Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1891-04-09


A storage room for many Years accu.
mutation OF knickknacks, notions ana
brio a-brac OF every description, dusty
and dingy, is always full Of interest. 1t
was a Cincinnati Timcs-Star reporters
good fortune 70 stumble on 70 two Of
these places. They were the workshops
of ivory carvers and wood-turners.
One was Uttered with tools Of every
shane. some covered with the dust OF
twenty years; all sorts Of fancy shaped
pieces Of ivory, wood and rubber; IN
fact, a general collection, very interest
ing and hard to describe, filed the shop.
Noticeable above all was the yellow cat,
the queen Of the shop, that dozed ma
jestically on the workman's desk. This
shop belonged TO plensant-faccd, rather
old German, who for twenty-five years
has worked at his same trade in this
same warm room. lie is an ivory carver,
a worker in fancy woods and rubber,
and in fact in any material out of which
can be fashioned something artistic.
The trade OF the ivory carver is but a.
shade of what it used to be. The yari-
Gus machines of modern invention do the
work that formerly gave employment To
scores of these artists. And another
thing is the cheap taste that has de-
veloped. Bone and celluloid work sat
isles the majority nowadays, little be-
| ing done in real ivory.
This ivory artist learned his trade in
the old country and came TO Cincinnati
to follow it up, and this was twenty-five.
years ago. Then the demand for artis-
tically carved ivory was good. No such
| institutions as celluloid were thought of.
- IL iplu
| silver work, &c.-nothing was too fine.
But now this is all changed. The work
| of the carver is confined principally to-
peeL5.ders, paper knives, needles, dice
and n few such articles, aud any elabor-
ate piece Of work is only to fill an order.
| The carver talked remorsefully OF the
decline of this speciality.
mo" said he, with shake OF his
gray head. II can't make speciality
of ivory carving like would. People
want only the cheap imitation now.
When | first came could not do the
work, aud it was fine work, too.
Il learned my trade ia Germany,
where most all of us did. What else do
dol / do most anything with fancy
woods. use lockwood, rosewood and
ebony principally. Police clubs canes,
inlaid work, electric supplies, hardwood
handles. All sorts of gambling layouts
make, only TO order. though. make
loaded dice when ordered make some
billiard balls, too, but not many. Here
| is piece of walrus tusk. | used 10
work in that. too. We use only the oeit-
side of warus bone, for the heart is
too yellow. | also shape horns and dec
crate them and work in amber. Andmy
cat here" concluded ne, lis very es-
sential adjunct of the shop. She kills
the rats, and these rats, if they had
chance wonld cat the yarnish from all my
| fine work"
Where do you get your ivory"
"From New York clty, and all Of the
wood use comes from there That is
where most all OF the fine ivory carving
is done now"
us ivory work cheaper now than it
wasp
1.-The work has to be cheaper, but the
ivory costs about the same"
The other antique shop discovered was
on a smaller scale There was not the
varied collection of fancy articles to be
SEEN The workman has given up fancy
carving altogether. He turns billiard
balls for some blg firm. He works in
hard wood at odd times. Here, too,
There wero numerous r~mbiing dsvices
discovered. Dice, large dice the size of
q walnut, turned from ivory. were being
spotted. This carver talked in the same
strain as the others.
Il devote my line altogether to billiard
balls and some little wood turning. Il
used to be paying business, this ivory
carving, but that was years ago"