CA$425
Approx. 52 cm x 18 cm
Friedrich Moh was a German mineralogist who invented the Moh Hardness scale for minerals. It is a reference scale of 10 minerals: talc being the softest, diamond being the hardest. Other mineral’s hardness is compared to this scale.
Poaching of African elephants has been happening for decades. There have been many interventions to combat this activity. One approach was to pre-emptively remove the tusks to deter poachers. It makes life in the wild difficult for the elephant, but it saves their lives. The ivory of the tusks is what is coveted, and the body is discarded. In some regions of east Africa, some elephants have evolved to be born tuskless as a result of natural and unnatural genetic selection. We learned this while sitting still in a palm forest surrounded by 14 elephants including the matriarch, adults, youth and babies.
Ivory has a hardness comparable to bone. Glass (hardness score of 5.5) is harder than ivory (hardness score of 3-5). The glaze used in ceramics is essentially glass – being comprised of silica and other minerals.
Can we change what one covets?
