Salar Jung Museum – The Ivory Collection

The pictures say it all!!

The museum boasts of a collection of unimaginable ivory items such as a coach, coffee tables & chairs, and window panes!

Other functional items such as perfume sprayers, hand-fans and  chess sets are exhibited alongside smaller decorative items.

Ivory is a taboo subject today, but in the days that these pieces were created it was not. The craft required special skills as the material properties are  different from wood and other media for artworks. I wonder about the artisan’s time & experience levels  required to carve out the window panes or the myrrh holder shown below!

A few pictures of the museum display:

A tonga:

A hand fan:

Perfume sprayers:

Probably a myrrh holder:

Painted Indian Ivory

Goan Ivory

Japanese Ivory

Such objects are beyond the experience of the common woman (or man) that without a visit to such a grand museum I might never have known of the existence of such unique things!

jm

March 2014