CIRCA 1809

Ivory carving from walrus and mammoth tusks has long been a tradition within popular Russian folk art since the Middle Ages, originating in the northern regions but enjoying greater popularity in the second half of the 18th Century. Several production centers of ivory carving were known at the time. These included Holmongory, Archangelsk, Moscow and St. Petersburg. In the second half of the 18th Century the best craftsmen migrated to St. Petersburg to practice their skills, producing mostly small items such as caskets, work boxes, toilet boxes and combs. The wealthier clientele also commissioned miniature cabinets, toilet tables and bureau cabinets. The Czars long patronized this specifically Russian craft and numerous pieces are still to be found in Russian museums and Imperial palaces. A similar mirror is illustrated as the frontispiece in E.N. Ukhanova, Ivory Carving in Russia XVIII-XIX Centuries, Leningrad, 1981.