ABSTRACT

Ivory handicraft developed in China 7000 years ago and reached its peak during the Qing dynasty. Among the numerous court collections of ivory handicrafts, a hanging polychrome panel describing a scene of prosperous business at the harbor near Guangzhou with an exquisite embedded ivory carving was analyzed comprehensively for pigments and dyes. A process for painting on ivory was revealed with the help of scientific analysis. In this artifact, the palette included reds made of hematite, cinnabar, and cochineal, blues based on azurite and Prussian blue, and greens made with mixtures of gamboge and Prussian blue. For the first time, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) was used for analyzing the dyes used on ivory. Besides analyzing the pigments and dyes in painted ivory technology, the dating of the painted artifact was estimated on the basis of pigment manufacturing and trading history. It was concluded that the artifact belonged to the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing dynasty.