Bone carving

Bone carving encompasses the acts of creating art, tools, and other goods by carving animal bones, antlers, and horns. It can result in the ornamentation of a bone or the creation of a distinct object. Bone carving has been practiced by a variety of world cultures, sometimes as a cheaper, and recently a legal, substitute for ivory carving.[1] It was important in prehistoric art, with notable figures like the Swimming Reindeer, made of antler, and many of the Venus figurines. The Anglo-Saxon Franks Casket is a bone casket imitating earlier ivory ones.

A face carved on a piece of curved bone. The face is framed by hair and part of a winged head-dress remains. Coptic.
Alaska Grasendes Karibu c1910 Linden-Museum.

Bone was also used by artists and craftsmen to try out their designs, especially by metalworkers. Such pieces are known as "trial-pieces".

See also

References

  1. Sims, Margaret E.; Baker, Barry W.; Hoesch, Robert M. (2011). "Tusk or Bone? An Example of Ivory Substitute in the Wildlife Trade". Ethnobiology Letters. 2: 40–45. doi:10.14237/ebl.2.2011.27. JSTOR 26419931.
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