IVORY CARVING

Evening Star, Issue 23380, 25 September 1939, Page 8

IVORY CARVING

DELHI'S INDUSTRY

iZALOUSLY GUARDED SECRET One of the things essentially associated with India is ivory carving. Tucked away behind the Juma Masjid, the great mosque in Delhi city, there flourish the ivory carvers for whose work Delhi is famous. The visitor will find displayed pieces of ivory carving, many of which have taken 10 to 15 years to finish. They range in price from a few rupees to as much as 10,000 rupees for trinket boxes and stands on which the story of the Ramayana or the life of Krishna are illustrated. Recently a suite of furniture, carved from the ivory, has been finished after 25 years’ hard labour. It is priced three lakhs (£22.5001. The art of ivory carving is a jealously guarded secret, known only to a few families and handed down from father to son. In one workshop the same families have worked for the same family of owners since the business was started about 1600. The working day is restricted to four hours, as the intense concentration and the extreme care required impose a great strain both on the nervous system and on the eyesight of the workers. The tools used arc simple and are usually manufactured by the workmen tlyeili selves.