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. 



