KHOLOMOGORY SCHOOL, YAKUTIA, CIRCA 1848

In the course of many centuries, the mastery of the ivory-carvers of the Kholmogory (Archangelsk) region without doubt gained and deserved wide renown. The most celebrated examples of the art of carving on ivory were created in the northern part of Russia in the XVIII century and the beginning of the XIX century, when the unexcelled traditions of the local school were definitely formed and firmly established. The rich deposits of mammoth tusk and the large-scale walrus trade in the Arctic Ocean were the main factors responsible for the flourishing of bone-carving in Yakutia. In the XVII and XVIII centuries an important contribution to its development was made by Russian settlers, especially from the Kholmogory region. In the XIX century Yakut caskets, combs and clock-stands were richly decorated with ingenious ornaments and scenes of everyday life. For similar caskets, see, E. Ukhanova, Bone-carving in Russia in XVIII-XIX centuries, Leningrad, 1981 ill. pp. 195 and 197.