San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1893-03-18
IVORY AND ITS Uses.
WHY CARVED ORNAMENTS IN IVORY
ARE VERY EXPENSIVE.


Tusks Has Not Greatly Changed in Re
cent Nears-A Costly Luxury.
When WhiteIaw Reid was in search Of
workman to decorate apartments at
Opmr Farm with rich and beautiful an
hques brought over from Europe he
found that there was but one man in
America who could do such work. and
he lay sick. Had Mr.. Reid been in search
OF skilled ivory Carvers he would have
found them almost as scarce. There are
not above three or four ivory caryers of
approved skill in New York. and hardly
SO many in all the rest of the country.
The men who do such work are paid
high wages the yea" round, whether
busy or idle. They are Frrnchmen. Ger
mans and Italians Of the three the
Italians are perhaps the most skillful.
since ivory carving has been an art in a
high degree Of perfection among the
Italians for centuries. The most famous
ivory carver living however, is French
man, MorcaU Nauther. Few of his
masterpieces have been seen in America.
though two We're sold at the famous
Morgan art sale Of few years ago. and
twomorc, held at great price, are now
in the possession Of a noted American
jeweler.
The ivory Carvers of this country do
little or nothing in the East Indian or
japanese manner, nor do they occupy
themselves with figure work. Their chief
employment Is in producing decorative
toilet and stationery articles. The rage
for stained and carved ivory is of recent
growth in the United States. and the de-
mand for such articles is not large. as
they are more costly than the same
articles in silver would be. They were
produced to tickle the faded aesthetic
palates Of the rich and luxurious. and
only those who may trife away what
they will indulge themselves to any
considerable degree in carved ivory.
In all such articles the cost of the raw
material is small in comparison with
that of the labor. Billiard balls are
costly because they contain large guam
titles of the finest ivory cut from the
best part Of the tusk The labor cost of
billiard balls is trifing, as they are
turned by machinery and rapidly. Thus
it often happens that a single small arti-
Gle, richly stained and carved, will cost
five times as much as Il billiard ball con-
tanning ten times the weight of ivory.
The Carvcrs of ivory use much the same
tools as the wood CarvCrs, but of lighter
and more delicate make. The work is
extremely tedious and laborious.
The carving is usually done in low re-
lief and the subjects are such as are
suitable to this treatment-Persian de-
signs i'll delicate curves, the cactus, with
some varieties of palm, and hints caught
from those marvelously simple but ar
tistic carvings of the Alaskan Indians.
The ivory is stained slightly, so as to
bring out the design, and is permitted to
absorb moisture, which it readily does,
in order to give it that fresh look COM
mon in newly manufactured articles of
ivory. The art of staining ivory is q
secret guarded well by the carvers.
Some notion of the cost of ivory cary
ing may be had from the fact that, while
a hand mirror framed in plaini ivory may
be had for ten or twelve dollars, a mir
ror in carved ivory may cost 800 or
more The small articles in carved
ivory cost from FIVE to twenty-five dol
lars, and a toilet set in that material
may fetch as high as 500. The Ameri-
can climate, with its extremes of heat
and Cold is very trying upon ivory, and