Chapter XVIII: Part I: £402,216,795 (12)

An intermittent and desultory war, with Sweden and Poland simultaneously, for the possession of Livonia and Esthonia, went on from 1560 to 1582. Ivan's generals (he himself rarely took the field) were generally successful at first, and bore down their enemies by sheer numbers, capturing scores of fortresses and towns. But in the end the superior military efficiency of the Swedes and Poles invariably prevailed. Ivan was also unfortunate in having for his chief antagonist Stephen Báthory, one of the greatest captains of the age. Thus all his strenuous efforts, all his enormous sacrifices, came to nothing. The West was too strong for him. By the peace of Zapoli (January 15th, 1582) he surrendered Livonia with Polotsk to Báthory, and by the truce of Ilyusa he at the same time abandoned Ingria to the Swedes. The Baltic seaboard was lost to Muscovy for another century and a half. In his latter years Ivan cultivated friendly relations with England, in the hope of securing some share in the benefits of civilization from the friendship of Queen Elizabeth, one of whose ladies, Mary Hastings, he wished to marry, though his fifth wife, Martha Nagaya, was still alive. Towards the end of his life Ivan was partially consoled for his failure in the west by the unexpected acquisition of the kingdom of Siberia in the east, which was first subdued by the Cossack hetman Ermak or Yermak in 1581.

In November 1580 Ivan in a fit of ungovernable fury at some contradiction or reproach, struck his eldest surviving son Ivan, a prince of rare promise, whom he passionately loved, a blow which proved fatal. In an agony of remorse, he would now have abdicated "as being unworthy to reign longer"; but his trembling boyars, fearing some dark ruse, refused to obey any one but himself. Three years later, on the 18th of March 1584, while playing at chess, he suddenly fell backwards in his chair and was removed to his bed in a dying condition. At the last moment he assumed the hood of the strictest order of hermits, and died as the monk Jonah.

Ivan IV. was undoubtedly a man of great natural ability. His political foresight was extraordinary. He anticipated the ideals of Peter the Great, and only failed in realizing them because his material resources were inadequate. But admiration of his talents must not blind us to his moral worthlessness, nor is it right to cast the blame for his excesses on the brutal and vicious society in which he lived. The same society which produced his infamous favourites also produced St Philip of Moscow, and by refusing to listen to St Philip Ivan sank below even the not very lofty moral standard of his own age. He certainly left Muscovite society worse than he found it, and so prepared the way for the horrors of "the Great Anarchy." Personally, Ivan was tall and well-made, with high shoulders and a broad chest. His eyes were small and restless, his nose hooked, he had a beard and moustaches of imposing length. His face had a sinister, troubled expression; but an enigmatical smile played perpetually around his lips. He was the best educated and the hardest worked man of his age. His memory was astonishing, his energy indefatigable. As far as possible he saw to everything personally, and never sent away a petitioner of the lower orders.

See S. M. Solov'ev, _History of Russia_ (Rus.) vol. v. (St Petersburg,
1895); A. Brückner, _Geschichte Russlands bis zum Ende des 18ten
Jahrhunderts_ (Gotha, 1896); E. Tikhomirov, _The first Tsar of
Moscovy, Ivan IV._ (Rus.) (Moscow, 1888); L. G. T. Tidander, _Kriget
mellan Sverige och Ryssland åren 1555-1557_ (Vesterås, 1888); P.
Pierling, _Un Arbitrage pontifical au XVI^e siècle entre la Pologne et
la Russie_ (Bruxelles, 1890); V. V. Novodvorsky, _The Struggle for
Livonia, 1570-1582_ (Rus.) (St Petersburg, 1904); K. Waliszewski,
_Ivan le terrible_ (Paris, 1904); R. N. Bain, _Slavonic Europe_, ch. 5
(Cambridge, 1907).

IVAN V.[1] (1666-1696), tsar of Russia, was the son of Tsar Alexius Mikhailovich and his first consort Miloslavzkoya. Physically and mentally deficient, Ivan was the mere tool of the party in Muscovy who would have kept the children of the tsar Alexis, by his second consort Natalia Naruishkina, from the throne. In 1682 the party of progress, headed by Artamon Matvyeev and the tsaritsa Natalia, passed Ivan over and placed his half-brother, the vigorous and promising little tsarevich Peter, on the throne. On the 23rd of May, however, the Naruishkin faction was overthrown by the _stryeltsi_ (musketeers), secretly worked upon by Ivan's half-sister Sophia, and Ivan was associated as tsar with Peter. Three days later he was proclaimed "first tsar," in order still further to depress the Naruishkins, and place the government in the hands of Sophia exclusively. In 1689 the name of Ivan was used as a pretext by Sophia in her attempt to oust Peter from the throne altogether. Ivan was made to distribute beakers of wine to his sister's adherents with his own hands, but subsequently, beneath the influence of his uncle Prozorovsky, he openly declared that "even for his sister's sake, he would quarrel no longer with his dear brother." During the reign of his colleague Peter, Ivan V. took no part whatever in affairs, but devoted himself "to incessant prayer and rigorous fasting." On the 9th of January 1684 he married Praskovia Saltuikova, who bore him five daughters, one of whom, Anne, ultimately ascended the Russian throne. In his last years Ivan was a paralytic. He died on the 29th of January 1696.

See R. Nisbet Bain, _The First Romanovs_ (London, 1905); M. P.
Pogodin, _The First Seventeen Years of the Life of Peter the Great_
(Rus.) (Moscow, 1875).

IVAN VI. (1740-1764), emperor of Russia, was the son of Prince Antony Ulrich of Brunswick, and the princess Anna Leopoldovna of Mecklenburg, and great-nephew of the empress Anne, who adopted him and declared him her successor on the 5th of October 1740, when he was only eight weeks old. On the death of Anne (October 17th) he was proclaimed emperor, and on the following day Ernest Johann Biren, duke of Courland, was appointed regent. On the fall of Biren (November 8th), the regency passed to the baby tsar's mother, though the government was in the hands of the capable vice-chancellor, Andrei Osterman. A little more than twelve months later, a _coup d'état_ placed the tsesarevna Elizabeth on the throne (December 6, 1741), and Ivan and his family were imprisoned in the fortress of Dünamünde (Ust Dvinsk) (December 13, 1742) after a preliminary detention at Riga, from whence the new empress had at first decided to send them home to Brunswick. In June 1744 they were transferred to Kholmogory on the White Sea, where Ivan, isolated from his family, and seeing nobody but his gaoler, remained for the next twelve years. Rumours of his confinement at Kholmogory having leaked out, he was secretly transferred to the fortress of Schlüsselburg (1756), where he was still more rigorously guarded, the very commandant of the fortress not knowing who "a certain arrestant" committed to his care really was. On the accession of Peter III. the condition of the unfortunate prisoner seemed about to be ameliorated, for the kind-hearted emperor visited and sympathized with him; but Peter himself was overthrown a few weeks later. In the instructions sent to Ivan's guardian, Prince Churmtyev, the latter was ordered to chain up his charge, and even scourge him should he become refractory. On the accession of Catherine still more stringent orders were sent to the officer in charge of "the nameless one." If any attempt were made from outside to release him, the prisoner was to be put to death; in no circumstances was he to be delivered alive into any one's hands, even if his deliverers produced the empress's own sign-manual authorizing his release. By this time, twenty years of solitary confinement had disturbed Ivan's mental equilibrium, though he does not seem to have been actually insane. Nevertheless, despite the mystery surrounding him, he was well aware of his imperial origin, and always called himself _gosudar_ (sovereign). Though instructions had been given to keep him ignorant, he had been taught his letters and could read his Bible. Nor could his residence at Schlüsselburg remain concealed for ever, and its discovery was the cause of his ruin. A sub-lieutenant of the garrison, Vasily Mirovich, found out all about him, and formed a plan for freeing and proclaiming him emperor. At midnight on the 5th of July 1764, Mirovich won over some of the garrison, arrested the commandant, Berednikov, and demanded the delivery of Ivan, who there and then was murdered by his gaolers in obedience to the secret instructions already in their possession.

See R. Nisbet Bain, _The Pupils of Peter the Great_ (London, 1897); M.
Semevsky, _Ivan VI. Antonovich_ (Rus.) (St Petersburg, 1866); A.
Brückner, _The Emperor Ivan VI. and his Family_ (Rus.) (Moscow, 1874);
V. A. Bilbasov, _Geschichte Catherine II._ (vol. ii., Berlin,
1891-1893). (R. N. B.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] Ivan V., if we count from the first grand duke of that name, as
most Russian historians do; Ivan II., if, with the minority, we
reckon from Ivan the Terrible as the first Russian tsar.

IVANGOROD, a fortified town of Russian Poland, in the government of Lublin, 64 m. by rail S.E. from Warsaw, at the confluence of the Wieprz with the Vistula. It is defended by nine forts on the right bank of the Vistula and by three on the left bank, and, with Warsaw, Novo-Georgievsk and Brest-Litovsk, forms the Polish "quadrilateral."

IVANOVO-VOZNESENSK, a town of middle Russia, in the government of Vladimir, 86 m. by rail N. of the town of Vladimir. Pop. (1887) 22,000; (1900) 64,628. It consists of what were originally two villages--Ivanovo, dating from the 16th century, and Voznesensk, of much more recent date--united into a town in 1861. Of best note among the public buildings are the cathedral, and the church of the Intercession of the Virgin, formerly associated with an important monastery founded in 1579 and abandoned in 1754. One of the colleges of the town contains a public library. Linen-weaving was introduced in 1751, and in 1776 the manufacture of chintzes was brought from Schlüsselburg. The town has cotton factories, calico print-works, iron-works and chemical works.

IVARR, BEINLAUSI (d. 873), son of Ragnar Lothbrok, the great Viking chieftain, is known in English and Continental annals as Inuaer, Ingwar or Hingwar. He was one of the Danish leaders in the Sheppey expedition of 855 and was perhaps present at the siege of York in 867. The chief incident in his life was his share in the martyrdom of St Edmund in 870. He seems to have been the leader of the Danes on that occasion, and by this act he probably gained the epithet "crudelissimus" by which he is usually described. It is probable that he is to be identified with Imhar, king of the Norsemen of all Ireland and Britain, who was active in Ireland between the years 852 and 873, the year of his death.

IVIZA, IBIZA or IVIÇA, an island in the Mediterranean Sea, belonging to Spain, and forming part of the archipelago known as the Balearic Islands (q.v.). Pop. (1900) 23,524; area 228 sq. m. Iviza lies 50 m. S.W. of Majorca and about 60 m. from Cape San Martin on the coast of Spain. Its greatest length from north-east to south-west is about 25 m. and its greatest breadth about 13 m. The coast is indented by numerous small bays, the principal of which are those of San Antonio on the north-west, and of Iviza on the south-east. Of all the Balearic group, Iviza is the most varied in its scenery and the most fruitful. The hilly parts which culminate in the Pico de Atalayasa (1560 ft.), are richly wooded. The climate is for the most part mild and agreeable, though the hot winds from the African coast are sometimes troublesome. Oil, corn and fruits (of which the most important are the fig, prickly pear, almond and carob-bean) are the principal products; hemp and flax are also grown, but the inhabitants are rather indolent, and their modes of culture are very primitive. There are numerous salt-pans along the coast, which were formerly worked by the Spanish government. Fruit, salt, charcoal, lead and stockings of native manufacture are exported. The imports are rice, flour, sugar, woollen goods and cotton. The capital of the island, and, indeed, the only town of much importance--for the population is remarkably scattered--is Iviza or La Ciudad (6527), a fortified town on the south-east coast, consisting of a lower and upper portion, and possessing a good harbour, a 13th-century Gothic collegiate church and an ancient castle. Iviza was the see of a bishop from 1782 to 1851.

South of Iviza lies the smaller and more irregular island of Formentera (pop., 1900, 2243; area, 37 sq. m.), which is said to derive its name from the production of wheat. With Iviza it agrees both in general appearance and in the character of its products, but it is altogether destitute of streams. Goats and sheep are found in the mountains, and the coasts are greatly frequented by flamingoes. Iviza and Formentera are the principal islands of the lesser or western Balearic group, formerly known as the Pityusae or Pine Islands.

IVORY, SIR JAMES (1765-1842), Scottish mathematician, was born in Dundee in 1765. In 1779 he entered the university of St Andrews, distinguishing himself especially in mathematics. He then studied theology; but, after two sessions at St Andrews and one at Edinburgh, he abandoned all idea of the church, and in 1786 he became an assistant-teacher of mathematics and natural philosophy in a newly established academy at Dundee. Three years later he became partner in and manager of a flax-spinning company at Douglastown in Forfarshire, still, however, prosecuting in moments of leisure his favourite studies. He was essentially a self-trained mathematician, and was not only deeply versed in ancient and modern geometry, but also had a full knowledge of the analytical methods and discoveries of the continental mathematicians. His earliest memoir, dealing with an analytical expression for the rectification of the ellipse, is published in the _Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh_ (1796); and this and his later papers on "Cubic Equations" (1799) and "Kepler's Problem" (1802) evince great facility in the handling of algebraic formulae. In 1804 after the dissolution of the flax-spinning company of which he was manager, he obtained one of the mathematical chairs in the Royal Military College at Marlow (afterwards removed to Sandhurst); and till the year 1816, when falling health obliged him to resign, he discharged his professional duties with remarkable success. During this period he published in the _Philosophical Transactions_ several important memoirs, which earned for him the Copley medal in 1814 and ensured his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1815. Of special importance in the history of attractions is the first of these earlier memoirs (_Phil. Trans._, 1809), in which the problem of the attraction of a homogeneous ellipsoid upon an external point is reduced to the simpler case of the attraction of another but related ellipsoid upon a corresponding point interior to it. This theorem is known as Ivory's theorem. His later papers in the _Philosophical Transactions_ treat of astronomical refractions, of planetary perturbations, of equilibrium of fluid masses, &c. For his investigations in the first named of these he received a royal medal in 1826 and again in 1839. In 1831, on the recommendation of Lord Brougham, King William IV. granted him a pension of £300 per annum, and conferred on him the Hanoverian Guelphic order of knighthood. Besides being directly connected with the chief scientific societies of his own country, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Royal Irish Academy, &c., he was corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Sciences both of Paris and Berlin, and of the Royal Society of Göttingen. He died at London on the 21st of September 1842.

A list of his works is given in the _Catalogue of Scientific Papers of
the Royal Society of London_.

IVORY (Fr. _ivoire_, Lat. _ebur_), strictly speaking a term confined to the material represented by the tusk of the elephant, and for commercial purposes almost entirely to that of the male elephant. In Africa both the male and female elephant produce good-sized tusks; in the Indian variety the female is much less bountifully provided, and in Ceylon perhaps not more than 1% of either sex have any tusks at all. Ivory is in substance very dense, the pores close and compact and filled with a gelatinous solution which contributes to the beautiful polish which may be given to it and makes it easy to work. It may be placed between bone and horn; more fibrous than bone and therefore less easily torn or splintered. For a scientific definition it would be difficult to find a better one than that given by Sir Richard Owen. He says:[1] "The name ivory is now restricted to that modification of dentine or tooth substance which in transverse sections or fractures shows lines of different colours, or striae, proceeding in the arc of a circle and forming by their decussations minute curvilinear lozenge-shaped spaces." These spaces are formed by an immense number of exceedingly minute tubes placed very close together, radiating outwards in all directions. It is to this arrangement of structure that ivory owes its fine grain and almost perfect elasticity, and the peculiar marking resembling the engine-turning on the case of a watch, by which many people are guided in distinguishing it from celluloid or other imitations. Elephants' tusks are the upper incisor teeth of the animal, which, starting in earliest youth from a semi-solid vascular pulp, grow during the whole of its existence, gathering phosphates and other earthy matters and becoming hardened as in the formation of teeth generally. The tusk is built up in layers, the inside layer being the last produced. A large proportion is embedded in the bone sockets of the skull, and is hollow for some distance up in a conical form, the hollow becoming less and less as it is prolonged into a narrow channel which runs along as a thread or as it is sometimes called, nerve, towards the point of the tooth. The outer layer, or bark, is enamel of similar density to the central part. Besides the elephant's tooth or tusk we recognize as ivory, for commercial purposes, the teeth of the hippopotamus, walrus, narwhal, cachalot or sperm-whale and of some animals of the wild boar class, such as the warthog of South Africa. Practically, however, amongst these the hippo and walrus tusks are the only ones of importance for large work, though boars' tusks come to the sale-rooms in considerable quantities from India and Africa.

Generally speaking, the supply of ivory imported into Europe comes from Africa; some is Asiatic, but much that is shipped from India is really African, coming by way of Zanzibar and Mozambique to Bombay. A certain amount is furnished by the vast stores of remains of prehistoric animals still existing throughout Russia, principally in Siberia in the neighbourhood of the Lena and other rivers discharging into the Arctic Ocean. The mammoth and mastodon seem at one time to have been common over the whole surface of the globe. In England tusks have been recently dug up--for instance at Dungeness--as long as 12 ft. and weighing 200 lb. The Siberian deposits have been worked for now nearly two centuries. The store appears to be as inexhaustible as a coalfield. Some think that a day may come when the spread of civilization may cause the utter disappearance of the elephant in Africa, and that it will be to these deposits that we may have to turn as the only source of animal ivory. Of late years in England the use of mammoth ivory has shown signs of decline. Practically none passed through the London sale-rooms during 1903-1906. Before that, parcels of 10 to 20 tons were not uncommon. Not all of it is good; perhaps about half of what comes to England is so, the rest rotten; specimens, however, are found as perfect and in as fine condition as if recently killed, instead of having lain hidden and preserved for thousands of years in the icy ground. There is a considerable literature (see Shooting) on the subject of big-game hunting, which includes that of the elephant, hippopotamus and smaller tusk-bearing animals. Elephants until comparatively recent times roamed over the whole of Africa from the northern deserts to the Cape of Good Hope. They are still abundant in Central Africa and Uganda, but civilization has gradually driven them farther and farther into the wilds and impenetrable forests of the interior.

The quality of ivory varies according to the districts whence it is obtained, the soft variety of the eastern parts of the continent being the most esteemed. When in perfect condition African ivory should be if recently cut of a warm, transparent, mellow tint, with as little as possible appearance of grain or mottling. Asiatic ivory is of a denser white, more open in texture and softer to work. But it is apt to turn yellow sooner, and is not so easy to polish. Unlike bone, ivory requires no preparation, but is fit for immediate working. That from the neighbourhood of Cameroon is very good, then ranks the ivory from Loango, Congo, Gabun and Ambriz; next the Gold Coast, Sierra Leone and Cape Coast Castle. That of French Sudan is nearly always "ringy," and some of the Ambriz variety also. We may call Zanzibar and Mozambique varieties soft; Angola and Ambriz all hard. Ambriz ivory was at one time much esteemed, but there is comparatively little now. Siam ivory is rarely if ever soft. Abyssinian has its soft side, but Egypt is practically the only place where both descriptions are largely distributed. A drawback to Abyssinian ivory is a prevalence of a rather thick bark. Egyptian is liable to be cracked, from the extreme variations of temperature; more so formerly than now, since better methods of packing and transit are used. Ivory is extremely sensitive to sudden extremes of temperature; for this reason billiard balls should be kept where the temperature is fairly equable.

The market terms by which descriptions of ivory are distinguished are liable to mislead. They refer to ports of shipment rather than to places of origin. For instance, "Malta" ivory is a well-understood term, yet there are no ivory producing animals in that island.

Tusks should be regular and tapering in shape, not very curved or twisted, for economy in cutting; the coat fine, thin, clear and transparent. The substance of ivory is so elastic and flexible that excellent riding-whips have been cut longitudinally from whole tusks. The size to which tusks grow and are brought to market depends on race rather than on size of elephants. The latter run largest in equatorial Africa. Asiatic bull elephant tusks seldom exceed 50 lb. in weight, though lengths of 9 ft. and up to 150 lb. weight are not entirely unknown. Record lengths for African tusks are the one presented to George V., when prince of Wales, on his marriage (1893), measuring 8 ft. 7½ in. and weighing 165 lb., and the pair of tusks which were brought to the Zanzibar market by natives in 1898, weighing together over 450 lb. One of the latter is new in the Natural History Museum at South Kensington; the other is in Messrs Rodgers & Co.'s collection at Sheffield. For length the longest known are those belonging to Messrs Rowland Ward, Piccadilly, which measure 11 ft. and 11 ft. 5 in. respectively, with a combined weight of 293 lb. Osteodentine, resulting from the effects of injuries from spearheads or bullets, is sometimes found in tusks. This formation, resembling stalactites, grows with the tusk, the bullets or iron remaining embedded without trace of their entry.

The most important commercial distinction of the qualities of ivory is that of the _hard_ and _soft_ varieties. The terms are difficult to define exactly. Generally speaking, hard or bright ivory is distinctly harder to cut with the saw or other tools. It is, as it were, glassy and transparent. Soft contains more moisture, stands differences of climate and temperature better, and does not crack so easily. The expert is guided by the shape of the tooth, by the colour and quality of the bark or skin, and by the transparency when cut, or even before, as at the point of the tooth. Roughly, a line might be drawn almost centrally down the map of Africa, on the west of which the hard quality prevails, on the east the soft. In choosing ivory for example for knife-handles--people rather like to see a pretty grain, strongly marked; but the finest quality in the hard variety, which is generally used for them, is the closest and freest from grain. The curved or canine teeth of the hippopotamus are valuable and come in considerable quantities to the European markets. Owen describes this variety as "an extremely dense, compact kind of dentine, partially defended on the outside by a thin layer of enamel as hard as porcelain; so hard as to strike fire with steel." By reason of this hardness it is not at all liked by the turner and ivory workers, and before being touched by them the enamel has to be removed by acid, or sometimes by heating and sudden cooling, when it can be scaled off. The texture is slightly curdled, mottled or damasked. Hippo ivory was at one time largely used for artificial teeth, but now mostly for umbrella and stick-handles; whole (in their natural form) for fancy door-handles and the like. In the trade the term is not "riverhorse" but "seahorse teeth." Walrus ivory is less dense and coarser than hippo, but of fine quality--what there is of it, for the oval centre which has more the character of coarse bone unfortunately extends a long way up. At one time a large supply came to the market, but of late years there has been an increasing scarcity, the animals having been almost exterminated by the ruthless persecution to which they have been subjected in their principal haunts in the northern seas. It is little esteemed now, though our ancestors thought highly of it. Comparatively large slabs are to be found in medieval sculpture of the 11th and 12th centuries, and the grips of most oriental swords, ancient and modern, are made from it. The ivory from the single tusk or horn of the narwhal is not of much commercial value except as an ornament or curiosity. Some horns attain a length of 8 to 10 ft., 4 in. thick at the base. It is dense in substance and of a fair colour, but owing to the central cavity there is little of it fit for anything larger than napkin-rings.

_Ivory in Commerce, and its Industrial Applications._--Almost the whole of the importation of ivory to Europe was until recent years confined to London, the principal distributing mart of the world. But the opening up of the Congo trade has placed the port of Antwerp in a position which has equalled and, for a time, may surpass that of London. Other important markets are Liverpool and Hamburg; and Germany, France and Portugal have colonial possessions in Africa, from which it is imported. America is a considerable importer for its own requirements. From the German Cameroon alone, according to Schilling, there were exported during the ten years ending 1905, 452,100 kilos of ivory. Mr Buxton estimates the amount of ivory imported into the United Kingdom at about 500 tons. If we give the same to Antwerp we have from these two ports alone no less than 1000 tons a year to be provided. Allowing a weight so high as 30 lb. per pair of tusks (which is far too high, perhaps twice too high) we should have here alone between thirty and forty thousand elephants to account for. It is true that every pair of tusks that comes to the market represents a dead elephant, but not necessarily by any means a slain or even a recently killed one, as is popularly supposed and unfortunately too often repeated. By far the greater proportion is the result of stores accumulated by natives, a good part coming from animals which have died a natural death. Not 20% is _live_ ivory or recently killed; the remainder is known in the trade as _dead_ ivory.

In 1827 the principal London ivory importers imported 3000 cwt. in
1850, 8000 cwt. The highest price up to 1855 was £55 per cwt. At the
July sales in 1905 a record price was reached for billiard-ball teeth
of £167 per cwt. The total imports into the United Kingdom were,
according to Board of Trade returns, in 1890, 14,349 cwt.; in 1895,
10,911 cwt.; in 1900, 9889 cwt.; in 1904, 9045 cwt.

From Messrs Hale & Son's (ivory brokers, 10 Fenchurch Avenue) Ivory
Report of the second quarterly sales in London, April 1906, it appears
that the following were offered:--

Tons.

From Zanzibar, Bombay, Mozambique and Siam 17
Egyptian 19¼
West Coast African 11
Lisbon 1
Abyssinian 6¾
---
55

Sea horse (hippopotamus teeth) 1¾
Walrus ¼
Waste ivory 10¼
---
67¼

Hard ivory was scarce. West Coast African was principally of the Gabun
description, and some of very fine quality. There was very little
inquiry for walrus. The highest prices ranged as follows: Soft East
Coast tusks (Zanzibar, Mozambique, Bombay and Siam), 102 to 143 lb.
each £66, 10s. to £75, 10s. per cwt. Billiard-ball scrivelloes, £104
per cwt. Cut points for billiard-balls (3(1/8) in. to 2(3/8) to 3 in.)
£114 to £151 per cwt. Seahorse (for best), 3s. 6d. to 4s. 1d. per lb.
Boars' tusks, 6d. to 7d. per lb.

_Quantities of ivory offered to Public auction (from Messrs Hale &
Son's Reports)._

+--------------------------------------+-------+-------+-------+
| | 1903. | 1904. | 1905. |
+--------------------------------------+-------+-------+-------+
| | Tons. | Tons. | Tons. |
| Zanzibar, Bombay, Mozambique and Siam| 81 | 75 | 76 |
| Egyptian | 49¾ | 72¾ | 81¾ |
| Abyssinian | 22¾ | 9¾ | 23¼ |
| West Coast African | 46¾ | 39½ | 41½ |
| Lisbon | 3 | 3 | 1¾ |
| +-------+-------+-------+
| | 203¼ | 200 | 224¼ |
| Seahorse teeth and Boars' tusks | 7 | 9¾ | 7 |
| +-------+-------+-------+
| | 210¼ | 209¾ | 231½ |
+--------------------------------------+-------+-------+-------+

_Fluctuations in prices of ivory at the London Sale-Room (from Messrs
Hale & Son's Charts, which show the prices at each quarterly sale from
1870)._

+--------------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| |1870.|1880.|1890.|1900.|1905.|
| +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Billiard Ball pieces | £55 | £90 |£112 | £68 |£167 |
|Averages-- | | | | | |
| Hard Egyptian 36 to 50 lb. | 30 | 38 | 50 | 29 | 48 |
| Soft East Indian 50 to 70 lb. | 67 | 55 | 88 | 57 | 72 |
| West Coast African 50 to 70 lb.| 36 | 57 | 65 | 48 | 61 |
| Hard East African 50 to 70 lb. | 37 | 49 | 64 | 48 | 61 |
+--------------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+

In October 1889 soft East Indian fetched an average of £82 per cwt.,
but in several instances higher prices were realized, and one lot
reached £88 per cwt. At the Liverpool April sales 1906 about 7¼ tons
were offered from Gabun, Angola, and Cameroon (from the last 5¾ tons).
To the port of Antwerp the imports were 6830 cwt. in 1904 and 6570
cwt. in 1905; of which 5310 cwt. and 4890 cwt. respectively were from
the Congo State.

The leading London sales are held quarterly in Mincing Lane, a very
interesting and wonderful display of tusks and ivory of all kinds
being laid out previously for inspection in the great warehouses known
as the "Ivory Floor" in the London docks. The quarterly Liverpool
sales follow the London ones, with a short interval.

The important part which ivory plays in the industrial arts not only for decorative, but also for domestic applications is hardly sufficiently recognized. Nothing is wasted of this valuable product. Hundreds of sacks full of cuttings and shavings, and scraps returned by manufacturers after they have used what they require for their particular trade, come to the mart. The dust is used for polishing, and in the preparation of Indian ink, and even for food in the form of ivory jelly. The scraps come in for inlaying and for the numberless purposes in which ivory is used for small domestic and decorative objects. India, which has been called the backbone of the trade, takes enormous quantities of the rings left in the turning of billiard-balls, which serve as women's bangles, or for making small toys and models, and in other characteristic Indian work. Without endeavouring to enumerate all the applications, a glance may be cast at the most important of those which consume the largest quantity. Chief among these is the manufacture of billiard-balls, of cutlery handles, of piano-keys and of brushware and toilet articles. Billiard-balls demand the highest quality of ivory; for the best balls the soft description is employed, though recently, through the competition of bonzoline and similar substitutes, the hard has been more used in order that the weight may be assimilated to that of the artificial kind. Therefore the most valuable tusks of all are those adapted for the billiard-ball trade. The term used is "scrivelloes," and is applied to teeth proper for the purpose, weighing not over about 7 lb. The division of the tusk into smaller pieces for subsequent manufacture, in order to avoid waste, is a matter of importance.

The accompanying diagrams (figs. 1 and 2) show the method; the cuts
are made radiating from an imaginary centre of the curve of the tusk.
In after processes the various trades have their own particular
methods for making the most of the material. In making a billiard-ball
of the English size the first thing to be done is to rough out, from
the cylindrical section, a sphere about 2¼ in. in diameter, which will
eventually be 2(1/16) or sometimes for professional players a little
larger. One hemisphere--as shown in the diagrams (fig. 2)--is first
turned, and the resulting ring detached with a parting tool. The
diameter is accurately taken and the subsequent removals taken off in
other directions. The ball is then fixed in a wooden chuck, the half
cylinder reversed, and the operation repeated for the other
hemisphere. It is now left five years to season and then turned dead
true. The rounder and straighter the tusk selected for ball-making the
better. Evidently, if the tusk is oval and the ball the size of the
least diameter, its sides which come nearer to the bark or rind will
be coarser and of a different density from those portions further
removed from this outer skin. The matching of billiard-balls is
important, for extreme accuracy in weight is essential. It is usual to
bleach them, as the purchaser--or at any rate the distributing
intermediary--likes to have them of a dead white. But this is a
mistake, for bleaching with chemicals takes out the gelatine to some
extent, alters the quality and affects the density; it also makes them
more liable to crack, and they are not nearly so nice-looking.
Billiard-balls should be bought in summer time when the temperature is
most equable, and gently used till the winter season. On an average
three balls of fine quality are got out of a tooth. The stock of more
than one great manufacturer surpasses at times 30,000 in number. But
although ball teeth rose in 1905 to £167 a cwt., the price of
billiard-balls was the same in 1905 as it was in 1885. Roughly
speaking, there are about twelve different qualities and prices of
billiard-balls, and eight of pyramid- and pool-balls, the latter
ranging from half a guinea to two guineas each.

The ivory for piano-keys is delivered to the trade in the shape of what are known as heads and tails, the former for the parts which come under the fingers, the latter for that running up between the black keys. The two are joined afterwards on the keyboard with extreme accuracy. Piano-keys are bleached, but organists for some reason or other prefer unbleached keys. The soft variety is mostly used for high-class work and preferably of the Egyptian type.

The great centres of the ivory industry for the ordinary objects of common domestic use are in England, for cutlery handles Sheffield, for billiard-balls and piano-keys London. For cutlery a large firm such as Rodgers & Sons uses an average of some twenty tons of ivory annually, mostly of the hard variety. But for billiard-balls and piano-keys America is now a large producer, and a considerable quantity is made in France and Germany. Brush backs are almost wholly in English hands. Dieppe has long been famous for the numberless little ornaments and useful articles such as statuettes, crucifixes, little bookcovers, paper-cutters, combs, serviette-rings and _articles de Paris_ generally. And St Claude in the Jura, and Geislingen in Würtemberg, and Erbach in Hesse, Germany, are amongst the most important centres of the industry. India and China supply the multitude of toys, models, chess and draughtsmen, puzzles, workbox fittings and other curiosities.

_Vegetable Ivory, &c._--Some allusion may be made to vegetable ivory
and artificial substitutes. The plants yielding the vegetable ivory of
commerce represent two or more species of an anomalous genus of palms,
and are known to botanists as _Phytelephas_. They are natives of
tropical South America, occurring chiefly on the banks of the river
Magdalena, Colombia, always found in damp localities, not only,
however, on the lower coast region as in Darien, but also at a
considerable elevation above the sea. They are mostly found in
separate groves, not mixed with other trees or shrubs. The plant is
severally known as the "tagua" by the Indians on the banks of the
Magdalena, as the "anta" on the coast of Darien, and as the
"pulli-punta" and "homero" in Peru. It is stemless or short-stemmed,
and crowned with from twelve to twenty very long pinnatifid leaves.
The plants are dioecious, the males forming higher, more erect and
robust trunks than the females. The male inflorescence is in the form
of a simple fleshy cylindrical spadix covered with flowers; the female
flowers are also in a single spadix, which, however, is shorter than
in the male. The fruit consists of a conglomerated head composed of
six or seven drupes, each containing from six to nine seeds, and the
whole being enclosed in a walled woody covering forming altogether a
globular head as large as that of a man. A single plant sometimes
bears at the same time from six to eight of these large heads of
fruit, each weighing from 20 to 25 lb. In its very young state the
seed contains a clear insipid fluid, which travellers take advantage
of to allay thirst. As it gets older this fluid becomes milky and of a
sweet taste, and it gradually continues to change both in taste and
consistence until it becomes so hard as to make it valuable as a
substitute for animal ivory. In their young and fresh state the fruits
are eaten with avidity by bears, hogs and other animals. The seeds, or
nuts as they are usually called when fully ripe and hard, are used by
the American Indians for making small ornamental articles and toys.
They are imported into Britain in considerable quantities, frequently
under the name of "Corozo" nuts, a name by which the fruits of some
species of _Attalea_ (another palm with hard ivory-like seeds) are
known in Central America--their uses being chiefly for small articles
of turnery. Of vegetable ivory Great Britain imported in 1904 1200
tons, of which about 400 tons were re-exported, principally to
Germany. It is mainly and largely used for coat buttons.

Many artificial compounds have, from time to time, been tried as
substitutes for ivory; amongst them potatoes treated with sulphuric
acid. Celluloid is familiar to us nowadays. In the form of bonzoline,
into which it is said to enter, it is used largely for billiard balls;
and a new French substitute--a caseine made from milk, called
gallalith--has begun to be much used for piano keys in the cheaper
sorts of instrument. Odontolite is mammoth ivory, which through lapse
of time and from surroundings becomes converted into a substance known
as fossil or blue ivory, and is used occasionally in jewelry as
turquoise, which it very much resembles. It results from the tusks of
antediluvian mammoths buried in the earth for thousands of years,
during which time under certain conditions the ivory becomes slowly
penetrated with the metallic salts which give it the peculiar vivid
blue colour of turquoise.

_Ivory Sculpture and the Decorative Arts._--The use of ivory as a material peculiarly adapted for sculpture and decoration has been universal in the history of civilization. The earliest examples which have come down to us take us back to prehistoric times, when, so far as our knowledge goes, civilization as we understand it had attained no higher degree than that of the dwellers in caves, or of the most primitive races. Throughout succeeding ages there is continued evidence that no other substance--except perhaps wood, of which we have even fewer ancient examples--has been so consistently connected with man's art-craftsmanship. It is hardly too much to say that to follow properly the history of ivory sculpture involves the study of the whole world's art in all ages. It will take us back to the most remote antiquity, for we have examples of the earliest dynasties of Egypt and Assyria. Nor is there entire default when we come to the periods of the highest civilization of Greece and Rome. It has held an honoured place in all ages for the adornment of the palaces of the great, not only in sculpture proper but in the rich inlay of panelling, of furniture, chariots and other costly articles. The Bible teems with references to its beauty and value. And when, in the days of Pheidias, Greek sculpture had reached the highest perfection, we learn from ancient writers that colossal statues were constructed--notably the "Zeus of Olympia" and the "Athena of the Parthenon." The faces, hands and other exposed portions of these figures were of ivory, and the question, therefore, of the method of production of such extremely large slabs as perhaps were used has been often debated. A similar difficulty arises with regard to other pieces of considerable size, found, for example, amongst consular diptychs. It has been conjectured that some means of softening and moulding ivory was known to the ancients, but as a matter of fact though it may be softened it cannot be again restored to its original condition. If up to the 4th century we are unable to point to a large number of examples of sculpture in ivory, from that date onwards the chain is unbroken, and during the five or six hundred years of unrest and strife from the decline of the Roman empire in the 5th century to the dawn of the Gothic revival of art in the 11th or 12th, ivory sculpture alone of the sculptural arts carries on the preservation of types and traditions of classic times in central Europe. Most important indeed is the rôle which existing examples of ivory carving play in the history of the last two centuries of the consulates of the Western and Eastern empires. Though the evidences of decadence in art may be marked, the close of that period brings us down to the end of the reign of Justinian (527-563). Two centuries later the iconoclastic persecutions in the Eastern empire drive westward and compel to settle there numerous colonies of monks and artificers. Throughout the Carlovingian period, the examples of ivory sculpture which we possess in not inconsiderable quantity are of extreme importance in the history of the early development of Byzantine art in Europe. And when the Western world of art arose from its torpor, freed itself from Byzantine shackles and traditions, and began to think for itself, it is to the sculptures in ivory of the Gothic art of the 13th and 14th centuries that we turn with admiration of their exquisite beauty of expression. Up to about the 14th century the influence of the church was everywhere predominant in all matters relating to art. In ivories, as in mosaics, enamels or miniature painting it would be difficult to find a dozen examples, from the age of Constantine onwards, other than sacred ones or of sacred symbolism. But as the period of the Renaissance approached, the influence of romantic literature began to assert itself, and a feeling and style similar to those which are characteristic of the charming series of religious art in ivory, so touchingly conceived and executed, meet us in many objects in ivory destined for ordinary domestic uses and ornament. Mirror cases, caskets for jewelry or toilet purposes, combs, the decoration of arms, or of saddlery or of weapons of the chase, are carved and chased with scenes of real life or illustrations of the romances, which bring home to us in a vivid manner details of the manners and customs, amusements, dresses and domestic life of the times. With the Renaissance and a return to classical ideas, joined with a love of display and of gorgeous magnificence, art in ivory takes a secondary place. There is a want of simplicity and of originality. It is the period of the commencement of decadence. Then comes the period nicknamed _rococo_, which persisted so long. Ivory carving follows the vulgar fashion, is content with copying or adapting, and until the revival in our own times is, except in rare instances, no longer to be classed as a fine art. It becomes a trade and is in the hands of the mechanic of the workshop. In this necessarily brief and condensed sketch we have been concerned mainly with ivory carving in Europe. It will be necessary to give also, presently, some indications enabling the inquirer to follow the history--or at least to put him on the track of it--not only in the different countries of the West but also in India, China and Japan.

_Prehistoric Ivory Carvings._--These are the result of investigations made about the middle of the 19th century in the cave dwellings of the Dordogne in France and also of the lake dwellings of Switzerland. As records they are unique in the history of art. Further than this our wonderment is excited at finding these engravings or sculptures in the round, these chiselled examples of the art of the uncultivated savage, conceived and executed with a feeling of delicacy and restraint which the most modern artist might envy. Who they were who executed them must be left to the palaeontologist and geologist to decide. We can only be certain that they were contemporary with the period when the mammoth and the reindeer still roved freely in southern France. The most important examples are the sketch of the mammoth (see PAINTING, Plate I.), on a slab of ivory now in the museum of the Jardin des Plantes, the head and shoulders of an ibex carved in the round on a piece of reindeer horn, and the figure of a woman (instances of representations of the human form are most rare) naked and wearing a necklace and bracelet. Many of the originals are in the museum at St Germain-en-Laye, and casts of a considerable number are in the British Museum.

_Ancient Assyrian, Egyptian, Greek and Roman Ivories._--We know from ancient writers that the Egyptians were skilled in ivory carving and that they procured ivory in large quantities from Ethiopia. The Louvre possesses examples of a kind of flat castanets or clappers, in the form of the curve of the tusks themselves, engraved in outline, beautifully modelled hands forming the tapering points; and large quantities of small objects, including a box of plain form and simple decoration identified from the inscribed praenomen as the fifth dynasty, about 4000 B.C. The British Museum and the museum at Cairo are also comparatively rich. But no other collection in the world contains such an interesting collection of ancient Assyrian ivories as that in the British Museum. Those exhibited number some fifty important pieces, and many other fragments are, on account of their fragility or state of decay, stowed away. The collection is the result of the excavations by Layard about 1840 on the supposed site of Nineveh opposite the modern city of Mosul. When found they were so decomposed from the lapse of time as scarcely to bear touching or the contact of the external air. Layard hit upon the ingenious plan of boiling in a solution of gelatine and thus restoring to them the animal matter which had dried up in the course of centuries. Later, the explorations of Flinders Petrie and others at Abydos brought to light a considerable number of sculptured fragments which may be even two thousand years older than those of Nineveh. They have been exhibited in London and since distributed amongst various museums at home and abroad.

FIG. 4.--Leaf of diptych showing combats with stags; in the Liverpool Museum.]

_Consular and Official and Private Diptychs._--About fifty of the remarkable plaques called "consular diptychs," of the time of the three last centuries of the consulates of the Roman and Greek empire have been preserved. They range in date from perhaps mid-fourth to mid-sixth centuries, and as with two or three exceptions the dates are certain it would be difficult to overestimate their historic or intrinsic value. The earliest of absolutely certain date is the diptych of Aosta (A.D. 408), the first after the recognition of Christianity; or, if the Monza diptych represents, as some think, the Consul Stilicon, then we may refer back six years earlier. At any rate the edict of Theodosius in A.D. 384, concerning the restriction of the use of ivory to the diptychs of the regular consuls, is evidence that the custom must have been long established. According to some authorities the beautiful leaf of diptych in the Liverpool Museum (fig. 4) is a consular one and to be ascribed to Marcus Julius Philippus (A.D. 248). Similarly the Gherardesca leaf in the British Museum may be accepted as of the Consul Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 308). But the whole question of the half dozen earliest examples is conjectural. With a few notable exceptions they show decadence in art. Amongst the finest may be cited the leaf with the combats with stags at Liverpool, the diptych of Probianus at Berlin and the two leaves, one of Anastasius, the other of Orestes, in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The literature concerning these diptychs is voluminous, from the time of the erudite treatise by Gori published in 1759 to the present day. The latest of certain date is that of Basilius, consul of the East in 541, the last of the consuls. The diptychs of private individuals or of officials number about sixteen, and in the case of the private ones have a far greater artistic value. Of these the Victoria and Albert Museum possesses the most beautiful leaf of perhaps the finest example of ancient ivory sculpture which has come down to us, diptychon Meleretense, representing a Bacchante (fig. 5). The other half, which is much injured, is in the Cluny Museum. Other important pieces are the Aesculapius and Hygeia at Liverpool, the Hippolytus and Phaedra at Brescia, the Barberini in the Bargello and at Vienna and the Rufius Probianus at Berlin. Besides the diptychs ancient Greek and Roman ivories before the recognition of Christianity are comparatively small in number and are mostly in the great museums of the Vatican, Naples, the British Museum, the Louvre and the Cluny Museum. Amongst them are the statuette of Penthea, perhaps of the 3rd century (Cluny), a large head of a woman (museum of Vienna) and the Bellerophon (British Museum), nor must those of the Roman occupation in England and other countries be forgotten. Notable instances are the plaque and ivory mask found at Caerleon. Others are now in the Guildhall and British Museums, and most continental European museums have examples connected with their own history.

FIG. 6.--Leaf of Diptych, representing Archangel; in the British Museum.]