A 19th century Colonial silver and fossil ivory snuff box, the fossil ivory top applied with a te

A 19th century Colonial silver and fossil ivory snuff box, the fossil ivory top applied with a temple scene with chased foliate scroll borders, each side of fossil ivory with engraved mounts and an ivory base, 8cm x 5.5cm Fossil ivory is found mostly in Siberia around the Lena River, and other rivers that drain into the Arctic Ocean. It is the semi fossilized remains of ancient elephant or ‘woolly mammoth’ (elephas primigenius) tusks, which were frozen during the pleistocene era, 200,000 years ago.