ORIENTAL IVORY CARVINGS 105
Khati caste; they are exceedingly painstaking in their work, which is slowly and carefully executed.
Of
this special industry Mr. Kipling treats as follows : "Of equal and,
indeed, superior importance as an industry which may be expected to
support skilled workmen is the wood-inlay of ivory and brass of the
District. The extension of this trade to articles of European use is
mainly due to the efforts of Mr. Coldstream, C. S. For many years
pen-cases, walking-staves, mirror-cases, and the low chauki, or octagonal table common in the Panjab and probably of Arab introduction, have been made here in shisham-wood inlaid
with ivory and brass. The patterns were very minute and covered nearly
the whole of the surface with an equal spottiness. Mr. Coldstream
procured its application to tables, cabinets, and other objects, and
during recent years a trade has sprung up which seems likely to grow to
still larger proportions. The faults of the inlay are a certain
triviality and insignificance of design and its too equal and minute
distribution. At various times some of the inlayers have visited
Lahore, and have been shown at the School of Art examples of good
Arabic and Indian design, and they have frequently been furnished with
sketches. When the blackness and ugliness of an Indian village are
considered it is really matter for surprise that decorative invention
survives in any form. There are numbers of artisans, many of whom are
in the hands of a Hindu dealer who is naturally but little concerned in
the artistic quality of the wares he sells. Blackwood, the old
heart-wood of the Kunum (Diospyros tomentosa), incorrectly called abnùs or
ebony by the workmen, is occasionally used both as a ground, and in
combination with ivory, as an inlaying material, especially in the
familiar herring-bone pattern. Brass is also employed, but with less
effect, for when foliated work in small patterns is worked in brass, it
is necessary that the metal
