Old Indian Ivory & Silver pendant. The ivory piece, old and handcarved, with the very fine patina that this material attains with age, dates back to the early 1900s. The pendant “container” setting, handcrafted in Silver, was created in the 1970s, about the time the pendant was purchased in Paherganj in Delhi. The piece is completely hollowed out, work done in the original early 1900s carving, and was probably always used as a container, more likely for salt or some other condiment, with a different Silver cap altogether.

Ivory in India has a long tradition in jewellery and in all sorts of ornamentation. The elephant is a sacred animal in India, treasured and revered, worshipped as the god Ganesha, and valued for its great strength; it has never been killed in India for its ivory. All old ivory in India has its source in elephants that died natural deaths, or in palace elephants which had had their tusks polled for safety reasons.