Ivory Carving in Beijing enjoys a history of as many as 3,000 years. The excellent techniques and well-developed imagination of the skilled craftsmen give the ivory a new life with their knives. It is an exquisite and delicate craftwork that is loved by people at the first sight. In ancient times, the Chinese emperors regarded the ivory carving as a royal tribute. Today, ivory carvings are sent to many foreign friends by Chinese leaders. Because ivory is now in short supply and there are fewer young craftsmen, ivory carving is may soon be a lost art.

Ivory carving is the carving of ivory, that is to say animal tooth or tusk, by using sharp cutting tools, either mechanically or manually.

Humans have ornamentally carved ivory since prehistoric times, though until the 19th century opening-up of the interior of Africa, it was usually a rare and expensive material used for luxury products. Very fine detail can be achieved, and as the material, unlike precious metals, has no bullion value and usually cannot easily be recycled, the survival rate for ivory pieces is much higher than for those in other materials. Ivory carving has a special importance to the medieval art of Europe and Byzantium because of this, and in particular as so little monumental sculpture was produced or has survived

Ivory was not a prestigious material in the rather strict hierarchy of Chinese art, where jade has always been far more highly regarded, and rhinoceros horn, which is not ivory, had a special auspicious position. But ivory, as well as bone, has been used for various items since early times, when China still had its own species of elephant — demand for ivory seems to have played a large part in their extinction, which came before 100 BC. From the Ming Dynasty ivory began to be used for small statuettes of the gods and others (see gallery). In the Ching Dynasty it suited the growing taste for intricate carving, and became more prominent, being used for brush-holders, boxes, handles and similar pieces, and later Canton developed large models of houses and other large and showy pieces, which remain popular.[14] Enormous examples are still seen as decorative centerpieces at government receptions. Figures were typically uncolored, or just with certain features coloured in ink, often just black, but sometimes a few other colors.

By the 18th century China had a considerable market in items such as figures made for export to Europe, and from the Meiji Period Japan followed. Japanese ivory for the domestic market had traditionally mostly been small objects such as netsuke, for which ivory was used from the 17th century, or little inlays for sword-fittings and the like, but in the later 19th century, using African ivory, pieces became as large as the material would allow, and carved with virtuosic skill. A specialty was round puzzle balls of openwork that contained a series of smaller balls, freely rotating, inside them, a tribute to the patience of Asian craftsmen. See the gallery for a modern Chinese example with 54 independent spheres.

Available from:

Liulichang Cultural Street