Remirus Rex under another, while a figure of a sculptor carving a
shield, with a workman standing by him, is labelled "Magistro and
Ridolpho his son."

Few individual ivory carvers are known by name. A French artist,
Jean Labraellier, worked in ivory for Charles V. of France; and
in Germany it must have been quite a fashionable pursuit in high
life; the Elector of Saxony, August the Pious, who died in 1586,
was an ivory worker, and there are two snuff-boxes shown as the
work of Peter the Great. The Elector of Brandenburgh and Maximilian
of Bavaria both carved ivory for their own recreation. In the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there were many well-known
sculptors who turned their attention to ivory; but our researches
hardly carry us so far.

For a moment, however, I must touch on the subject of billiard
balls. It may interest our readers to know that the size of the
little black dot on a ball indicates its quality. The nerve which
runs through a tusk, is visible at this point, and a ball made from
the ivory near the end of the tusk, where the nerve has tapered
off to its smallest proportions, is the best ball. The finest balls
of all are made from short stubby tusks, which are known as "ball
teeth." The ivory in these is closer in grain, and they are much
more expensive. Very large tusks are more liable to have coarse
grained bony spaces near the centre.




CHAPTER X