Curious Deformed In-Growing Tusk of an Elephant (1700 to 1900 Africa)

Ivory

cf: Natural History Museum, Tervuren, Brussels, for a comparable specimen

In 1982 in the Yonne in France, a cave once inhabited by Neanderthals was found to contain a small grouping of fossils and lumps of iron pyrite. Over 35,000 years ago this mysterious collection was made by modern man’s distant relative. It did not serve any obvious practical purpose and shows that the instinct for creative personal hoarding is both ancient and widespread.
Elephant tusks are the upper incisor teeth, which grow with a forward curve from deep downward pointing sockets. This mysterious deformed tusk is the equivalent to a human in-growing wisdom tooth and is worthy of a place in any ‘cabinet d’curiosities’.

The Curious Deformed In-Growing Tusk of an Elephant
18th – early 19th Century
Old smooth silky patina

Size: 46cm wide – 18 ins wide / 61cm wide – 24 ins wide (circumference) approx