The name miniature does not come from its reduced format but from the Latin "miniare" which means to write in the minium. This art form owes its name to minium, a lead oxide used as a reddish-orange pigment for tracing letters on manuscripts. 

Around 1700, the ivory leaf appeared in the history of miniature painting. The qualities of the new medium were quickly appreciated in several European countries and in France Pierre 

Adolphe Hall, a miniaturist of Swedish origin who settled in Paris in 1766, revolutionised the art of miniature painting through the systematic use of ivory. This new medium dominated 

the production of the end of the 18th century and throughout the 19th century. Ivory miniatures can be recognised by the striations on the animal's horn that can be seen. 

The invention in 1839 of the daguerreotype, the forerunner of photography, eventually led to the virtual disappearance of the ivory miniature. 

On 1 July 1975, the Convention controlling and regulating international trade in endangered species came into force, and this was the final end of ivory miniatures.