定義

• Ivory.  A material from, of course, elephant tusks; it is creamy white, fine grain, smooth and hard, and is ideal for small reliefs and statues. The ivory must be thoroughly dried before carving or it might shrink and crack. Microscopically ivory is honeycombed with very small cells. However, it can be engraved by hand or cut directly on a pantograph (direct cutting) to produce a bas-relief; these cannot be stamped out, each individual specimen must be cut separately. Ivory objects are sometimes enhanced by gold or silver – by inlay or partial plating – or even combined with bronze.
  The first to cut ivory on the die-engraving pantograph in America may have been Franklin Peale, who undoubtedly saw this being done in Europe during his travels there for the U.S. Mint (1834). He owned a portrait of an unknown person created by Philadelphia artist Robert Wylie (1839-1877) which was exhibited in 1861 at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In a three-year period (1859-60) eight of Wylie's works in ivory were also exhibit there (only two bore names, Inez and Grief, the others were unnamed portraits). 
  A later American sculptor, Frederick Robert Kaldenberg, carved in ivory, amber and meerschaum in his father’s ivory shop. In 1911 he had Gorham reduce one of his bas-relief models of a Man’s Head and direct cut this in ivory in two sizes on their engraving pantograph: 5 3/4x4½-inch and 2¼x1¼-inch. He once carved a 16-inch statue in ivory, but appears to have done little else in direct cutting.
  Two European artists displayed medallic items in ivory at the 1910 International
  Exhibition of Contemporary Medals at the American Numismatic Society in New York City. French medalist Abel Lafleur display a plaquette, R?verie (#25) and Austrian medalist Stanislav Sucharda included his medal, Portrait of a Lady (#6). Both measured 80mm, an average size for a disk sliced from a medium size tusk.
  British sculptor Paul Vincze had the obverse of six of his medals cut in ivory and offered as a set; these medals bore portraits of numismatists Harold Mattingly and E.S.G. Robinson from the British Museum and Sir John Craig from the Royal Mint. The original medals were issued 1947-1952.
  Imitation ivory.  In the later 19th century artists found they could create a relief by using organic material which greatly resembled elephant ivory. This was called vegetable ivory, an example is the tugan nut. It had the same color and texture, but like real ivory it was limited in size (so large pieces had to be fabricated from smaller segments).
  In the 20th century artists looked to imitation ivory to replace the high cost of
  genuine ivory or the uncertain supply of vegetable ivory. One kind is called ivorine, others include celluloid (invented, it is said, to replace ivory billiard balls). Plastics could be made to closely imitate ivory. A German creation, gallalith (casein formaldehyde), resembles ivory but is not flammable and can be turned or cut with greater ease than natural ivory. Small reliefs, experimental pieces, in addition to medals and buttons, have been cut by hand or engraving pantograph of all these compositions.
  By 1990 it became politically incorrect to carve genuine elephant ivory. Large quantities of elephant tusks were burned and destroyed to stupidly prevent their use by artists of the world to advance this misguided political notion.  See ccmposition (2), engraving.
  Reference:                                                                                                                          
  O6 {1911} American Numismatic Society, IECM, p 172, 328.
  B5 {1916} Kunz (George Frederick)  Ivory and the Elephant, In Art, Archaeology, and In Science, p 95-96.
  AE1{1988} Falk, p 1:261.

  excerpted with permission from

  An Encyclopedia of Coin and Medal Technology

  For Artists, Makers, Collectors and Curators

  COMPILED AND WRITTEN BY D. WAYNE JOHNSON

  Roger W. Burdette, Editor

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