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- objects included elegant fans, snuff bottles, card cases, the famous devils� balls or concentric ��balls within balls�; trinkets such as puzzles and all sorts of games were made with ivory such as mah-jong sets, chessmen, dominoes, dice. Ivory accessories included jewellery like beads, bracelets, pendants, broaches, chains, hairpins, combs, archer�s rings, belt buckles as well as utilitarian items such as chopsticks, back-scratchers, caskets for sewing kits, workboxes, furniture inlay, woven baskets, lanterns, vushions, purses, pomanders, hilts of daggers, parts of opium pipes and containers of for the drug, cigarette holders and bird cages made entirely of interwoven ivory rods. Sometimes even whole miniature architectural scenes of temples, pagodas, and pavilions amidst mountains were made as well as elaborate boats. Some of the scenes on ivoiy plaques of the 18th and 19th centuries are truly amazing with intricate compositions of buildings, trees, mountains and clouds as well as the ever present human figures in the landscape, who can be seen sitting, standing, riding, playing, reading and various other attitudes. The depth of carving on these surfaces can be full relief or deep carving giving a sense of three-dimensionality.
Ivory carving in China continued to be strong well into the years of the Republic of China (1911-1949) and many imitations of classical models were produced. In 1937 with the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese war, many ivory carvers fled to the safety of the British Crown Colony, Hong Kong. These ivory worker refugees set up new workshops and soon Hong Kong had a thriving ivory carving business. After World War II and the Communist takeover in China in 1949, Hong Kong continued to carve vast amounts of ivory. Guangzhou also continued to carve some ivory, and the ones carved in mainland China during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) often show elaborate Communist Revolutionary themes.
Commercial ivory carvers in the twentieth century have learned how to fake antique ivory carvings by staining them to copy the natural colour of aging. Today the once thriving ivory carving industry in China is all but dead due to the ban on exports of ivory.
Through most of its history in China, anonymous craftsmen made ivory works of art. However, there are a few ivory pieces from the Song, Ming and Qing periods that have the mark of their maker and there are some historical records which list the names of prominent ivory carvers.
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