Ivory Tusk Sections

[Stuart Mitchell]

Rediscovered as part of my shelves clearing antics today.

Purely display pieces of course.

I mentioned elsewhere on the site earlier that over the years Sheffield has used Sambar stag by the god only knows how many tons, same with this material too, elephant ivory.

These were gifted to me many years ago, they were found in one of the cellars at Cooper Bros. & Sons, within their Don Plate Works site, quite macabre things when you think about the ivory trade and what went on in it, they were different times though and unfortunately it did happen, it is thankfully a part of history and so are these tusk sections as a result.

I dread to think how big these tusks as a whole actually were, the end sections that I have here measure over 200mm in length from where they would end/start within the skull to where they have been cut to, at that cut end the oval section of them measure a good 150x200mm, wall thickness between 10mm and 15mm, they are big lumps of material as they are, and these are the least usable bits.

They would have easily stood at 6 or 7 feet I would have thought?

Mind blowing things to own.

 

[Rhodesianjess]

Used in Africa as bracelets or carved as a sort of frieze effect. Quite often show chip marks from where they were chopped out of the skull sockets with an axe. Ivory weights differ according to how long the hollow part extended,a 6 foot long tusk with small hollows weighing more although appearing short on the animal.
The world record tusks,iirc,are around 230lb and ten foot long. Diameter would have been around 2 foot.
Quick Google search would give correct measurements.

 

[willie_gunn]

With an appropriate liner those would make some pretty impressive ice buckets!