26 
House & Garden 
An ivory relief of a joust¬ 
ing scene, illustrating 
French workmanship of 
the Hth Century 
IVORY THRONES and ELEPHANTS 
Examples of an Ancient Carving Art, from Combs and French Fans 
to Cabinets of Nippon and Chinese Screens 
GARDNER TEALL 
G old, silver, ivory—how inseparable they 
are with History’s story, comedy and 
tragedy, romance and commerce, inertia and 
progress—gold, silver and ivory! I am in¬ 
clined to believe that the sins of the world have 
brought upon us, at least the most of us, the 
inability to receive our initial conception of 
gold and silver in other than immediate mental 
terms of the coinage of the realm. Alas that 
it is so! Alak-a- 
■day! Would that 
the mention of gold 
brought instantly to 
our thought the glory 
of sunlight, the 
jewels of fairy prin¬ 
cesses, the skill of 
Saint Eligius, the 
craft of Benvenuto 
Cellini, the bracelet 
of Helen of Troy; or 
that the mention of 
silver would first 
evoke for us mem¬ 
ories of purling 
streams, moonlight 
on the jasmine 
flowers, a cup from' 
Delhi, the Ardagh 
Brooch, that of Tara! 
But ivory, magic 
word! When it is 
(Above) Of the 
XVI period, an ivory 
fan decorated with 
miniature paintings 
of remarkable beauty 
(Upper center) The 
grater or rasp is an¬ 
other specimen of in¬ 
teresting lith Cen¬ 
tury ivory carving 
spoken who thinks first of the commerce of the 
Congo, or the horrors narrated by Conrad, of 
Barnum’s prowess with Jumbo? Ah no, dear 
Reader, you and I have but to hear it whis¬ 
pered and lo! King Solomon’s throne of ivory, 
with its six steps flanked by the carved lions, 
the tribute of King Hezekiah to the Assyrians 
of couches of ivory —Shinni piri, they called it, 
‘‘Elephant’s teeth,”—hard teeth indeed for the 
King of Judah to 
pull! And did not 
the Prophets Ezekial 
and Amos tell of 
“benches of ivory 
brought out of the 
Isles of Chittim?” I 
suppose the “ivory 
palaces” of the 45th 
Psalm meant ward¬ 
robes, but as long as 
one isn’t sure of it, 
it is comfortable and 
amazing to cling to 
the palace and to 
contemplate the 
enormous wardrobe 
it might have held, 
one far outrivalling 
that of Potsdam! 
When I have vis¬ 
ited the collections 
in the British Mu- 
ly of ivory carved 
with lace-like delicacy 
(Left) An ivory 
French fan once 
owned by Marie An¬ 
toinette. Courtesy 
Metropolitan Museum 
Intricately carved and busy little ■ And then there is a comb with both coarse and fine teeth, the 
figures form the high relief of a decorative design consisting of scenes from the life of Joseph. 
19th Century Chinese brush holder It is Italian work of the lAth Century 
The cardcase carved by a Chinese 
workman of the late IMh Century 
brings out the ivory’s full beauty 
