The German Ivory Museum Erbach (''Deutsches Elfenbeinmuseum Erbach'') is a museum in

Erbach im Odenwald Erbach () is a town and the district seat of the Odenwaldkreis (district) in Hesse, Germany. It has a population of around 13,000. Geography Location The town lies in the ''Mittelgebirge'' Odenwald at elevations between 200 and 560 m in t ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It was founded in 1966, but the collection was started by Count Francis I in the late 18th century. The city of Erbach then developed to become one of the centres for

ivory carving Ivory carving is the carving of ivory, that is to say animal tooth or tusk, generally by using sharp cutting tools, either mechanically or manually. Objects carved in ivory are often called "ivories". Humans have ornamentally carved ivory since ...

. The museum exhibition consists of more than two thousand items that represent European, African, Asian, and Greenlandic ivory carving art from the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

to the present day. One of the focuses is the work of ivory carvers in the Odenwald area in the 19th and 20th centuries, for example

Jan Holschuh Jan Holschuh (Beerfelden, 9 August 1909 – Michelstadt, 2 August 2000) was a German sculptor and a designer. He was one of the leading contemporary ivory carving artists. Many of his ivory sculptures are housed in the German Ivory Museum Er ...

. In early 2006, the museum was modernised and extended.''Deutsches Elfenbeinmuseum öffnet seine Pforten''
/ref> Other ivory museums in this region are the privately owned Ivory Museum Michelstadt and the church-owned Ivory Museum Walldürn.

References

Literature

* Hans Werner Hegemann: ''Wegweiser durch das Deutsche Elfenbeinmuseum Erbach''. Deutsches Elfenbeinmuseum, Erbach 1979 * Brochures of the German Ivory Museum Erbach.

External links

Deutsches Elfenbeinmuseum Erbach

Deutsches Elfenbeinmuseum Erbach
auf der Webseite museen-in-hessen.de Museums in Erbach im Odenwald Art museums established in 1966 Decorative arts museums in Germany Ivory 1966 establishments in West Germany {{Hesse-struct-stub