This is one of many, many little scrimshandered pendants I made in the early part of my art fair career. I bought (what I recall being) 3 pounds of fossilized walrus ivory scraps, though such a huge amount seems incredible now. At any rate, I had a lot of it. I would fit the drawing to the shape of the piece, and cats like this one, along with dragons, were my best sellers.
persian cat, fossilized walrus ivory. At a guess, the piece is between 25 and 35mm high.
To be frank, this is not a particularly strong piece, particularly in the face—it's just one of a handful that never sold. But it takes great strength of hand to do this work, and I doubt very much I could make such a pendant even this well today, at least not without some serious ramping up (and hand exercise...)
Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.
