Articles
Dieppe ivory carving representing a group of character and cat holding a bird cage, very high fineness of execution, time of the nineteenth century.
This group is in very good condition.
To report, miss a net of ivory at the back of the cage.
Dieppe sailors would have discovered Guinea before the Portuguese. In 1384, they would have brought back a large quantity of ivory, which would have been at the origin of the vocation of the Norman port. The multiplication of ivory workshops quickly gave Dieppe a preponderance in Europe in the field of tablet work . In the 17th century, all kinds of religious objects or profane objects were made, such as boxes, shuttles, fans, fly boxes, powder, scientific instruments such as compasses, sundials, Famous tobacco graters, or "grivoises" . In the 18th century, the new production is characterized by perforations, turned objects. Numerous objects are executed: carved, guilloché, grooved and sawed carvings, snuffboxes, shuttles for ladies, knives, baskets, crucifixes and other "well finished" crucifixes of all sizes, figures of saints, fans And billiard balls, dice, chess games and dominoes . We must also mention the miniatures and portraits. The revolutionary period and the First Empire are not very favorable to the work of ivory. At the Restoration , the Comtesse de Berry settled there and the city became fashionable . His taste for the neo- Gothic is then inscribed both in furniture and in all the production of objects of all kinds. The taste for ivory is very lively: one carries in remembrance or by way of present an ivory of local production. The craze continued until 1850. The appearance of the Celluloid in 1869 was a fatal blow to this craft. The ivories of Dieppe are very sought after by the collectors , depending on the quality of the decoration and the theme.
