
The Artistry of China’s Ivory Puzzle Balls - mcenedella
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/puzzle-balls-from-guangzhou
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paulsutter
Can never be produced legally again? What about synthetic ivory?

[https://www.nature.com/articles/507040a](https://www.nature.com/articles/507040a)

> Synthetic ivory can now be crafted to the same diagnostic standards as
> genuine ivory (see M. E. Sims et al. Ethnobiol. Lett. 2, 40–44; 2011), and
> its price in China is only about 14% of that of real ivory

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bitcurious
"This traditional art from Guangzhou can never be produced legally again."

Weird tagline, both crass and wrong. There are legal sources of ivory, mainly
antiques and mammoth tusks.

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kingkawn
The trade in pre-existing ivory is being made broadly illegal as well

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reaperducer
During America's Civil War, solders made similar pieces of art from bones,
wood, or whatever was at hand.

Some of the simpler items I've seen in museums were linked chains made from a
single bone. The more detailed ones were round balls carved inside of square
cages.

To be sure, they were nowhere as advanced as these Chinese artworks. But then,
the soldiers were just using whatever was laying around, and were also busy
fighting a war.

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anonu
The presentation linked in the article has some awesome images of the
individual spheres:

[https://www.cwi.nl/events/cwi-scientific-
meetings-1/cwiscien...](https://www.cwi.nl/events/cwi-scientific-
meetings-1/cwiscientific.pdf)

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Isamu
VERY interesting presentation of details on how the nested spheres were
carved, with some surprising results, e.g.:

layers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 are clearly visible

layers 6, 7, 8 and 9 are carved ‘blindly’

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fredophile
Several people on here seem concerned about this no longer happening due to
restrictions on ivory. You can still get these in other materials like stone.
I have one that is "jade" (more likely some random cheap green rock) that I
bought in Hong Kong about a decade ago.

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zackkatz
Really beautiful pieces. Unfortunately, the article doesn’t give any details
as to their creation. Just check out the pictures.

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bshep
Quote from the article:

The region’s method is detailed in an 1876 publication by the Scottish
photographer John Thompson, who traveled extensively around China. According
to him, an artist first used a lathe to rotate a block of ivory, shaping it
into a sphere. They then drilled evenly distributed conical holes towards the
ball’s center. Accessing the interior with an L-shaped tool, they would carve
grooves to form concentric gaps, creating layers. “Hole after hole is in like
manner centered,” Thompson wrote, “until all the grooves are cut, and meeting
each other, the innermost ball falls into the center of the sphere. This inner
ball is then moved about and carved with long tools passed through the holes,
after which the bent chisel is again brought into play to cut out the next
ball.”

