 1888, p. 22. MEDIEVAL IVORY CARVED CHESSMEN BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE LIV ORYIGROUP. “DOURGAGVLE TOR EOUS? INDIAN CARVING. THE TEN-ARMED GODDESS HOLDS IN HER HANDS A DISK, A HARPOON, A TRIDENT, A SABRE, AN ARROW, A BOW, A SHIELD, A LASSO, A BELL, AND A POIGNARD. HER RIGHT FOOT RESTS UPON A TIGER WHICH HAS BURIED ITS CLAWS IN THE BREAST OF A DE- CAPITATED BUFFALO, OUT OF WHOSE NECK THE GIANT MAHASHASURA IS ISSUING, SABRE IN HAND. ON THE RIGHT OF THE GODDESS IS SKANDA ON A PEACOCK; ON HER LEFT, GANESA ON HIS RAT; ON EITHER SIDE IS A WOMAN, ONE BEARING FLOWERS, THE OTHER A MANDOLIN. AMONG THE FIGURES OF A FRIEZE ON THE ARCH SURMOUNTING THE GROUP IS THAT OF AN ELEPHANT. MUSEE GUIMET, PARIS ORIENTAL IVORY CARVINGS 115 Victoria. His designs embrace a considerable variety of subjects, portraits of emperors, kings, queens, and princesses, as well as Indian temples and palaces. Many of the paint- ings are of the usual miniature size, but some of them are so small as to be available for ring settings, while others, slightly larger, are adapted for the adornment of brooches or other ornaments. Were it not for the constant and extensive demand for the ever-popular “bangles,’’ and also for combs, India would not have use for the ivory she retains; unfortunately, little or no artistic skill is called for in the case of the bangles, which are commonly nothing more than plain rings of stained ivory, without decoration of any kind. The importance of the bangle trade as a whole in India may be illustrated by the statement that by the 1901 census the number engaged in making bangles of other materials than glass was 83,489, while there were 68,840 persons engaged in the sale of such bangles; for those of glass the respective figures were 75,443 and 112,821, making a grand total of 340,593 persons directly dependent upon this industry.* The preference African ivory enjoys among Indian carvers over that of India or Ceylon is due to the fact that it has a finer grain and is less apt to turn yellow. These superior qualities have been attributed to the better food procurable by the African elephants. t Twenty years ago Burma cane boast of: a master ivory carver, Maung Nyaing of Moulmein, but as a rule Burmese work does not rank high. A curious and pretty if somewhat tricky piece of art work executed by the Burmese is an ivory sword handle carved in an openwork pattern of foliage and *Hendley, “Indian Jewellery,”’ in the Journal of Indian Art and Industry, Vol. XII, No. 98, p. 46; April, 1907. +Consul Henry D. Baker of Bombay, India, “Report on Ivory and Elephants in India,” June 8, 1914. 1146 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT flowers; through the openings the artist cuts out in the centre of the mass a little figure, which is so entirely separate from the enclosing decorated surface that we would suppose that it had been carved outside and then placed within the orna- mental hilt.* ; In spite of the fact that the home supply of ivory in Burma is ample, the ivory-carving industry languishes, although the few carvers still employed seem to find more than they can do. Itis suggested that the opening of a school of art might serve to revive the industry, which is now essentially con- fined to Moulmein and Pyinmana. The total amount of ivory used in the course of a year by the carvers of Moulmein has been estimated at from eight to twelve pairs of tusks. As a rule the Burmese carver reproduces the old patterns handed down from generation to generation, unless the per- son giving the order prefers that he should copy some Euro- pean design. While learning the art apprentices are given cocoanut shell as a material, thus avoiding the risk of having a valuable piece of ivory injured. Moreover, as cocoanut shell is more brittle than ivory, the apprentice who is able to work it without breaking it can be safely entrusted with the task of carving a piece of ivory. Little originality is exhibited by the Burmese carvers, and their art is very con- ventional; the products include boxes, picture-frames, han- dles for knives and forks, paper-knives, ete. If ordered, chessmen, mats, chairs, etc., can be made, and sometimes whole tusks are carved over with some ornamental design, one enterprising artist devoting more than seven months’ time to the carving of twenty-eight different images of the Buddha as decoration to a single tusk. *T. N. Mukharji, “ Art Manufactures of India,” Calcutta, 1888, pp. 149, 279. tH. S. Pratt, “Ivory Carving in Burma,” the Journal of Indian Art and Industry, Vol. TX, No. 75, p. 59; July, 1901. See for a representation of this or a similarly decorated tusk from Burma, Jour. Ind. Art. and Ind., Vol. I, No. 7, July, 1885, Fig. 12. IVORY STATUETTE OF DAIRUMA CARVED BY SOSAI, RENOWNED JAPANESE IVORY CARVER COLLECTION OF A. N. BEADLESTON, ESQ. WOUSOW CUAATY AGNV VIMOLOTA NUCH FO NAGUVS GHG NI TAG GNV WVGV ‘“AUOENDO ITAX “ASHITVHONIO SLINQOW WHATIS HLIM LYONIGVO AUOAI ee 7 7, Y ST eee ORIENTAL IVORY CARVINGS 117 The gradual dying out of the art of ivory carving in Assam since the cessation of the rule of the Ahom rajahs is attrib- uted to the consequent removal of the incentives due to direct royal patronage, assuring regular occupation and a stated salary or recompense to the individual carvers. Moreover, the main sources of supply for ivory have been cut off by the strict enforcement of the Elephant Preserva- tion Act, as now only the tusks of dead elephants found in the jungle are available, while in former days a plentiful supply of ivory was secured from the elephant herds kept by the rajahs, as well as from the tusks of wild elephants slaugh- tered by hunters. The art of ivory carving must have stood high in Ceylon in the seventeenth century, for it is related that at that time a native artist of this island executed in ivory a crucifix a yard in length, the work being done in such a masterly style that the hair, beard, and face of the Christ appeared those of a living being. So accurately proportioned was the whole carving, and so wonderfully were all the details worked out, that it far surpassed anything of the kind executed in Europe. For this reason the Catholic bishop (of Goa?) had the carving enclosed in a costly casing and sent it to the King of Spain as a great rarity well deserving a prominent place among his treasures.* The finest Cinghalese ivory carving is done at Point de Galle, or Galle, as it is called in Ceylon, and here many highly artistic ivories have been produced, the designs being in some cases derived from specimens of old Buddhist art and in others inspired by scenes of the life of to-day in Ceylon. At the St. Louis Exposition, in 1904, Messrs. D. F. de Silva & Co. and Mr. Abdul Caffoor exhibited some wonderful, gem-encrusted ivory elephants, and in a great many instances *S. de Vries, ‘Curieuse ae der bysonderste Oost en West-Indische Ver- wonderenswaerdige Dingen,’’ Utrecht, 1682, Pt. IV, p. 839. 18 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT these carvings are adorned with rich and elaborate mount- ings of gold and gems, thus combining, as in some of the latest European work in this material, the art of the ivory carver with that of the goldsmith.* Chinese ivory carving, of which many specimens appear in collections, is lacking in originality as compared with Japanese work of this kind, where the things of everyday life are cleverly, though rather grotesquely than naturally, depicted, the details, however, being rendered with remark- able fidelity to truth. There is also a quaint humour in the designs that has a value all its own. The many netswkés, or buttons, in an endless variety of curious forms, are the most characteristic productions of Japanese ivory carving, both ancient and modern. From the workshop of Kuneda, in Tokyo, come many of the finest modern pieces. Some unusually fine specimens of Japanese ivory carving made © after designs by master artists were shown in the Paris Ex- position of 1900. In Chinese ivory work the most original productions are the so-called “magic balls” consisting of a number of concentric, hollow spheres successively carved in openwork, the clever artist turning and carving each inner sphere through the apertures made in the one already fin- ished; as many as half a dozen or more of these concentric balls are sometimes cut from a single piece of ivory. There are two remarkable examples of “magic balls”’ in the Robert L. Stuart Collection on the third floor of the Public Library Building in New York. One of them is 5 in. in diameter and is made up of fifteen distinct balls; the other measures 4 in. in diameter and comprises nine balls. The balls are beautifully carved with minute scenes, landscapes, and figures, each of the nine balls being covered with a fret-work, very neatly rounded off and so *< Official Handbook of Ceylon Court, St. Louis, World’s Fair, 1904,’ Colombo, 1904, p. 167. IVORY VASES CHINESE ART OF THE XVII CENTURY REALE MUSEO NAZIONALE, FLORENCE AUNOUNGO IWIAX “WSaNIHO SaTELOd ALONS AUWOAT ORIENTAL IVORY CARVINGS 119 minute that there are a hundred piercings to the square inch. These balls are all cut out by a tool provided with a small curved piece of knife edge. The inner ball is cut first and decorated. Undoubtedly many of the piercings were made at one and the same time from the exterior, the drill passing through the entire five inches of ivory and thus making thirty piercings, one on either side of the fifteen spheres, or of the material from which these spheres are then successively cut out and decorated, within the centre of the group of balls. To render the working possible circular holes are run from the outer side to the middle of the ball, the outer aperture hav- ing a diameter of 2 of an inch, the whole then tapering down to a diameter of 4 of an inch at the centre. It is these apertures which give the artists the opportunity to reach the various surfaces of the many enclosed spheres, evolving them out of the mass, one by one. Among the interesting modern ivory carvings shown in the Chinese section of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition was an elaborately carved elephant tusk, the work of the Chinese ivory carver, Lien Hsun-hao. This tusk, 14 in. long, is decorated with an intricate openwork pattern in which appear the dragon forms so favoured by the Chinese. There was also shown an ivory relief statuette of the Chinese Goddess of Mercy. The Chinese exhibit contained a remarkable example of a magic ball, consisting of no less than 28 elaborately pierced balls, one within the other, the outside one having a diameter of 4 in. It is mounted on a base from which rises a slender shaft adorned with a series of loops and sur- mounted by the magic ball. This intricate work is valued at $170, and is a production of the expert Chinese ivory carver, Li Hsao-yu, who was awarded a silver medal for his work. He also exhibited a finely carved tusk 30 in. 1200 IVORY AND? THE ELEPHANT long. Another expert Chinese carver, Lien Yu-suen, showed a group of eight horses arranged in a circle, their poses being very spirited and lifelike. The Japanese netsukés, which in their great variety of designs offer the most characteristic and interesting examples of Japanese ivory carving, and are eagerly sought by col- lectors, are used in Japan as “‘toggles”’ or buttons, through which pass the cords serving to attach to the belt the pipe or the medicine or sweetmeat case. The really fine speci- mens of these products of the ivory carver’s art belong prin- cipally to the eighteenth century, and the works quite generally bear the carver’s name. Some of these netsukés are of walrus and occasionally boars’ tusks were used. Many of the artists had certain special designs in which they partic- ularly excelled, and of these we may here note the following as examples:* Anrakousai, holy personages Hogitsu, children Hozan, children Mune-tomo, monkeys Ikkouan, rats Kajitomo, mushrooms Mazakadzu, monkeys and rats Okatomo, quails Giokusai, shells Japanese art.offers, however, ivory carving of a higher grade, though we could hardly say of greater originality than the inimitable netsukés. One of the finest of these more ambitious carvings is the decoration in relief by a Japanese carver of a large tusk, having a diameter of 7 in., which was shown at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 1876 in the Egyptian Department and was acquired by the Japanese. The artist selected for his theme the embarka- *Alfred Maskell, “Ivories,”’ London, 1905, pp. 344 sqq. SIUVd “LHWIND AOS OW AUOINGD XIX HHL FO DNINNIDAE AUNOTH ASANVdVE I I I GNV10d NVINLSNV ‘MOOVHO ‘IMSAUOLUVZO WNASAW AHL WOW AUOLINGO WIAX AHL JO ATAVEAOUd ALLAOLVLS €ASaNIHO ANSOSALOU)D TT AMOUNGO ATX AHL FO LUV HONG AUOAI GHAUVO AO TASSHA ONIMNIYVAG T aaarey = > ares 7 J Ce aS ce et _ al RP oS r= a on = Sara ns = 1 7 D oO +> ORIENTAL IVORY CARVINGS 121 tion of Yoshitsume, a heroic figure in Japanese history, who left Japan and went into voluntary exile rather than plunge his country into the miseries of a civil war by resisting the oppression of an ungrateful brother whose throne he had assured.* | What is asserted to be perhaps the largest ivory carving ever executed is a figure of Buddha by the Japanese carver Ichikawa Komei; this was shown in the Chicago Exposition of 1893. A most interesting and valuable Japanese publication illustrates in a very thorough and satisfactory manner the various processes employed by the ivory carver in trans- figuring a section of tusk into a finished statuette or other artistic form. Alongside of the design representing the completed work is given in outline the piece of tusk on which ° the artist is about to exercise his skill. Within the outline of the yet unworked ivory is traced that of the figure to be produced, and this enables us to appreciate the judgment and ingenuity displayed by the artist in utilizing the special form of the material at his disposal. Other plates show the various stages of working the block and some of the tools used in shaping it. This valuable and original book will be more fully described in a succeeding chapter. The carved ivory fans made by the Chinese are remark- able for the delicacy of workmanship displayed. The design is usually executed in very low relief and then the uncarved portion of the surface is cut through into a beautiful open- work pattern. Thus all heaviness is successfully banished, the fan being almost as light and airy as the element it wafts over its owner’s face. Chinese tradition teaches that a native of Tamba province invented the fan in the reign of Emperor Ten-ji (668-672 A.D.); the folding-fan, however, was only introduced much later, in the reign of Kungo-lo *Oriental Collection of W. T. Walters, p. 94. 1222 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT (1403-1425), such fans having been received as part of the tribute of Korea.* In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries many most beautifully painted fans were executed in France, Germany, and Holland, with elaborately carved ivory sticks. Some exceedingly fine specimens of these may be seen in the Berlin Kunstgewerbe Museum, the collection being especially rich, of course, in examples of German art, but containing also a number of French fans. Typical specimens are those in which the graceful and artistic painting is done on parch- ment, the ivory sticks being carved in an openwork pattern. An exceptionally fine bit of Chinese work is an ivory hand- rest carved with representations of the 18 Lohan, or Arhats, each figure identified by its symbolic animal, vehicle, or other attribute. In the upper part of the design is figured Maitreya, the Buddhist Messiah, on a throne supported by three geniuses. The artist has taken every possible advan- tage of the delicate grain and mellow tone of the material he has chosen. This work probably belongs to the school of the Imperial Ivory Works, founded about 1680 by Emperor K’ang, within the precincts of the palace at Peking. An- other more modern specimen, illustrating a different and thoroughly realistic style, is the model of a Buddhist temple, all the picturesque details carefully produced in the pains- taking manner so characteristic of Chinese art. This model is said to have been intended as a gift from the Emperor of China to Josephine, wife of Napoleon, during the Consulate, but it was seized on the high sea by a British warship.t Some of the most striking specimens of Chinese art in the rich assemblage of Oriental treasures sold at the *Georg Buss, “Der Facher,” Bielefeld and Leipzig, 1904, pp. 34, 36. Figures of Chinese carved ivory fans on p. 23 and p. 25. +Georg Buss, “Der Facher,” Bielefeld and Leipzig, 1904; figures, among others, on pp. 74, 75, 83. {Stephen W. Bushell, “‘Chinese Art,” London, 1904, Vol. I, p. 115-118, Figs. 78, 80. f uJ yeaa " F Cot 4 sy PE FASS B OVrens-4 ay ey DICE IVORY PAGODA CHINESE, LATTER PART OF THE XVIII CENTURY MUSEE GUIMET, PARIS MANDARINS’ SCEPTRES CHINESE ART, XVIII CENTURY I. DECORATED WITH “MUSHROOMS OF IMMORTALITY ~ II. SYMBOLIZES A ““WISH OF HAPPINESS III. DECORATED EMBLEMATICALLY MUSEE GUIMET, PARIS ORIENTAL IVORY CARVINGS 123 American Art Galleries, New York City, February 16 and 17, 1915,* were some wonderfully elaborate bird cages of ivory and black lacquer, the contrasting hues being skil- fully combined to heighten the artistic effect of the whole work. As decoration, along the ivory ribs of one of these cages, are attached a number of dainty and delicate ivory carvings representing dragons, birds, trees, and flowers. A circular mirror for the birds has an ivory back carved with a design showing two persons in a dug-out boat. Additional adornments are a carved white jade pendant, and a jade thumb ring to be used in lifting the cage from a hook; the lacquer base rests on ivory feet with openwork carving. The cage is 133 in. high with a diameter of 14 in.; at the top is a lapis-lazuli ball.{ This speci- men of Ch’ien lung work brought $400 at the sale. Less elaborate in design but not less skilfully executed is a square bird cage of ivory resting on low feet. The outside decora- tion, severely restrained, embraces small medallions, the favourite lozenge symbol, and vases holding mez blossoms. The interior fittings are most artistically treated, the perch having the form of an entire wild plum tree, projecting horizontally across the cage; the water cup is carved into the form of a lotus leaf within whose folds hide a crab and a frog, and the worm tongs has been given the shape of a Buddha’s hand fruit, while a seed chute is adorned with the sacred fungus toward which turn the stork and the spotted stag of Chinese legend. The height of this cage is the same as the circular one described above, 133 in., and each side of the square measures 7} in.; the price paid for it at the sale was $400, as in the former case.{. In still another of these choice bird cages ivory is combined with red lacquer, the form being dome shaped, with flattened *Sold for Yamanaka & Co. TNo. 186 in Catalogue; coloured plate. {No. 180 in Catalogue; woodcut. 1244 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT top. For the fittings and carved adornments ivory has been used, the designs covering a wide field of ornamentation and showing Taoist immortals among pines and pavilions, Confucian sages with their attendant students, pine- clusters, pomegranates, birds, animals, and bats. The feet are of ivory and the chain for suspension is of jade and lapis- lazuli.* Another dome-shaped cage has for principal adorn- ment a carved ivory dragon, its coils twining around a post showing the sacred fungus and upholding the perch. A wealth of small ivory carvings serves to embellish the exterior, embracing double gourds on their stems, cranes, legendary figures in grottos, ceremonial functions, and squir- rels among grapes, the latter being a favourite Chinese motif. The worm tongs and feet are of ivory. This was adjudged for $475.{ The height was 222 in. and the diameter 14 in. The most ornate ivory carving is on a cage into the construction of which horn, boxwood, and ivory have entered as materials. The ivory carving con- stitutes a lofty portal or entrance, with a multitude of animal and symbolical figures, as well as a representation of the famous Li Tai Peh, to whom attendants are offering wine; surmounting the portal is a curious scene showing the ablution of an elephant, one of the attendants engaged in the task having been lifted up by the animal on trunk and tusks. The ivory mounting offers the appropriate flowers of the four seasons: lotus, peony, chrysanthemum, and plum; the continuous ivory foot is carved, among other figures, with those of two Fu-lions. For this ambitious work the purchaser paid $400.t The highest-priced bird cage, one that sold for $1,125, was of tortoise shell, but had many accessories of carved ivory, including a boatload of pleasure seekers and a central perch figuring a boy jug- gler, balancing himself on his head upon an immense frog, *Catalogue No. 182; woodcut. {Catalogue No. 189; woodcut. {Catalogue No. 1. CARVED IVORY VASE CHINESE WORK. TO THE LEFT, GROUP OF TAOIST IMMORTALS RIDING ON FABULOUS ANIMALS; TO THE RIGHT, SHOU LAO, GOD OF LONGEVITY, AND KUAN-YU, GODDESS OF MERCY, ON AN ELEPHANT. FROM CATA- LOGUE OF COLLECTION OF PRINCE KUNG OF CHINA. HOANVT GTOHLYUAEA “Hd TO ASHLMNOOD 'NVIOISAHd ASANIHO AC AHS NVWOM USANIHO V HO THAOW AUOAT ORIENTAL IVORY CARVINGS 125 this being known as the Gama Sennin motif.* Ivory carv- ings also adorned another tortoise-shell cage that sold for $1,025 at this auction. This association of living creatures with delicate and artistic work is one among many instances of that happy blending of a love of both nature and art, giving proof of the high endowment of the Chinese in true esthetic percep- tion, one of the many things that helps us to forget the backwardness of Chinese civilization in much that makes for the comfort, health, and prosperity of a people. In the splendid collection of Prince Kung which was recently sold at auction in New York, and which consisted principally of wonderful jade carvings, there were a few very fine specimens of Chinese ivories, the most striking being two miniature representations of Imperial pleasure barges and a pair of richly adorned vases. One of the pleas- ure craft has a dragon-head prow, while the other is in the form of the feng or phoenix; all the details are carefully elaborated, and through the grillwork of the decks can be seen the Imperial chairs set in each of the staterooms. Of the vases, carved in high relief, one offers a representation of the Chinese goddess of mercy, Kwan-yin, riding on an elephant; another of the immortals is borne to heaven on a dragon’s back. The other vase illustrates a procession of Taoist immortals, while hovering over them appears the fairy Si Wang Mu seated on a bird of paradise. _ A Chinese ivory carving, probably some 200 years old, represents the reclining figure of a nude woman with the typically small feet. Its dimensions are 18 cm. in length and about 4 cm. in greatest height, and it is carved out of a *Catalogue No. 193. {Catalogue No. 194. {Catalogue of the Prince Kung Collection, sold at the American Art Galleries, Madison Square, New York, February 27, 28, and March 1, 1913. See Nos. 202, 207. 126 IVORY ANDYTHE ELEPRHAWE single piece of ivory. Age has imparted to it a fine yellow tone with some brownish oval spots, perhaps from handling; the shoes are coloured brown and the hair has a coating of black lacquer... This figure came, in 1850, into the possession of the oldest German resident of Yokohama, and was pre- sented by his successor to Dr. Berthold Laufer. According to well-informed Chinese—with whose opinion Doctor Laufer inclines to agree—the women of the better class used such figures in former times to indicate to a physician the seat of their ailment. As the doctor was not permitted to see a woman of this class she would thrust her hand through a curtain opening so that he could feel her pulse, and would then lay her finger upon that part of the ivory figure which corresponded with the part of her own body that was affected. Similar figures of wood, and in former days of bronze also, have been used in China in the study of acupuncture.* The lot of the Chinese ivory carver of Canton does not seem to be a very enviable one from a financial standpoint. During the term of his apprenticeship, which lasts four years, his master, besides supplying him with two meals a day— probably rather meagre repasts—gives him as “shoe money” . $4 in Canton silver at the expiration of the first year, $5 at the end of the second year, $6 at the end of the third year, and $7 at the termination of the fourth and last year of the apprenticeship. These small figures must, how- ever, be reduced 50 per cent. to get the equivalent in our money. After this, the ivory carver receives from his em- ployer from $7 to $8 each month ($3.50 to $4 of our money) in addition to the two daily meals. We need feel little sur- prise that expert carvers should wish to earn something more, and as a general rule they prefer to work for themselves in their own houses, and are then able to earn as much as $30 Canton silver ($15 of our money) in a month. *Communication of Prof. Berthold Laufer. CARVINGS IN MAMMOTH IVORY BY SIBERIAN NATIVE I. REINDEER DRAWING A SLED Il, CAMEL DRAWING A PLOUGH ‘OSH ‘SUMLTVM AUNAH TO NOIMLOWTTOO AUNOAT HLOWNWVW NO aaAuvo OWIMNSH NVIUAAIS AM ONIAUVO- AAITAY ORIENTAL IVORY CARVINGS 127 The apprentices and. those employed in shops are required to work ten hours each working day. However, while these are long hours, there is a very rational alternation of work and rest. Beginning his labours at 7:00 a. m., the carver continues to work until 9:30 a. m., and then is given a full hour for his morning meal; work is resumed at 10:30 a. M., continuing from this hour to 1.30 Pp. M., when there is a half hour’s pause for tea drinking; then follows a session lasting from 2:00 p. M. until 5:30 Pp. M., at which hour work is again suspended and the worker is allowed two full hours for his evening meal, after which he goes to work again for two hours, his day’s task finally terminating at 9:30 Pp. Mm. There are about 316 working days in the Chinese year of 360 days. The 44 days remaining are reckoned as holidays or vacations, as follows:* New Year holidays . . . 7 days. Leave of absence for the “ Ching Ming’ in fea ‘the fee when the Chinese worship the tombs of their ancestors . . 10 days. The 5th day of the 5th Moon—Dragon Boat Festival . . 1 day. The 27th day of the 8th Moon—the anniversary of the birthday of Confucius... Iyiday: The closing days previous to the New Meaw’ s Heshvities, when the Chinese have a general cleaning, beginning about the 25th of the 12th Moon . . . . . . .. 8 days. Home leave, twice a year, each time ten days . . . . 20 days. 44 days. Some quite effectively carved plaques of mammoth ivory come from Tobolsk, Siberia. These offer characteristic representations of the natives of the country, showing their sledges drawn by reindeer, the animals being portrayed in a lifelike manner, while the figures of the natives, bundled up in their ample fur garments, are eminently suggestive of *All these details as to the Canton ivory carvers were communicated to the writer by U.S. Consul-General F. D. Cheshire, in a letter dated Canton, China, August 11, 1913. 12238 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT the bitter winter cold of this region. A long row of pines forms a not inartistic background. A splendid example is in the collection of Henry Walters, of Baltimore. The skill of the Siberian ivory carvers is well expressed in a number of small but lifelike designs. A curious speci- men shows us the utilization of a camel for ploughing; others depict white bears, cleverly set upon rough stone bases figuring rocks. Then we have a number of artistically carved knife-handles, presenting a series of animal heads rendered with a high degree of skill; two exceptional exam- ples offer respectively the head of an Eskimo and the full form of a fish. An interesting little bit gives a design show- ing a native who has unharnessed his reindeer from his sled and pitched his tent; alongside the sled repose the skis for travelling over the snow-clad fields. A curious and quaint piece of carving, rather suggesting Nuremberg than Siberia in its workmanship, gives a peasant’s hut with its enclosed yard, in which is a small colt. One of the best is certainly that showing a reindeer harnessed to a sled and driven by a native; the very long reins are attached to the animal’s antlers, and a stick of portentous dimensions. is carried by the driver as a means of giving a few gentle reminders to his reindeer when requisite. The painful effort of the poor creature to drag along the sled is graphically portrayed.* The Central Eskimo of North America have a game called tingmiujang, “images of birds,’’ played with about fifteen fig- ures, most of them shaped as birds, but some rudely represent- ing men and women. For these figures ivory is sometimes used. They have flat bottoms, so that when thrown upward by one of the players some or all of them may stand upright when they fall. In this case the player in whose direction the figure points gains the piece, and the one who gets the greater *Photographs and information sent by Dr. G. Onésime Clerc, President of the Société Ouralienne des Amis des Sciences Naturelles, Ekaterinburg, Russia. ORIENTAL IVORY CARVINGS 129 number of pieces wins the game.* Similar figures of ivory were secured from the Eskimo of Plover Bay, Eastern Siberia. Figures closely resembling those noted above were obtained in 1882 by Mr. E. W. Nelson from the St. Lawrence Islands, Alaska, and are now in the United States National Museum, Washington; these, however, were per- forated and were evidently not in- tended for use in any game, but as orna- mental pendants to be attached to the girdle or to some part of the clothing.f The Eskimo of Ivory Imaces used as dice in game of Ting- P Oo 1 nt Barro Ww, miujang, Central Eskimo. —From Stewart Culin “Chess and Playing Alaska, have occa- Cards,” Washington, 1898 (Report of Nat. Mus., sionally made use of _ 1896, pp. 665-942) fossil ivory for their utensils, and three quite well-executed dippers of this material were brought back by the American expedition to this region in 1881-1883. From the village of Nuwuk came a dipper with a large, nearly circular bowl. The rim of the bowl and the handle are neatly ornamented with a design of lines and small circles. Another of these dippers was secured at the village of Sidaru, and a third, obtained at Utkiavwin, was made of a single piece of fine-grained fossil *Stewart Culin, ‘Chess and Playing Cards,’ Washington, 1898, p. 717, Fig. 42; pp. 665, 942 of Rep. of U. S. Nat. Mus. for 1896; see also Dr. Franz Boas in Fifth An. Rep. Bureau of Ethn., Washington, 1888, p. 567. Op. cit., p. 718, Fig. 43; see John Murdoch in Ninth An. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, 1892, p. 364. {Op. cit., p. 718. 130° IVORY) ABA ITHE ELEPHANT ivory of alight yellow hue. These dippers exhibited signs of long use and were probably made many years ago. In one of them a semicircular piece of the bone, near the handle, has been broken along the ean of the tusk and is mended by three stitches.* Many of the natives of Guinea wore, in the seventeenth century, three or four broad ivory arm-bands, frequently engraved with a cross design. These with the coral neck- laces brought by Dutch and other European traders and so highly valued by the natives of the Guinea Coast constituted their chief and favourite ornaments.T Carved elephant tusks from the old Negro monarchy of Benin are preserved in the Ethnographical Collection of the Museum of Natural History in Vienna. The conquest of Benin, West Africa, by the English in 1897 spread a knowl- edge of the curious art of this native civilization, although some early travellers visiting this region had already written of the strange customs and half civilization of the inhabi- tants. Some surprisingly interesting specimens of ivory carving by native African artists were brought from the capital city of Benin by Mr. W. J. Hoder, when it was captured by the British punitive expedition, on February 18, 1897. Some of the best of these are on exhibition in the Harriman Museum, Forest Hill, England. One of the specimens is a mace head, or the head of an official staff, such as was carried before the high executioner—a most important personage in old Benin, or before a Ju Ju priest. It represents a king or chief—holding in one hand a sword and in the other a bell such as was rung to announce the offering of a human *John Murdoch, “The Point Barrow Eskimo”; Ninth Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1887-1888, Washington, 1892, pp. 102, 103, Figs. 40, 41. +S. de Vries, ‘‘Curieuse Aenmerckingen der bysonderste Oost en West-Indische Verwon- derens-waerdige Dingen,” Utrecht, 1682, Pt. III, p. 95. ORIENTAL IVORY CARVINGS 131 sacrifice. Another interesting object, picked up in the pal- ace enclosure, is an armlet or bracelet worn by one of the women of the King of Benin. The ivory is excessively thin, and the decoration executed with great care and skill. It offers the representation of six heads, evidently of European type, from the long, wavy hair. Another bracelet is deco- rated with eighteen heads, nine of which appear to be Euro- pean, while the remaining half are of a negroid cast of _ features.* The collections of the Buffalo Society of Natural His- _ tory embrace a number of most interesting ivory objects presented to that institution by the West African Exhibi- tion Company at the Pan-American Exposition. These ivories are excellent specimens of the art of the native carv- ers, some of whom have attained a high degree of profi- ciency. In Loango, West Africa, the tusks are frequently decorated with carvings representing processions, these “‘proces- sional tusks” showing spiral columns of various figures of men, children, goats, rhinoceroses, elephants, men carriers with hammocks, basket carriers, etc. They are often sur- mounted by figures of a monkey and a child. On some of | these tusks there are ten or eleven rows of procession, beginning at the narrow end and winding downward to the hollow and broader end of the tusk. Generally the boundary of the spiral has a plain line of ivory as demarca- tion; sometimes a ridge of the rough brown outer coating of the tusk has been left for this purpose, or else the boun- dary is marked by a line of stained ivory. The ivories of this description owned by the Buffalo Society were carved by Mabeala, a Loango native artist, in Buffalo, during the summer of 1901. The outer “bark”’ is usually entirely *Richard Quick, “Notes on Benin Carving,” in the Reliquary, New Series, Vol. V, pp. 248-255; London, 1899. 132 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT removed, but in some instances this was left for demarca- tion and at the base of the tusk. The small hollow end of the tusks is carved by the Lo- ango people into napkin rings, and is decorated with designs in flowers, fish, butterflies, and other forms. In one in- stance the native artist has rudely scratched on a ring an inscription in broken French. The ivory trumpets made by the natives of the Congo are among the most interesting objects produced there and prove that these natives possess a considerable amount of artistic skill. Evidently trumpets of this kind have been made for many centuries as they are still made to-day. The elephant tusk, with its graceful and elegant curve and with its natural hollow, gradually narrowing and extending through a good part of its length, gives an excellent material for the purpose. These ivory trumpets of the Congo range in size from quite small ones to specimens of great length, up to two metres (6 ft. 7 in.), although in the case of the longer trumpets the dimension has only been attained by means of a prolongation of wood or bark. Naturally the form cannot offer great variety, as it is rather strictly conditioned by the natural curve of the tusk; since, however, the walls of the tusk, as prepared for being worked into a trumpet, are much thicker at the smaller end than at the larger one, because of the gradual narrowing of the natural hollow, a considerable amount of material must be removed by the worker, and this enables him to vary the form of this portion to a certain extent, making it sometimes lozenge-shaped, and at other times hexagonal or octagonal. This circumstance is also utilized for the decoration of the surface at and near the mouthpiece with simple patterns in relief. Even with his primitive tools the patient artisan is able to accomplish his task, as the material is not very hard. Of course the degree of skill varies greatly, and some of these trumpets still show ORIENTAL IVORY CARVINGS 133 the marks of the tools, but usually the surface has been carefully smoothed, and in some instances even polished. In a few cases a reddish or blackish tint has been imparted to the ivory. When the natural opening is too large it is partly closed with rosin, and any holes or cracks that may have been made or developed in the course of manufacture are closed with bulungu. In many cases the ivory surface of the trumpet is protected by a tightly fitted covering of the _ hide of the antelope, the buffalo, the elephant, or the iguana. _While, as has been remarked, the decorative motifs are us- ually confined to the region of the mouthpiece, in some speci- mens from the northern part of the Congo State the entire surface is engraved with bands or stripes, and also with a dot inside a circle, a sign much used in the Egyptian Sudan, in the northeastern Congo, and on the Upper Kasai. This is the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol of the sun. The natives are always very ingenious and often very artistic in the order of arrangement and construction of the simple circles and lines; and they form a beautiful decoration to these trumpets that were capable of making a great forest resound with their blasts. Many ivory flutes are also made in the Congo, small tusks being used for this purpose.* Since the quaint and curious netsukés, the most character- istic and original products of the Japanese ivory carvers’ art, have gone out of fashion in Japan, the carvers have produced work of greater beauty and breadth of design, showing in this as in other things the wonderful adapta- bility and cleverness of these Frenchmen of the East. While admitting that this testifies to a certain progress in the ivory carving of Japan, some of us are unable to recognize these more ambitious productions as really superior to the old *Annales du Musée du Congo. Ethnographie et Anthropologie. Série III. Notes analytiques sur les collections ethnographiques du Musée du Congo, publiées par la direc- tion du Musée. Tome I, Fasc, I, Bruxelles, November, 1902, pp. 90-96, 100. 134 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT netsukés. Still some of them are of great merit and at the same time typically Japanese.* As examples may be noted a spirited composition of a hunter slaying an eagle. The bird, in its death struggle, has grasped one of the hunter’s legs with its sharp claws, and defiantly awaits the coup-de-grace to be inflicted by the hunter’s dagger.T Other attractive specimens of the art are two elaborately carved tusks, showing Chinese sages in a grove of bamboo. This work is 13 in. high and is an exceedingly good pres- entation of the Oriental scene.{ More humorous, and some- what in the older style, is the figure of Khensu, a Chinese Buddhist priest, in the act of fishing; the figure is 82 in. high.** High praise has also been bestowed upon a small cabinet by the carver Tohekido Yoshi-ichi. This measures 122 by 103 in. and is carved and undercut with representations of quailin millet. The sides offer an imitation of basketwork.§ Chinese ivory carving at its best is displayed in the case of a remarkable vase. The elaborate openwork carving covering the entire surface of the vase offers the character- istic types of Chinese decoration: sages, trees, and small temples or retreats. The vessel is formed by the union of a number of separate plaques of ivory so carefully adjusted to one another that all trace of discontinuity is absent. Some of the finest and most artistic work of the Siamese carvers has been shown in the elaborate decoration of entire tusks, the figures being sculptured in a series of niches cut in the circumference of the tusk. These niches are of highly *«* A Japanese Collection, made by Michael Tonkins,” see Vol. I, pp. 160, 161, “‘Ivories,” by Gleeson White. tOp. cit., Pl. IV, 48. tOp. cit., Pl. IV, 32. **Qp. cit., Pl. IV, 135. §Op. cit., Pl. IV, 272. eae WS ibys a thie ELABORATELY CARVED IVORY VASE WITH REPRESENTATIONS, IN OPEN WORK, OF SAGES, TEMPLES, AND TREES. MODERN CHINESE ART. WITH RIM DETACHED. VIRGIN AND CHILD SPANISH ART, FROM PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, XVII CENTURY. THIS STATUETTE IS HOLLOW UP TO THE TOP. ORIENTAL IVORY CARVINGS 135 ornamental design, much openwork being used, and rise in tiers, irregularly, one row above the other. Thus the entire surface of the tusk is carved, the tip above the niches being worked out in a purely ornamental pattern. In an illus- tration showing five of the most striking examples of this art the graceful grouping of the tusks was striking, and the element of asymmetry skilfully introduced by placing one twisted and distorted tusk in the foreground. Among the Tibetans ivory is but rarely used. Some of the Nomads wear decorative bracelets or rings of ivory on their cues, these ornaments, uncarved and of the simplest design, being made in India for exportation to Tibet. Ex- amples of them may be seen in the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago.* Small, portable altars made of ivory and having a semi- spherical form are used by priests in Mexico in their cere- monials, on their journeys through the country either to confer baptism, listen to confession, or administer extreme unction. These portable altars measure only 23 or 3 in. across, and as the carvings are on the inside of the hollow hemisphere, their position effectively protects them from in- jury by abrasion, and the little “altars” can be safely carried about in the pocket or in any other receptacle. Some specimens of Mexican ivory carving done in the sixteenth century, and taken from a Catholic in 1860 by an officer of Benito Juarez, were later acquired by Dr. Edward H. Thompson. While the art standard of a great part of these ecclesiastical carvings was not especially high, there was among them a Christ figure exceptionally well executed.f *Communicated by Dr. Berthold Laufer, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago. {Communicated by Dr. Edward H. Thompson. CHAPTER IV ELEPHANTS, HISTORICAL Earty Egyptian art offers a few representations of the elephant, which was probably better known in pre-dynastic and early dynastic times than at a later date. A very small statuette of black stone in the Egyptian collection of the Berlin Museum unquestionably represents an elephant, and some more doubtful instances appear in certain ivory reliefs, as on a comb in the First Egyptian Room of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. All of these, as well as the statuette, date from before 3000 B. C. Of the various ob- jects made of ivory, such as combs, bracelets, pendants, spoons, statuettes, etc., and found in tombs dating from 3600 B. C. to 3000 B. C., a certain number are of hippopotamus ivory. While the elephant appears to have become less familiar to the Egyptian of the third millennium before Christ, ivory was still secured and worked and an inscription at Elephantine, on the tomb of a noble of the Sixth Dynasty (ce. 2475-2025 B. C.), relates that on his return from an expedition to the southward he sent to the king a tusk 5 ft.. long, retaming for his own use one 10 ft. long. Another noble, of the Twelfth Dynasty (2000-1788 B. C.), captured a live elephant which may have been brought to Egypt. The chief source of supply seems to have been the “land of Punt,” the Somali Coast and Libya, whence in the fifteenth century B. C. 700 tusks were brought. Of the 2,500 scarabs in the Metropolitan Museum only one or two are of ivory, 136 ELEPHANTS, HISTORICAL 137 hence this material does not seem to have been favoured for the making of scarabs.* In a mutilated inscription of Sesostris I (1980-1935 B. C.), a king of the Twelfth Dynasty, there appears to be mention of an elephant brought to Egypt.t The Nimrod Obelisk of the Assyrian monarch Shalmanesar II (860-825 B. C.) figures the elephant in unmistakable form, these animals being noted as part of the tribute paid by the land of Musri, while ivory was received from the Suhzeans and Patzans. The tribute of Jehu, King of Israel, is also inscribed on this obelisk.{ | The elephant is probably not named in the Bible, except in the Apocryphal Books, as in various passages of the First, Second, and Third Books of Maccabees** when treating of the military forces of the Greek kings of Syria and of Ptolemy Philopater of Egypt. Ivory, indicated by the word shen, “tooth,”’ is mentioned in several passages, namely, Amos 1, 15; vi, 4; I Kings x, 18; 2 Chron. ix, 17; Ezek. xxvul, 6; Psalm xlv, 8; Cant. v, 14; vii, 5; to which must be added the garnoth shen, “horns of ivory”’ in Ezek. xxvii, 15. The New Testament contains but one reference to ivory, in Rev. xvii, 12, and here the adjective elephantinon is used. The marginal rendering “elephant”? in the Authorized Version, for behemoth, is undoubtedly incorrect, as the name should certainly be rendered hippopotamus. Both elephants and ivory are mentioned in early Chinese records. In the Chou-li, belonging possibly to the tenth’ century B. C., it is stated that the trade of the province *Personal communication of Miss C. L. Ransom, Assistant Curator in the Department of Egyptian Antiquities, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. {Breasted, “Ancient Records of Egypt,”’ Chicago, 1906, Vol. I, p. 247. {“‘Altorientalische Texte,” ed. by Grossman, Leipzig, 1909, Vol. II, pp. 134, 135, Fig. 268; text in “ Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek,” ed. Schrader, Vol. I, Berlin, 1889, p. 151. **Macc. 1, 17; iii, 34; vi, 30, 34, 35, 46; viii, 6; 2 Mace. xi, 4; xiii, 2, 15; 3 Macc. v, 1, 2, 10, 20, 38, 48. Communicated by Prof. Francis Brown of Union Theological Seminary. 138 IVORY “AND22HE ELE PRANE King-chou consisted of vermilion (cinnabar), ivory, and skins. The word used here for ivory, ch’i, literally means “a front tooth”; the commentaries, however, give it the sense of “elephant’s tooth.” That elephants existed in this part of China in ancient times is vouched for by many local traditions, one of which tells of an elephant seen here as late as the seventh century A. D., but these animals have long been extinct in this region.* Probably the earliest Chinese notice of ivory is in an ode attributed to the twelfth century B. C. and contained in the Shi-King, or ‘‘ Book of Poetry,” considered by sinologists the most ancient literary authority as to the ancient civilizations of China. Here ivory is said to have been used for decorating the bows of the chiefs. In this instance the word siang, elephant, is used to denote ivory; combs made of ivory are alsomentioned. Weare not told whence this ivory was derived, but in view of the proba- ble existence of elephants in the south of China, it need not necessarily have been brought from without, although one of the earliest Tonkinese embassies to the Court of China is said to have brought an elephant’s tusk as tribute to the Emperor Ch’6ng-wang (1115-1059 B. C.).7 A Buddhist legend states that zeons ago Bodhisattva was incarnated as the Chhadanta, or six-tusked elephant, and was once pursued by a wily hunter, who had assumed the dis- guise of a religious ascetic. Such was Bodhisattva’s rever- ence for the sacred robe that, although he was well aware of the deception, he still broke off his tusks and gave them to the hunter.{ The earliest sculptured figures of the elephant in India are said to be in the cave of Lomas Rishi in Behar, and are believed to date from 250 B. C., the time of King *Friedrich Hirth, “The Ancient History of China to the end of the Chou Dynasty,” New York, 1908, pp. 121, 214; Hu-nan-fang-wu-chi, Ch. viii, p. 9. {Hirth, op cit. tAndrews, “The Elephant in Art and Industry,” in the Journal of Indian Art and In- dustry, Vol. X, p. 63. ‘uf “MOOdAVUE *S SHTUVHO "Ad JO ASALANOD NOTAGO OLdVO LSOF-SLINVHda Tad AIIM * *s aaa ELEPHANTS, HISTORICAL 139 Asoka.* On a fragment of the Buddhist Rail we have a decidedly humorous treatment, an elephant being utilized by a troupe of monkey dentists to extract a particularly obstinate tooth by means of a long rope or cord attached to this. Another Buddhist legend relates that in one of the trans- formations of Gautama Buddha he assumed the form of an elephant known by the name of Sattan Sin Min. His sudden disappearance was regarded as desertion by his consort, who prayed that in the next transmigration of her soul a signal vengeance might be granted to her. She was born again as queen of the king of Benares, and one day, pretend- ing to be severely ill, she declared that nothing could cure her of her malady except an ivory earring. A hunter was immediately sent out to secure tusks and got those of the transformed Buddha. The coveted earring was duly made and the queen’s thirst for revenge and her vanity were grati- fied at the same time. This was the origin of ivory carving in Burma.t Indeed, the elephant appears quite often m Buddhist legend. For instance, we read in the “Kullavagga”’ that there was at Rajagaha an elephant named Nalagira, very fierce and a manslayer. To compass the destruction of the Buddha, Devadatta went to the elephant stables in Raja- gaha and said to the elephant keepers: “I, my friends, am a relative of the Rajah and able to advance a man occupying a low position to a high position, and to order an increase of rations or of pay; therefore, my friends, when Gautama Buddha shall have arrived at this carriage-road, then loose the elephant Nalagira and let him go down the road.” The *Andrews, op. cit., p. 63. fAndrews. op. cit., Pl. XCIII. tH. S. Pratt, ‘Ivory Carving in Burma,” the Journal of Indian Art and Industry, Vol. IX, No. 75, p. 59; July, 1901. 1440 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT elephant keepers agreed to do so, and when the Buddha, surrounded by his disciples, reached the spot, the elephant was loosed and charged toward him “with uplifted trunk, and with its tail and ears erect.” The disciples were panic- stricken, but the Buddha reassured them, and “he caused the sun of his love to pervade the elephant Nalagira,” so that the animal, lowering its trunk, went quietly up to the Buddha, who stroked its forehead with his right hand. Completely tamed, the once ferocious beast returned to its quarters, and the people, filled with admiration, cried out: ‘They can be tamed by sticks and goads and whips, but the great Sage has tamed an elephant without weapon or stick.’’* The elephant is vividly figured in an elaborately carved bas-relief frieze, illustrating a hunting scene, which adorns the great temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, the most re- cent and also the most ornate of the great Buddhist temples in this region. The entire frieze measures 324 ft. in length, and shows about one thousand figures. On the elephant’s neck is seated a mahout, while a warrier armed with bow and arrows is standing, one foot on the animal’s back and the other on a seat it bears, in the art of drawing his bow. This war elephant has its trunk curled back, and head erect, the rather short tusks projecting but little beyond the trunk.t An elephant stylobate, unearthed in 1894 by the Archzo- logical Commissioner, on private land a mile from Anura- dhapura, Ceylon, has just been set up on a lawn before the library building in Colombo. Beneath a broad platform are sculptured as supports thirty-six elephant heads, nine on each of the four sides. The whole work is exceedingly artistic and belongs to the time of the Cinghalese monarchy. *“Kullavagga,” VII, 3, 11, 12; Sacred Books of the East, Vol. XX, Vinaya Texts, Pt. III, trans. by T. W. Rhys Davids and Hermann Oldenberg, Oxford, 1885, pp. 247-250. {Jacob E. Conner, “The Forgotten Ruins of Indo-China,” in the National Geographic Magazine, Vol. XXIII, No. 3, pp. 209-272; illustration of elephant on p. 266 (Four- nereau Collection). ELEPHANTS, HISTORICAL 141 Such elephant-borne platforms are quite usual in the Buddh- ist dagobas of Ceylon, for the elephant plays an important role in Buddhist legend, as it was this animal which an- nounced in a dream to Maya Devi, mother of the celestial Buddha, the coming of the Bodhisattva. This theme was used by many Hindu sculptors whose work may be seen in Amravati and in Southern India.* The popular fancy in some parts of India that the ele- phants of Ceylon were of a superior breed found expression in the story that all other elephants rendered homage to them and would prostrate themselves before them in token of veneration. Another recital concerning Cinghalese ele- phants is to the effect that a couple of centuries ago the East India Company sent some of them as gifts to the Sul- tan of Sulu; as, however, he was unable or unwilling to maintain them, they were landed and let loose at Cape Unsang, Borneo, and are believed to be the progenitors of the wild elephants on that island to-day. Of the kind of obeisance made before the Cinghalese elephant by those of other species, Tavernier declares that “by a natural in- stinct they pay it reverence by placing the ends of the trunk upon the ground and then elevating them.” { The famous white elephants of Burma have shared with those of Siam the repute of being incarnations of the Buddha, or at least of being living memorials of the white elephant of long ago, the form of the last incarnation of Gautama, before his birth in human form and his attamment of the dignity of the Buddha. Hence it is that one of these rare elephants is selected by the priesthood and is accorded religious honour, just as in ancient Egypt the sacred bull Apis was honoured *Gerard A. Joseph, “The Elephant Stylobate in the Colombo Museum,” in reprint from “Spolia Zeylanica,” Vol. VIII, Pl. XXX, June, 1912; pp. 141, 142. {See “‘Travels in India of Jean Baptiste Tavernier,” trans. by Dr. Valentine Ball, London, 1889. Vol. II, p. 317, text and note citing Fryer’s “Account,” Calcutta; see also note pp. 318, 319, 1422 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT and even worshipped at Memphis, the death of one of these bulls being immediately followed by the selection and in- stallation of another in its place, to which the divine spirit was believed to have transferred its abode. One of the latest members of this Burmese dynasty of elephants, perhaps the last member, was chosen about 1806, and was still living in 1856, when Col. Henry Yule visited Ava, and was then seen by him im all the glory of its gorgeous trappings, of which we have the following description :* “The headstall was of fine red cloth studded with rubies and diamonds; the driving hook was of crystal tipped with gold, with a stem of pearls banded with rubies; the harness was made of bands of gold and crimson set with large bosses of pure gold; a golden plate inscribed with his titles was worn on his forehead, and a gold crescent set with large gems between the eyes. A minister of state waited on him and shoes were removed on going into his royal presence. A territory was assigned for his support.”’ The first Burmese war necessitated the withdrawal of the elephant’s subsidy, which had to be used for military ex- penses, but the king sought to avert the wrath this might have aroused in the heart of the royal beast by personally laying before it a petition craving pardon for the unavoidable offence, and promising full restitution as soon as possible. For better protection the elephant was removed to Manda- lay, and is said to have died there on the day after the British forces took possession of that city. This must have strength- ened the conviction of the Burmese of the exceptional char- acter of this chosen and consecrated elephant, as it proved that the animal could not survive the downfall of the native rule in Burma. The Koran makes mention of the elephant, and, indeed, *Mrs. Ernest Hart, ‘Picturesque Burma, Past and Present,” London & Philadelphia, 1897, p. 167. ELEPHANTS, HISTORICAL 143 one of its suras, or chapters, the 105th, is entitled Surat ul- Fil, “The Chapter of the Elephant.’ It opens with the following verse: “‘Hast thou not seen how thy Lord dealt with The masters of the Elephant?” ‘This alludes to an event that happened in the year of Mohammed’s birth, 571 A. D. Shortly before that time a Christian Ethiopian sovereign, Abraha Ebn, caused a church to be built at Sanaa, designing that this should become a centre of pil- grimage for the Arabs, diverting the stream of pilgrims from the Kaaba at Mecca. This proved to be the case, and the Koreish tribe, which had charge of what had so long been regarded by the Arabs as a kind of national sanctuary, sought to stem the tide of desertion by sending a man to defile the Christian church, and thus rob it of its sacred character in the eyes of the pilgrims. The vile attempt succeeded, but the anger of Abraha was so enkindled thereby that he raised an army and set forth to destroy the Kaaba. To strike terror into the hearts of the Arabs by what to them would be a new and unaccustomed enemy he took with him thirteen war elephants. However, Allah did not fail to protect the sacred shrine, for when the invaders neared the city of Mecca the elephant on which Abraha was riding refused to advance farther, kneeling down when an attempt was made to force him to enter the city. This checked the attack, and soon an im- mense flock of birds appeared in the heavens, hovered above the hostile army and dropped death-dealing stones upon it, and a torrential rain caused a flood that swept away most of the soldiers who were not struck by the stones. Thus the attack failed and the Kaaba was preserved. As the same word is used in Arabic to signify “‘small stones” and “small- pox,” a rationalistic explanation of this recital has been that an epidemic of smallpox, then appearing for the first time in Arabia, was the real cause of Abraha’s defeat. The leg- 144 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT end, marvellous as it is in its present form, is thought to have some foundation in fact, as the sura reciting it was composed by Mohammed not more than fifty-four years after the date of the supposed happening.* The curious fancy, often repeated by medieval writers, that the elephant’s legs were jointless, so that the animal could not lie down, is already found in Cesar’s Commentaries (of the elk) and also in Pliny (Hist. Nat., viii, 39). It also appears in the Alexandrian Greek writing called ‘‘Physiol- ogus,” which in the form now extant belongs probably to the third or fourth century of our era, although this is doubt- less based upon a much earlier original, from which Pliny (23-79 A. D.) and possibly even Cesar (100-44 B. C.) may have derived their information. An indication of the possi- ble source of this tale is found by Dr. Berthold Laufer in a Chinese work of the Sung period which gives a story told by a seafaring man to Wu Shi-kao, a physician of the T’ang period. Here we have to do, not with the elephant, but with the rhinoceros, of which it is said that the front legs “were straight without joints,” and that the animal there- fore slept “by leaning against the trunk of a tree.”” Taking a perfidious advantage of this interesting ‘peculiarity, “‘the maritime people’ when seeking to capture a rhinoceros would set up on a mountain path structures of decayed timber. When a rhinoceros, taking one of them for a tree trunk, confidingly selected it as his upright bed, the rotten timber would give way under his weight and he would topple in front without being able for a long time to rise. “Then,” we are told, “they attack and kill it,’ and were thus able to obtain the much-prized horn.f *See George Sale, “‘The Koran,” Philadelphia, 1853, p. 499 (sura 105), and also J. M. Rodwell, “El Koran,”’ London, 1876, p. 20. +Dr. Berthold Laufer, “Arabic and Chinese Trade in Walrus and Narwhal Ivory,” Leyden, 1913, pp. 49-52; reprinted from the T’oung-Pao, Vol. XTY. ELEPHANTS, HISTORICAL 145 The tale given in ‘“‘Physiologus,”’ referring to the elephant, runs as follows:* “When the elephant has fallen he cannot rise, for his knees have no joints. But how does he fall? When he wants to sleep he leans against a tree, and thus he sleeps. The Indians familiar with this peculiarity of the elephant saw the tree a bit. The elephant comes to lean toward it, and as he draws near to the tree, it falls to the ground, taking him with it. After falling he is not able to rise. He begins to scream. One elephant, and then twelve others arrive to help him—in vain, until at last the small elephant appears, lays his trunk around him and lifts him.”’ In this form of the recital Doctor Laufer thinks that the elephant has been arbitrarily substituted for the Indian rhinoceros, of which something similar is also told by the Arab merchant, Soleiman, who travelled in India in 851 A.D. As the “‘Physiologus,” in the form it has come down to us, always gives a symbolic Christian interpretation to its reci- tals, so here the fallen elephant represents Adam, the twelve elephants who vainly strive to help him, the twelve minor prophets, and by the small elephant through whose aid he is finally rescued is signified Christ. That war elephants were only to be found in India up to the time of Alexander the Great appears to be fairly well established, at least so far as Western literary sources go. In his ‘Historia Animalium,” Aristotle states that the Indians employed in this way both male and female ele- phants. Nevertheless it is quite possible that some of the African princes had war elephants before this time. From Arrian (Lib. III) we learn, indeed, that some fifteen Indian *E. Peters, “Der griechische Physiologus und seine orientalischen Uebersetzungen,” Berlin, 1898, p. 39. Cited in Doctor Laufer’s paper. {Dr. Berthold Laufer, “Arabic and Chinese Trade in Walrus and Narwhal Ivory,” Leyden, 1913, p. 51. Reprinted from the T’oung-Pao, Vol. XIV. 146 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT elephants, with Indian mahouts, were in the army of Darius when he was defeated at Arbela by Alexander, and when the latter was approaching the city of Susa the Persian satrap sent many gifts to him to secure his favour, among which were twelve elephants that Darius had secured from India.* While this shows that to a very moderate extent these ani- mals were beginning to be utilized for warlike purposes in Persia, it essentially confirms the statement that India was still the home of the war elephant. The Greek writer Arrian, who recounted the history of Alexander’s campaigns, notes in his “‘ Tactics” that already at that period the tusks of the Indian war elephants were armed with sharp-pointed iron, both to render their thrust more deadly and to protect them from wear.{ The elephant on which the Indian king Porus rode when he encountered the Greeks of Alexander was said to have been so well trained and so intelligent that it drew out with its trunk the javelins which wounded Porus, and feeling that its master’s strength was failing and that he was about to collapse, the animal knelt down to prevent him from falling to the ground. This is the story told by Plutarch in his *Solertia Animalium,” but Quintus Curtius (Lib. VIII, cap. 25) gives a less romantic version, stating that the ele- phant only obeyed the accustomed signal to kneel down given by his mahout, and adds that the other war elephants, seeing this, did the same, thus rendering their capture by the Greeks an easy task.t According to a legend current in the first century of our era, Alexander dedicated to the Sun one of the boldest of the elephants he had captured from Porus in his Indian cam- *See Gisberti Cuperi, ““De elephantis in nummis obviis,” Hage Comitum, 1719, cols. 29-44, + “Arriani, Techne Taktike,” II, 4, in Arriani, “Scripta Minores,” ed. Hercher and Eberhard, Lipsiae, 1885, p. 105. {Gisberti Cuperi, ““De elephantis in nummis obviis,” Hagee Comitum, 1719, col. 44. ELEPHANTS, HISTORICAL 147 paign, and had its tusks adorned with gold bands on which were inscribed the words in Greek: “‘ Alexander, son of Zeus, dedicates Ajax to Helios,” showing that he had named this elephant after a Homeric hero renowned for his courage and fortitude. It was related that this same elephant was still living in the time of Domitian, four hundred or more years after the battle with Porus, and no one could tell how old he might then have been.* The story is, of course, quite apocryphal in what concerns the elephant’s marvellous longevity at least, for two hundred years is regarded as the extreme age limit this animal very occasionally attains. The splendid funeral car in which the remains of Alexander the Great were borne from Babylon to Egypt was adorned with representations of elephants,{ and it has been conject- ured, though without any material proof, that the generally exact description given by Aristotle of the elephant resulted from his having had the opportunity to see a specimen sent him by his former pupil, Alexander. Ina magnificent street pageant that Ptolemy Philadelphus (Ptolemy IT, 309-247 B. C.) offered to the citizens of Alexan- dria, the most impressive feature was a colossal figure of Bacchus, twelve cubits in height, seated upon an elephant, on whose neck was a satyr five cubits high; accompanying and following this came Silenus, nymphs, satyrs, ete., the usual train of Bacchus.{ In view of the immense propor- tions of the Bacchus image, it seems that the elephant must have been an artificial one, made of proportionate size. Plato in his Critias (written about 400 B. C.), reciting the fable of the Island of Atlantis, which some have conjectured *Gisberti Cuperi, ““De elephants in nummis obviis,” Hageze Comitum, 1719, col. 44, citing Philostrati ““De vita Apollonii,’’ Lib. II, cap. 6. {Diodorus Siculus, Lib. XVIII. tGisberti Cuperi, ‘““De elephantis in nummis obviis,” Hagze Comitum, 1719, col. 56, citing Callizenus Rhodius apud Athenaeus, Lib. V. 1448 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT to be a dim tradition of a long-lost continent in the Atlantic Ocean actually existent in time long past, relates that among the animals to be found there were many elephants, and adds that the elephant was the “largest and most voracious” of all creatures. There is a bare possibility that this Greek philosopher may have seen one or more of these animals during his sojourn in Egypt, whither he journeyed in the pursuit of his philosophical studies. That elephants were not quite unfamiliar objects to the Egyptians at a very much earlier period is testified to by the inscriptions. The inde- fatigable traveller and close observer, Herodotus, writing about a century before Plato’s time, notes (Lib. IV, cap. 191) the presence of elephants in a region to the westward of Egypt. Thus we see that at least the more educated among the Greeks could scarcely have been ignorant of their exist- ence, although since the disappearance of the extinct species none of these animals trod the soil of Europe before that Alexander the Great perhaps sent as a gift to his master Aristotle. This, at least, is the conclusion forced upon us by a study of the written records. Wonderful tales are told of the immense number of war elephants used in ancient times in India, and the great Hindu epic, the ‘“‘ Mahabharata,” leads the way by giving as the component ‘parts of an ideal army, 109,500 infantry, 65,610 cavalry, 21,870 chariots, and 21,870 elephants; cer- tainly a very efficient commissariat would be required to supply nourishment for a like assemblage of these huge pachyderms. Apart, however, from such poetic exaggera- tions, the sober statements of Greek and Roman historians and geographers are remarkable enough. Thus Strabo* (first century B. C.) asserts that the Seres had 5,000 ele- phants in their service, and Plutarch (ca. 46-120 A. D.)7 *Lib. XV, cap. 1. TVita Alexandris, cap. 62. ELEPHANTS, HISTORICAL 149 tells us that the Gangarides and Prasians sent 6,000 elephants to oppose the advance of Alexander after his defeat of Porus on the Hydaspes, in 327 B. C. The best authorities, how- ever, believe that Porus himself had only about a hundred elephants in this battle.* The first view the Romans had of elephants was in 280 B. C., when Pyrrhus, King of Epirus (318-272 B. C.), invaded Italy, and for a time, by means of his “‘ Pyrrhic vic- tories,’ carried everything before him. Then came Hanni- bal’s (247-183 B. C.) invasion of Italy, elephants forming an important and much-dreaded element of his army. He is said on one occasion to have offered a Roman prisoner his freedom if he would engage in single combat with an elephant. The Roman accepted, and succeeded in killing the elephant —by cutting off its trunk, as it appears. But the wily Carthaginian was unwilling that the prestige of his elephants should be destroyed by this news reaching the Romans, and therefore, while keeping the letter of his promise and freeing the prisoner, he sent some horsemen in pursuit of him, who soon overtook him and effectually silenced this inconvenient witness. ft A somewhat curious circumstance is that Roman writers state that the African elephants were not only much less courageous than those from Asia, but also of much smaller size, so that at the battle of Thyatira in 189 B. C., between Scipio Asiaticus and Antiochus the Great (238-187 B.C.), the Romans did not dare to expose their African elephants to the attack of the Asiatic elephants of Antiochus, not merely because the former were fewer in number, but, as Pomponius Mela expressly states, because even if equally numerous the African elephants could not withstand the onset of Asiatic ones, which greatly surpassed them in size *Armandi, “ Histoire militaire des éléphants,”’ Paris, 1843, p. 35. {See Plinii, Historia Naturalis, Lib. VIII, cap. 6. 150 IVORY°ARD THE ELEPHANT and spirit.* The possession of greater courage in battle on the part of the Asiatic breed may perhaps be explained by their better training in warlike operations. Pliny, indeed, declares that African elephants were terrified at the very sight of their Asiatic cousins.| That, however, the latter should be the larger is entirely contrary to modern experience, and can only be explained by the conjecture that the elephants secured by the Romans in Northern Africa were distinctly inferior to those from the equatorial regions. The Romans had good opportunity to compare the differ- ent races as the war elephants of Pyrrhus, the first they en- countered, and later those of the Asiatic potentates they overcame were of the Asiatic race, while those led against them by the Numidian kings Jugurtha (d. 104 B. C.) and Juba (d. 46 B. C.) were Africans.t This latter type appears on almost all the Roman coins bearing representations of the elephant, as, indeed, African elephants were the only ones used—and these but rarely—by the Romans in military operations.** It may be noted in this connection that on coins the figures symbolizing the province of Africa almost invariably bear as a headcovering the scalp and trunk, though rarely the tusks, of the elephant.§ The Asiatic coins naturally offer us the Asiatic type of the animal. Pliny tells us, on the authority of Mucianus, thrice consul, of a learned elephant which had been taught the Greek characters, and wrote (or spelled out) the following words in this language: “I have written and I have dedicated the *Pomponii Mele, “De choregraphico,” Lib. II, cap. 7. {Plinii, “‘Hist. Nat.,” Lib. VII, cap. 9. Atlian (hist. anm., cap. 8) states that some Indian elephants reached the height of 7 cubits, about 13 ft. tArmandi, op. cit., p. 278. **Armandi, op. cit., p. 3. §Armandi, op. cit., p. 18. ELEPHANTS, HISTORICAL 151 Celtic spoils.”** We may conjecture that the animal picked out the letters with its trunk, and many of us have seen trained horses, etc., perform similar tricks under expert guidance. Writing about a century later than Pliny, #lian also notes the performance of an educated elephant which could write out letters on a tablet with its trunk. He admits, however, that the hand of the trainer was so placed as to be able to guide the trunk, but the animal seemed to be intent on its task, and appeared to understand perfectly whatit was doing. In another performance a troupe of elephants, with trappings of different colours, first executed a series of dances to the sound of musical instruments, and then took their places in proper order at immense tables, proceeding to eat and drink in imitation of a group of banqueters. { The Italian traveller, Ludovico di Barthema, of Bologna, who journeyed through the East at the beginning of the sixteenth century, described the offensive and defensive armour of an Indian war elephant. The head and trunk were protected by a covering of mail, and as a weapon of defence, a long sword, having a blade as broad as a man’s hand, was firmly attached to the trunk. The animal carried seven men, each armed with bow, lance, sword, and shield. According to this writer’s report, the female elephant was both stronger and fiercer than the male of the species. The price paid for one of these animals varied from land to land, in some places it was only fifty ducats, while in others it attained the sum of one thousand or even two thousand ducats. { The Mogul emperors of the sixteenth and seventeenth *Plinii, ‘Historia Naturalis,’ Lib. VIII, Cap. IIJ; Harduin notes that the Greek words would form a perfect metrical line. tAeliani, “Natura animalium,” Lib. II, Cap. XI. }‘‘Itinerario de Lodovico Varthema,” ed. by Alfredo Bacchi della Lega, Bologna, 1885, pp. 118-121; first edition, Rome, 1510. ; 152 IVORY; ARPT HE ELEPHANT centuries undoubtedly maintained great troupes of elephants, Jehangir stating in his memoirs that he had 12,000 large ele- phants, and 1,000 smaller ones for carrying baggage and munitions. The one on which he himself rode was of extraor- dinary size and courage and was richly caparisoned with cloth of gold embroidered with precious stones; on it the monarch had bestowed the name Indra Gaja, or ‘‘ Elephant of Indra.” Accord- PYCA ing to Captain ee | 2 Hawkins, how- ay SENAY WA zx 3 ever, who visited / Agra in 1609, of these elephants, 7,000 of which were males and 5,000 females, only 2,000 were trained for war.* Nadir Shah captured three hundred war, or chain, elephants as they were : : — TIE x X¢ e es A fe SUD “ik ea RTE Tue Evernant. Drawing from a late twelfth-century MS. : in the Harleian collection. (MS. Harl. No. 4751, fol. 8 verso.) SOmetimes called, at the taking of Delhi in 1739, and later sent two of these as a present to the Sultan in Constantinople. These animals not only had been trained to war, but had also been taught to dance at the sound of an instrument.t One of the queer ideas entertained by Indian elephant trainers is that if one puts gold and silver in a bowl of water and bathes a refractory *Ibid., pp. 453, 454. {John Ranking, ‘Historical researches on the wars and sports of the Mongols and Romans,” London, 1826, p. 99. ELEPHANTS, HISTORICAL 153 elephant with the water, he will obey the goad with alacrity.* The first elephant seen in Germany is said to have been one sent by Caliph Haroun al Rashid to Emperor Charle- magne. The animal was safely landed at Pisa in 801 A. D., but there was considerable delay in conveying it to Charle- magne’s court at Aquisgranum (Aachen, Aix-la-Chapelle), where it arrived only in the ensuing year. Its death in 810 is duly chronicled in an old record. In or about 1254 Eng- land was also favoured with the gift of an elephant from Louis IX of France, St. Louis, to Henry III of England, of which Polydore Virgil says it was an animal most rare in England (rarissime in Anglia).t The great world war has brought into use many new and startling methods and inventions, Tue ELEPHANT as represented in a MS. illustra- but it has also witnessed tion to a twelfth-century copy of an Alexander : c romance.(MS. Reg. 15, E. VI.) a revival of certain de- fensive weapons of earlier centuries, notably of the metal shield as a means of individual protection. The innovations have not, however, been confined to inani- mate objects, for in one case at least an elephant has been utilized by the Germans in the construction of military works. This elephant was brought to Breslau from the Hagenbeck zodlogical garden at Hamburg. Of course, in certain parts of central and southern Asia, especially in *Armandi, “Histoire militaire des éléphants,”’ Paris, 1843, pp. 528, 529. fAngl. Hist., Lib. XVI. Ae , x