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Ivory carving is the carving of ivory, that is to say animal tooth or tusk, generally by using sharp cutting tools, either mechanically or manually. Objects carved in ivory are often called "ivories".
Both the Greek and Roman civilizations practiced ivory carving to make large quantities of high value works of art, precious religious objects, and decorative boxes for costly objects. Ivory was often used to form the white of the eyes of statues.
Scrimshaw is scrollwork, engravings, and carvings done in bone or ivory. Typically it refers to the artwork created by whalers, engraved on the byproducts of whales, such as bones or cartilage. It is most commonly made out of the bones and teeth of sperm whales, the baleen of other whales, and the tusks of walruses.
ivory carving, the carving or shaping of ivory into sculptures, ornaments, and decorative or utilitarian articles. Elephant tusks have been the main source of ivory used for such carvings, although the tusks of walrus and other ivory-bearing mammals have also been worked.
Elephant tusks—exotic, rare, and characterized by a pearly lustrous surface, were prized in medieval Europe for carving into luxurious objects.
While Byzantium’s political fortunes were waning, ivory carving experienced a florescence in western Europe, particularly in the Île-de-France. It is possible that the ivory supply was being diverted to markets in the more economically and politically vibrant states of western Europe.
While ivory carving is an ancient and near-universal artistic medium—the earliest carving of a human face to survive today was rendered in ivory—both the Carolingians and the Ottonians privileged the art form and craftsmen in the ninth and tenth centuries put their own distinctive touches to ivory.
The renaissance of ivory carving between 1600 and the mid-eighteenth century stemmed from the renewed flow of the valuable material into the hands of European sculptors, following the opening of new maritime routes along the east and west coasts of Africa.
ivory carving, Carving of ivory into decorative or utilitarian objects. It has flourished since prehistoric times. Most Stone Age carvings have been found in southern France, in the forms of small nude female figures and animals.
The conservation and restoration of ivory objects is the process of maintaining and preserving objects that are ivory or include ivory material. Conservation and restoration are aimed at preserving the ivory material and physical form along with the objects condition and treatment documentation.