Note 84 — K (continued 2)

In the Vizagapatam district, some artisans are engaged in the ivory-carving industry. They “manufacture for European clients fancy articles, such as chess-boards, photograph frames, card-cases, trinket boxes, and so on, from tortoise-shell, horn, porcupine quills, and ivory. The industry is in a flourishing state, and has won many medals at exhibitions. It is stated to have been introduced by Mr. Fane, who was Collector of the district from 1859 to 1862, and to have then been developed by the Kamsalis, and men of other castes who eventually took it up. The foundation of the fancy articles is usually sandal-wood, which is imported from Bombay. Over this are laid porcupine quills split in half and placed side by side, or thin slices of ‘bison,’ buffalo, or stag horn, tortoise-shell, or ivory. The ivory is sometimes laid over the horn or shell, and is always either cut into geometrical patterns with a small key-hole saw, or etched with designs representing gods and flowers. The etching is done with a small V tool, and then black wax is melted into the design with a tool like a soldering iron, any excess being scraped off with a chisel, and the result is polished with a leaf of Ficus asperrima (the leaves of which are very rough, and used as a substitute for sand-paper). This gives a black design (sgraffito) on a white ground. The horn and porcupine quills are obtained from the Agency, and the tortoise-shell and ivory mainly from Bombay through the local Marvaris. The designs employed both in the etching and fret-work are stiff, and suited rather to work in metal than in ivory; and the chief merit of this Vizagapatam work perhaps lies in its careful finish—a rare quality in Indian objects of art. The ivory is rarely carved now, but, in the Calcutta Museum and elsewhere, may be seen samples of the older Vizagapatam work, which often contained ivory panels covered with scenes from holy writ, executed in considerable relief.”84