64 
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Ivory Thrones and Elephants 
(Continued from page 62) 
the palms of connoisseurs to itch. 
But who seeks to outrun curators and 
connoisseurs? We simple-hearted folk 
may find our ecstasies in a Chinese card- 
case of exquisite workmanship, a Japa¬ 
nese statuette of beauty and grace, an 
old French chessman that perhaps the 
curator might have snatched up had he 
seen it first, a Roman stylus some truth¬ 
ful traveler—let us believe there are 
such!—picked up on the fields that 
skirt the Appian Way. Did Terence use 
it or did Tacitus, Procopius or Properti¬ 
us; or did Suetonius keep it sharpened 
to his record of scandal? Who knows! 
After all the pleasure in things is meas¬ 
ured by their appeal to the imagination; 
at least I must conjecture so, for I know 
an old lady who finds infinite delight in 
collecting bone buttons, and an old gen¬ 
tleman who exhibits an equal zest for 
current banknotes. 
Elephant Tales 
And so with this little group of ivories 
with which I am amusing myself this 
rainy day. Did I say amusing myself? 
Well might I add instructing, since they 
invariably lead me to take down from 
their shelf history after history, book 
after Tsook. One day I read all about 
elephants. I had put it off as long as 
seemed decent, for, after gll, did I not 
owe it to Mr. Elephant to study his con¬ 
tribution to my pleasure? I had ex¬ 
pected to be bored. Frankly I was not. 
From Tentobocchus, the Cimbrian Chief 
whose towering height was the marvel 
of Roman chroniclers, down to the Ele- 
phantidcB of modern times the story was 
worth following. It was diverting, too. 
One learns, for instance, from that fas¬ 
cinating volume “Ivory and the Ele¬ 
phant” by Dr. George Frederick Kunz, 
how “a queer African name, or we 
should perhaps rather say designation of 
ivory, is reported by an English officer 
in the Sudan. When a native comes to 
the barracks with ivory articles for sale, 
and is asked ‘Is this ivory?’ he first 
points to his teeth, then puts his hands 
together at the side of his face and says 
‘Dead elephant,’ this term being in gen¬ 
eral use among these natives for ivory.” 
This is but one of the many stories the 
reader will find recorded in the book I 
mentioned. Alfred Maskell’s “Ivories” 
in the Connoisseur’s Library series, is¬ 
sued in America, is another volume in¬ 
teresting and instructive alike, though 
neither so late nor so comprehensive as 
Dr. Kunz’s “Ivory and the Elephant.” 
On another day I have taken down 
from its shelf old Theophilus’s “Treatise 
Upon Divers Arts,” a 12th Century 
handbook of technique, therein to read 
the entertaining chapter “Of Sculpturing 
Ivory.” There he saith, “in sculpturing 
ivory, first form a tablet of the magni¬ 
tude you may wish, and superposing 
chalk, portray with a lead the figures 
according to your pleasure, and with a 
pointed instrument mark the lines that 
they may appear; then carve the 
grounds as deeply as you wish with dif¬ 
ferent instruments, and sculp the figures 
or other thing you please according to 
your invention and skill. But should 
you wish to ornament your work with 
a leaf of gold, lay on glue of the bladder 
of the fish which is called the ‘huso,’ 
and the leaf being cut into smalt pieces, 
overlay it as you please. Fashion also 
round or ribbed handles from ivory, and 
make an opening through the middle 
lengthwise, then with various files prop¬ 
er for this work enlarge this opening 
that it may be inside as outside and let 
it be smooth everywhere and moderate¬ 
ly thin; and portray flowerets around 
it very finely, or animals, birds, or 
dragons twisted together by the necks 
and tails, and transpierce the grounds 
with very fine instruments, then sculp 
as gracefully and as artistically as you 
may be able. Which, being done, fill 
the opening inside with the oak wood 
which you cover with thin gilt copper, 
so that through all the grounds the gold 
can be seen; and so two pieces being 
joined in from a particle of the same 
ivory, close the hole before and behind, 
you will fasten these on with ivory pegs, 
so cunningly, that no one may be able 
to see how the gold is laid in. After 
this make an opening in the small piece 
in front in which the blade is placed, the 
handle of which, being heated, can be 
easily inserted because the wood is with¬ 
in, and it will stand fast; make also a 
plain handle, and, according to its size, 
make an opening in which the blade 
should be placed, and join the wood 
carefully into it, and according as the 
wood is fashioned so cause the handle 
of the knife to be made. Then pound 
some clear Thus into the, finest powder, 
and fill the opening of the handle with 
it, and envelop the blade near the handle 
with a wet cloth, in a threefold manner, 
and placing it before the furnace warm 
this handle until it slightly glows, and 
immediately fix it carefully in the handle 
that it may be well joined in, and it 
will stand firmly.” 
Pieces From the Past 
I think I should like this object as 
well as the daggers of Moses’ time! 
But it would be of Theophilus’s, the 
time when Greece was the painter of the 
continent, Tuscany the enameller, Arabia 
the worker in metals, Italy the jeweler, 
France the worker in glass, Spain the 
chemist, industrious Germany anxious in 
acquiring dexterity, or knowledge in all, 
when all these artists had constructed 
and were adorning the church of St. 
Mark at Venice, and were elsewhere oc¬ 
cupied in ’iVestern Europe in “writing” 
or painting the sacred histories in the 
churches in terms which were in that 
time synonymous so that the illiterate 
might read the examples set before them, 
a time that preceded the glories of the 
Renaissance to follow. Ah, good old 
Theophilus! How carefully you set 
down the arts of the past! How easy 
you make it all seem! But I turn to 
this little globe of pierced ivory, con¬ 
taining globe within globe, exquisitely, 
patiently and marvelously wrought, and 
I realize it is not so easy after all! 
Perhaps those very difficulties that be¬ 
set your followers have added charm 
to the bits of their work that have come 
to bless my leisure! 
At any rate, I have no guilty feeling 
of extravagance in the matter, for they 
are worth their weight in gold to me, 
and cost but their weight in metal less 
precious, since I have been so fortunate 
as to have picked them up in my travels 
and in my browsings for the collector's 
proverbial song—ah, who that collects 
begrudges its notes! 
