The use of ivory is mentioned in various ancient Indian texts and more recent accounts by European travellers. Ivory was used to make small objects, furniture, and architectural decorations.
While we are familiar with palanquins and howdahs in ivory today, as well as a few rare examples of seats made entirely of carved ivory plates from South India circa 1820-1830, only two ivory doors are known to exist. One of these doors, presumed to have come from the former royal palace of Mysore (destroyed by fire in 1897), has been dismantled, and the eight carved panels with which it was adorned have been dispersed in various public and private collections.
This exceptional and impressive piece features eight historiated panels, set within finely worked friezes and rosettes which depict royal or princely figures engaging in various amorous games in gallant company. The chastely erotic nature of the eight scenes depicted is fully in keeping with the iconographic repertoire of South Indian ivories and contrasts with the cruder eroticism that characterized Orissa ivories from the 13th century onwards. As for the Marathi-style turban worn by five of the eight male protagonists - the wearing of which did not become widespread in South India until the last decades of the 17th century - it is an element that makes it possible to date the decoration of the door to the 18th century or even the very early 19th century. Perfectly representative of the decorative opulence of Indian palaces, this spectacular ivory door also demonstrates, not without brilliance, the extraordinary virtuosity of Indian ivory craftsmen - a virtuosity attested throughout the centuries and of which the remarkable group of engraved and sculpted ivories from the “Begram treasure” (Afghanistan, 1st century) is undoubtedly the oldest and most precious testimony.
