Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Ivory in China

Berthold Laufer - Ivory in China (1925)

Open Library direct link
Open Library main page

This could be considered a sort of companion to the last post about diamonds in China though the focus this time isn't so much on folklore (though there's plenty of that) as on early Chinese accounts of the elephant along with art, walrus ivory, ivory substitutes (sea-horse teeth?), things made from ivory (including cricket cages) and ivory making its way through Europe and the Americas.