This object is part of a chain made in walrus ivory. It was made in Russia in the area of Archangel in ca. 1830 and consists of ten plaques pierced with rosettes. Each of the plaques is united to the next by ten short chains, which are composeed of minute circular links. The ivory chain recalls those seen in gold jewellery. The ornament is not traditionally Russian and may have been derived from a pattern book. Russia has a long tradition of ivory carving, going back to at least the twelfth century. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Moscow and the Russian Court were important centres of artistic patronage, which included commissioning works in ivory. The few Russian ivories in the V&A collection are dominated by those from Cholmogory, near Archangel, in North East Russia. Here a tradition of making decorative objects in walrus ivory, such as caskets and jewellery, grew up in the nineteenth century.