CELESTIAL SKILL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VI, Issue 306, 28 February 1879, Page 5

CELESTIAL SKILL.

The skill displayed by the Chinese in carving ivory balls into each other has excited the wonder and admiration of Europeans. Nothing can afford a greater proof of patience and perseverance, as well as ot the taste of a Chinese handicraftsman, than one of these elegant baubles, each ball being exquisitely carved, and no two alike in pattern. Each of these balls rolls freely within that which encloses it, and is visible through apertures, so that, however many there may be the beauties of each may be examined and the number of the whole counted Ihe labor of two years is not unfrequently bestowed on the production of a single toy, which is formed out of a solid globe of ivory, and has no junction in any pail. The outside of this globe is first carved in sonic very open pattern, and is then carefully cut with a fine, sharp instrument through the openings, until a complete coating is detached from the solid part inside! as the peel of an ?ST SS r bc 1l1 l0 11 ° Bene 11 d 11 Y 1 . tll a scoop from the fruit without being taken oft. One hollow ball is thus formed, with a solid ball inside of <tw f*\ " rfac ° of inner ball is then carved through the interstices of the outer one, and, when finished, is subjected to the same operations as the first and thus a second hollow ball is produced, still with a solid one of smaller dimensions inside. This process is KniTi 11 ai !i a S ain ' 11 t t c difficulties increasing as the work proceeds, till at length a small ball, of the size of a marble, is left in the JSVi?™^ JSJ S ?S ° T n T cn Itcd1 ted with fi - ures cut "P° n it- and then the ingenious but useless bauble is completed. This process is said to be performed under water.— Hasten Herald