Indian Ebony Panels with Company School Miniatures
A pair of Indian carved ebony panels inset with company school miniatures, 19th century, each panel of ebony intricately carved in relief with scrolling flowers, inset with eight ivory miniatures in silver collars, including Mughal style portraits of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan, and architectural scenes including the Taj Mahal, the central portrait miniatures 4.53 in. high, 3.35 in. high, the panels 25.59 in. high, 12.01 in. wide. Other Notes: please note that all lots marked with the symbol * are subject to CITES regulations when exporting these items outside of Australia. Information these regulations May be found at www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/trade-use/cites/index.html or May be requested from: the Director, international Wildlife trade, Department of Sustainability, Environment, water, Population and Communities, GPO box 787, Canberra ACT 2601.
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- Ivory - Ivory is a hard white material that comes from the tusks of elephants, mammoth, walrus and boar, or from the teeth of hippopotamus and whales. The ivory from the African elephant is the most prized source of ivory. Although the mammoth is extinct, tusks are still being unearthed in Russia and offered for sale.
Ivory has been used since the earliest times as a material for sculpture of small items, both in Europe and the east, principally China and Japan.
In Asia ivory has been carved for netsuke, seals, okimono, card cases, fan supports, animals and other figures and even as carved tusks.
In the last 200 years in Europe ivory has been used to carve figures, for elaborate tankards, snuff boxes, cane handles, embroidery and sewing accessories, in jewellery and as inlay on furniture. Its more practical uses include being used for billiard balls, buttons, and a veneers on the top of piano keys.
The use and trade of elephant ivory have become controversial because they have contributed to Due to the decline in elephant populations because of the trade in ivory, the Asian elephant was placed on Appendix One of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), in 1975, and in January 1990, the African elephant was similarly listed. Under Appendix One, international trade in Asian or African elephant ivory between member countries is forbidden. Unlike trade in elephant tusks, trade in mammoth tusks is legal.
Since the invention of plastics, there have been many attempts to create an artificial ivory - Ebony - Ebony is a close grained timber, black in colour. It has a fine texture which can be polished to a high gloss, making it suitable for venereering, inlay and stringing and its use as solid timber is resticted to small decorative items and ornamental decoration, such as chess pieces and musical instrument parts. The term "ebonised" means "faux ebony", timber that has been darkened during the polishing process to resemble ebony.
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