China and Japan.—Practically all the carved ivory emanating from China consists of ob jects prepared specially for the Western markets. Her native °puzzle° balls, which are so carved that a series of different size balls, one within the other, and made of a single piece of ivory (seamless), are familiar objects and proof of skill and patience. Models of ships (sampans), dwellings, gardens, seen in mu seums, are of delicate minute construction. China's Buddhist gods, of course, appear in ivory. While the work of the Celestials in ivory is cold and appeals little to the west erner, Japanese ivories keenly interest us. In her netsukis we find a fund of pictorial art, diminutive nature in every detail, idealistic and grotesque, all in perfection though of micro scopic proportion. These intricate pictures in relief in buttons are the surprise and tion of all art students, and their scope in depiction and classification take pages to de scribe. The Japanese inros (medicine or candy boxes) with their tiny drawers, so full of artistry in decoration, displayed in the museum.. with the netsukes (to which they belong) al ways attract admiringattention. Japanese figurines and groups (okimono), their shrines, screen; sword-scabbards, etc., all show the perfection born only with the enthusiasm of an artist, and the names of these clever carvers have survived in honor in their land.
Recent Work—The uses of ivory in strictly modern days have been chiefly confined to brush-backs, billiard balls, paper cutters. etc., but good art work still is done in Europe in this medium in such centres. as Dieppe and Paris. And, in the quiet of the studio a num ber of artists of this and last done fine art work in ivory, some allied to the gold and silversmiths. Moreau-Vauthier
trained a number of pupils in this art; the shops of Froment-Murice and Falize (Paris) have created talented ivory work. Among artists of in this line figure such names as Soitoux, gurus Belleteste, Meugniot, Pradier, Descrieux, Baron Triqueti (high-altar at the Invalides), Rosset, all in France. In Italy, Constantin Meunier, Giuseppe Bonzanigo (1740-1820) trained pupils. Simart's design for the reproduction of the Minerva of the ancient Greek sculptor Phidias was carried out (reduced) in chrys-elephantine work (gold and ivory) by Froment-Meurice for the 1857 Paris Exposition. Other ivory sculptors of note are the Belgians, Julien Dil lens, Charles van der Stappen, Phillippe Wolf ers, Charles Samuel, Alphonse van Beurden (worked in England), etc. Aside from special ists many leading artists have chosen ivory as a medium for an individual work.
Bibliography.— Cust, A., The Ivory Workers of the Middle Ages' (London 1906) •, Dalton, O. M., (Byzantine Art and Archmology> (Oxford 1911) ; id., of the Ivory Carvings of the Christian Era in the British Museum' (London 1909) • Didron, A. N., 'Inconographie chretienne (Paris 1843) ; Kunz, G. F., and the Elephant' (Garden City, N. Y., ) ' • Labarte, J. des arts industriels> (Paris 1864) •, Linas, C. de, et emaux) (Bruges 1886) ; Maskell, A., 'Ivories' (London 1905) ; Maze-Sancier, 'Le livre des collectionneurs> (Paris 1885) ; Mo linier, E., (Catalogue des ivoires> (Louvre) (Paris 1895-96) ; Montfaucon, B., de, 'L`An tiquite explique et presente en figures' (Paris 1722); Scherer, C., zur Elfenbein plastik seit der Renaissance' (Leipzig 1903) ; Stuhlfaut, G., 'Die christliche Elfenbein plastik> (Freiburg im Breisgau 1896).