The New Student's Reference Work/Ivory

I′vory, the name given to the tooth-substance of all animals, but now only used of the teeth and tusks of the elephant, which are of the character of true ivory.  Many other animals, however, possess teeth, horns or tusks, which, from their large size and density, can be used for the same purposes as true ivory.  Some of these are the walrus, narwhal, hippopotamus and rhinoceros.  The ivory of the tusks of the African elephant is held in the highest estimation by the manufacturer, on account of its pure whiteness and its density.  The tusks are of all sizes, from a few ounces in weight to more than 180 pounds each.  Some have been known to weigh as much as 200 pounds.  Elephant tusks have from very early periods been an important article of trade, because of their great beauty as material for ornaments and in works of fine art.  A small part of the ivory of commerce comes from Ceylon, India, Burma and the islands of the Indian archipelago.  The greater part is obtained from the African elephants, and the traffic in ivory was the main support of the slave trade in that country.  Fossil ivory is found in small quantities in Siberia, being the tusks of the extinct mammoth.  The price of pure ivory is from about $250 to $300 per hundredweight.  The quantity imported each year into Europe is about 12,500 hundredweight, which must require the sacrifice of nearly 40,000 elephants.  The elephants are killed in the interior of Africa, and the ivory conveyed to the coast (formerly) on the backs of slaves.  Ivory is in chief demand for knife and other handles, combs, piano keys, billiard balls and chessmen, and is carved into figures and ornaments.  The use of ivory can be traced almost to the earliest period when man existed.  We read that King Solomon “made a great throne of ivory.”  There still exist examples of Egyptian ivory, inlaid, as ancient as the days of Moses.  In the British Museum are many Assyrian ivory carvings, made in Nineveh nearly 1,000 years before Christ.  In ancient Greece ivory was used for carvings, sculpture and various objects of luxury.  Many of the most famous works of Pheidias and his fellow artists were statues built of plates of ivory and gold, some figures being 40 feet in height.