Unusual four-drawer Tasmanian chest with turned ivory handles.…
click the photo to enlarge
Unusual four-drawer Tasmanian chest with turned ivory handles. 94 cm x 42 cm x 89 cm

You must be a subscriber, and be logged in to view price and dealer details.

Subscribe Now to view actual auction price for this item

When you subscribe, you have the option of setting the currency in which to display prices to $Au, $US, $NZ or Stg.

This item has been sold, and the description, image and price are for reference purposes only.
  • Turning - Any part of a piece of furniture that has been turned and shaped with chisels on a lathe. Turned sections include legs, columns, feet, finials, pedestals, stretchers, spindles etc. There have been many varieties and fashions over the centuries: baluster, melon, barley-sugar, bobbin, cotton-reel, rope-twist, and so on. Split turning implies a turned section that has been cut in half lengthwise and applied to a cabinet front as a false decorative support.
  • Ivory - Ivory is a hard white material that comes from the tusks of elephants, mammoth, walrus and boar, or from the teeth of hippopotamus and whales. The ivory from the African elephant is the most prized source of ivory. Although the mammoth is extinct, tusks are still being unearthed in Russia and offered for sale.

    Ivory has been used since the earliest times as a material for sculpture of small items, both in Europe and the east, principally China and Japan.

    In Asia ivory has been carved for netsuke, seals, okimono, card cases, fan supports, animals and other figures and even as carved tusks.

    In the last 200 years in Europe ivory has been used to carve figures, for elaborate tankards, snuff boxes, cane handles, embroidery and sewing accessories, in jewellery and as inlay on furniture. Its more practical uses include being used for billiard balls, buttons, and a veneers on the top of piano keys.

    The use and trade of elephant ivory have become controversial because they have contributed to Due to the decline in elephant populations because of the trade in ivory, the Asian elephant was placed on Appendix One of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), in 1975, and in January 1990, the African elephant was similarly listed. Under Appendix One, international trade in Asian or African elephant ivory between member countries is forbidden. Unlike trade in elephant tusks, trade in mammoth tusks is legal.

    Since the invention of plastics, there have been many attempts to create an artificial ivory

Visually similar items

A Louis XV mahogany commode, 19th century, with a grey white marble top with ear form corners above three quarter fluted pillars, three panelled drawers with brass bracket swing handles upon hexagonal mounts, raised on tapering feet and toupie feet, height

Sold by in for
You can display prices in $Au, $US, $NZ or Stg.

A Louis XV mahogany commode, 19th century, with a grey white marble top with ear form corners above three quarter fluted pillars, three panelled drawers with brass bracket swing handles upon hexagonal mounts, raised on tapering feet and toupie feet. Height

Sold by in for
You can display prices in $Au, $US, $NZ or Stg.

A Georgian mahogany chest of drawers, late 18th century, with a flat top above two small and three long drawers of graduating depth, with brass swing handles, cockbeading and raised on a slightly extended base with shaped bracket feet. Height 95 cm. Width

Sold by in for
You can display prices in $Au, $US, $NZ or Stg.

George III mahogany flat front chest with wide crossbanded top, two short and three long graduated cock beaded drawers on bracket feet

Sold by in for
You can display prices in $Au, $US, $NZ or Stg.