320 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT
During
the Revolutionary period ivory busks were worn in ladies ' bodices. A
century ago whales' teeth were engraved by whalers on the New England
coast, usually with a pocket-knife, an operation often requiring many
days for its execution. The carved teeth were then exhibited in the
bric-a-brac, drygoods, and whiskey shops in New Bedford, where they
were frequently exchanged for a mere trifle. This lasted until the
whaling industry was destroyed by the introduction of petroleum. If
the latter had not been discovered, whales would have become extinct.
Ivory is not well adapted for use in making artificial teeth and has
been but very rarely employed in this way, although an ivory tooth has
been unearthed on a spot on Manhatten Island in the neighbourhood of
190th Street.
The
Bayerischer Landesgewerbeanstalt in Nuremberg possesses many of the
smaller ivory carvings, some of these being modern while others are the
work of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Although by far the
greater part of these objects are of elephant ivory, there is one
interesting bit carved of walrus ivory. This is a miniature
reproduction of the monument of Peter the Great on the Neva at
Petrograd.
A
weird and unpleasant rumour is reported on the authority of a Hamburg
importer of bone and ivory. This is that human bones are imported from
the Levant for industrial use. These were said to be more desirable
than others for artistic work, because they contained less phosphoric
acid. The writer who records this report declares that he could not
find any confirmatory evidence, although he made diligent efforts to
secure it.*
A
long string of fifteen interesting objects, rather ghastly in their
associations, but with a history, are to be seen in the Oakland Public
Museum, Oakland, California. These are idols carved out of human bones
with great skill and
*Sombom, "Die Elfenbein-und Beinschnitzerei," Heidelberg, 1899, p. 31; note.
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