From the sixth century BC, there was more than Yunnan and the Canton region. Later, through the development of maritime trade, the Chinese imported it from the east coast of Africa an ivory finest quality. If
craft of ivory is a luxury product, almost exclusively for export, "paper cut" is certainly the most popular of all traditional Chinese arts. In every home during the Christmas New Year, we decorate the windows and walls of these figures with extraordinary finesse. Flowers, butterflies, dragons, phoenixes, silhouettes are cleverly cut in white paper or multicolored.
With the development of cast iron, bronze and iron especially, the Chinese disposèrent early tools to sculpt more finely ivory, hard material, which nevertheless allowed an extraordinary delicacy of the work. The tools used differed little from those that are still in use today: gouges, chisels of all sizes, fine 'language of asps, drills, rasps and buffers were fixed on bamboo sticks of varying thickness.
District has long been a major center of handicrafts in ivory. Cantonese objects are distinguished by the complexity of their sculpture, very detailed and sober and less than the North. From the eighteenth century they were mainly for export to Europe, who loves "red" and particularly appreciates the extraordinary virtuosity of the craftsmen Cantonese. The ball-Canton "are hollow spheres, decorated with fine carvings pierced, and they contain other balls, just as finely worked (sometimes up to 18) cut in the same block and all phones.
