IVORY, ITS SOURCES AND USES. 537 



Among the Scandinavians the tusks of the walrus have long 

 been a source of ivory, and of very good quality too. The spi- 

 rally twisted tusk of the narwhal is the desideratum of the Es- 

 kimo hunter. Asiatic ivory is from India and Ceylon elephants, 

 which are rapidly disappearing. America has some fossil de- 

 posits and " glacial preserves " of mastodon ivories, but they are 

 more sought for museums and antiquarian collections than for 

 any* commercial value. 



The uses of ivory are exceedingly varied. The large cuttings 

 are for veneer, plaques, panels, and portraits ; then billiard balls, 

 knife, cane, umbrella, and brush handles, piano keys, buttons, 

 measuring rules, mathematical scales, statuettes, caskets, chess- 

 men and draughtsmen, furniture decorations, and an endless 

 variety of ornaments and works of art. 



Ivory working is one of the oldest industries. Numerous 

 references occur in the Old Testament which show that the mate- 

 rial was regarded as of great value. It was an element in temple 

 decoration, and is often mentioned among the presents to kings, 

 who employed it for regal state. The ancient Egyptians and 

 Assyrians used it extensively. 



The excavations of Nineveh, a city that dates nearly 2000 

 years B. c., have supplied the British Museum with ivories of 

 very great antiquity, many of them in good preservation, and 

 many others tolerably well restored by boiling in gelatin; all 

 show considerable artistic merit and mastery of the material. 



Solomon had an ivory throne inlaid with gold vide descrip- 

 tion in Chronicles ; and the throne of Penelope, of about the same 

 date, is said to have been of ivory and silver. Those ancient carv- 

 ers attained a delicacy and artistic finish that our modern artists 

 may well envy. 



The later Greeks and Romans carried this gold-and-ivory and 

 ebony-and-ivory work to a degree of splendor which seems in- 

 credible. From their extensive traffic with Persia and Egypt 

 they obtained immense quantities of both Asiatic and African 

 ivories. The Temple of Juno at Olympia contained, among many 

 great works in ivory, the coffer of Cypselus, the bed, the discus, 

 and the statues of Juno, the Hesperides, and Minerva. 



The reputation of the great Phidias was based largely on his 

 gold and ivory sculpture. The Minerva of the Parthenon, forty 

 feet high, and the Olympic Jupiter, fifty- eight feet, evidently sur- 

 passed anything of the kind known to moderns. The pupils of 

 Phidias made a number of those colossal images, in which the 

 nude parts of the human figure were in ivory and the drapery in 

 gold. 



The Romans were equally extravagant ; the gates of the Tem- 

 ple of Apollo, built by Augustus, were of this costly material. 



