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WORKING OF IVORY 253
material
combines a greater variety of excellent qualities, and these render it
equally adapted for articles of beauty and usefulness. Almost from time
immemorial gold, silver, and ivory have been among the most appreciated
of precious materials, a popularity which clearly indicates the
presence of some enduring and peculiar quality in these substances
which has given them so great a value.
Ivory
is used extensively in the manufacture of the higher class of toilet
articles, which are as much in favour to-day as ever before. Among the
articles entirely of ivory are the following: trays, hair receivers,
glove stretchers, cold-cream boxes, tooth-powder boxes, shoehorns,
nail-powder boxes, hairpin stands, powder boxes, pin boxes, hatpin
stands, glove-powder boxes, talcum-powder boxes, hairpin boxes, salve
boxes, jewel boxes, pomade boxes, vaseline boxes. In a number of other
toilet articles the backs and handles are of solid ivory; there are:
mirrors, hair brushes, hat brushes, face-powder brushes, nail files,
clothes hrushes, bonnet brushes, pincushions, buttonhooks, cuticle
knives, shaving mirrors, shaving brushes, military brushes,
whiskbrooms, velvet brushes and nailscrapers, as well as fine combs.
These last-named objects are often of beautiful ivory, very thin and
delicate, and of exquisite workmanship. The teeth are so fine that they
measure 29 to 49 to the inch, which means that they are cut singly with
an automatic saw with a blade from 1-50 to 1-100 of an inch in
thickness, and they sell for from 25 cents for the small combs to $2 or
$2.50 for the large 4-in. combs.
The
size of the pieces of ivory used in the larger toilet articles is
frequently remarkable. Thus hand mirrors with ivory backs of a single
piece 5-3/4 in. wide, and more than 12-1/2 in. long to the end of the
handle, are occasionally met with, and there are also circular hand
mirrors 6-1/4 in. across and 9-1/2 in. to the end of the handle. These are all won-
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