The business of Wednesday's meeting over, Mr. G, E. Marden gave a Yeeture on Chinese ivories. which he explained in a very vivid and inter~ esting way SMustrating his. remarks With his own large collection. explained that the ivory from clephant, mammoth and walrus {usks was imported into China and that the Chinese love for this wonderful material was centuries old—schools of different styles of carving having developed in Peiping, Canton Shanghai. The shape of an elephant tusk being very favourable for por traying the female figure, the big Ivory starties are mostly those of women. Ivory, is recognized by the grain marks." "Live™ ivory coming, from "an. animal which has recently died differs from "dead" ivory, which can be very old. Some times a piece looks very oli—but it may be only the ivory and not the carving which is antique. The Chinese in olden days reckoned ivory, to be of equal or even higher value' with jade and precious stones. They etched, painted or carved the ivory, using low, high and full relief and algo tinted pieces. As ivory is also used for industrial purposes, such as billiard balls, small. parts of a tusk sometimes remain and are carved, but in a much less artistic way.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.