IVORY FROM COW'S MILK

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 190, 28 August 1937, Page 17

IVORY FROM COW'S MILK

Rival to Elephant Tusks

'Synthetie ivory i'S" proving a successful competitor" of the elephant 's tusk in India. Elephants owe -somethiug to cowaior this development, for the syn-. thetic ivory is.made from casein, a byproduct of milk. s Tho value of real ivory has in consequence gone down by 30 per cent. during the past seven or eight years. It is now worth anything from 8/- to 16/- per pound, according to quality, the soft Indian article being ordinari]y 20 per cent. dearer than the harder African which is more diffieult to carve. In, Inclia elephants' tusks are auctioned by the Goveraments of • Madras, Travancore and Mysore. Many of them go to AmSterdam. The Indian ivory' carver is usually a carponter by trade. He is often selfxnstructed. But at the Schoo'l of Arts in Trivandrum, c'apital of Travancore Stafe, ivory carving is taught as a craft. The leaxner starts on wood. He 4 goes oxi to what might be described as fret-work designs in coconut shell. Fixxally, he passes to ivory.

The pay of an ivory carver may "bo anything from flvo penco a day to half a crown. The carving is done wilh chiacls and small knives. Tho polish on ivory is often produced by glass paper, followed by rubbing with moistened breadfruit stems. A favourite, though now rather oldfashioned, piece of ivory sculpture is St. George slaying the dragon. Suppose this is flve inches high and proportionately broadj ,it requires three pounds of first-class ivory, which will finally bo cut down to 11 ounces. Tho work is slow. The labour involved may take 10 weeks "at six hours a 3ay? and such an ornamenfc ought to be avaxlable in India at not more than £4 or £5. It can generally be obtained more cheaply. It is said that sometimes it will take as long as nine months to mako an ivory caislcet and four or five days to make a small elephant. The ordinary small ivory comb should be made iu half - a day, though some workers- take a day and a half over the job.