Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1892-08-24
A LONDON IVORY SALE.

becomes difficult 70 free ourselves from
the notion, when, looking through
small glass panel in a door, we fin.
what seems to be q lecture theatre
fitted in the familiar manner with row
of desks rising one behind the other
Entering timidly we take our seat
among the boys, many of whom ar,
smoking, and each of whom has il
front of him what looks like an exami
nation paper. and sheet of white
, foolscap for his answers. In the vel
is the lecturer, seated at the table Of
the usual build, and in front of him al
a lower table is a row OF excitablt
young men whom it is evidently adj
visable he should have under his
eye.
"Say twenty five" Gays the lecturer.
And he says it and no one takes any
notice.
"Twenty-four ten," continues the
lecturer. And there is a fiutter of one
white paper, but no one presumes to
make remark.
Twenty four"-s pause-''twenty-
three ten-another pause-"twenty-
three; twenty-five ten; twenty-five, -
In rapid succession-and no one be-
trays the slightest interest in the num-
Ders.
Twenty two ten"-pause. punctua
ated by sneeze twenty -onei'-
pause. Really, gentlemen, L with
draw. l would rather take them home
and boil them for teal
And then there is laugh all round,
as might be expected, for the articles
threatened to be boiled for tea are ele-
phant's tusks, and this is an ivory sale
in the Commercial Sale Rooms. Mine
ing Lane.
"Next lot, says the lecturer, whom
We have now discovered to he bro
ker. "Twentyfour r"-silence.- e.-"Twen-
ty-three ten"-silence-' -''twenty-three, "
Twenty three tenl" says a voice.
from all parts of the room rapid firing
Of successive numbers and tens. failing
of into twenty nine ten-thlrty-
thirty tenl'
"Any advance on thirty temp" asks
the broker. "Any sdvauceP" Knock
goes the hammer. "Yoursr' says the
broker, nodding at man on back
bench. Next lott"
And so it goes on. the broker putting
the goods in at a trial price. and drop
ping by half sovereigns till the buyers
take the chance, and then, outbiddlng
each other. raise the price by half SOW
sreigns to perhaps more than the bro
ker's trial.
-Four times year, in January, April.
July, and October, these ivory sales
are held, and the display of the goods
III the warehouse is one of the strange
sights of London. The floor is crowd
ed with ivory of all sorts and sizes, in
tusks and sections, and odds and ends,
some of it in huge teeth weighing 70
ID. each, some mere trIhes of 20 10.
apiece, some mere pigmy "scrivelloes, a"
and crooked, cracked, hollow, decayed
and broken. On every lot is a big
clumsy number, and every assemblaoe
Of lots has a notice board giving the
broker name and the first and last
numbers of the lots he has to sell. The
wilderness of teeth seems all in move
nent round the gigantic pair of trav-
slling scales in the centre; the curving
;usks are like so many worms, all
strangely scratched and scribed, and
are of all colors from white, through
the browns, to almost black; and an
expert can tell at glance where en- h
came from, and can sort the lots from
.he pink Calcutta to the black West
Coast which comes wrapped up in the
raw hides bearing the mysterious name
of "schroons.
Mr.. Stanley tells Us that in the
Congo basin there are two hundred
thousand elephants, each with so ID.
II ivory il his jaws, the total being
worth hall a million of money; but
,ven that stock would soon be exhaust
I'd if the Congo alone had to fill this
1oor four times a year.
And besides the London sales there
lre sales at Liverpool and Antwerp
md Rotterdam. Most of the Liver
pool ivory comes from the West Coast
)t Africa. and quarter of it goes to
sheffield, quarter to London, and
lalf to Germany, France. and the
United States. To the London sale
he ivory comes from all parts.
But all the ivory does not come from
Africa. A good deal of it comes from
India: and very little of the Indian
worry is obtained without killing the
Inimal, owing to its being the custom
o cut captive elephants tusk every
.en years. From the Malay Peninsula
md the islands thereabouts, there is
air ivory trade direct with China, and
ihe nests of balls, which are the high
,st achievement of ivory turning, are
llmost invariably made from the island
eeth. These balls are a terrible puz-
.le until an hour or SOS careful manip-
llation reveals how they are managed.
BY careful shifting II will be found that
Ill the large holes come opposite to
zach other, and that it is down these
Ihafts that .hs work has been dopo
The Chinaman has made probably
'ourteen holes in the solid ball, dimin
shing as they approach the centre.
Down the walls of these conical shafts
le has spaced out the number Of lay
rs he requires, and, beginning with
he smallest ball, he has cut each layer
rec and carved it. 1t has been a long
OBJ evidently; and as a matter of fact
le has worked five days, on an average,
It each ball, and for his thres months
york he was probably paid at the rate
# five shillings week, which is first.
lass pay for Chinaman.
In Europe the great ivory-carving
own is Dieppe. There Is q wonderful
tory as to two little ships of Dieppe
,oing off on a cruise as far back as
'OOfb ahd fiSiliuR tAo hiiICdA COd5lt
laming Cape Yerd, and Bay of France
md Petit Dieppe, and returning with
pices and ivory, which has ever since
)een carved at the little Norman sea-
)ort. Be this as it may, there is no
loubt as to there having been ivory
arvers at Dieppe for many years, and
rom there the art has spreld to Bou-
ogne, and Csen, and PARIS.
The tusks for billiard ba Is fetch the
highest price in the trade. Ivory
Eeeps white longest if exposed to light
inder a glass shade, but in t. at posi-
ion, as in museums, it dries as it gets
Did, and then it fakes, and has to be
les ored by boiling in gelatine.
There Is process for cntting the
tusks in spiral shsvlngs so as to obtain
Iarge-sized sheets, and some such de-
Tice seems to have been used by the
incients, not only for their tabl is, but
also for the faces ard naked limbs of
their heroic chrys-elephantine or tor
cutie statues, of which we have heard