Featured Ivory baby seal - is it? Also signature help.

Having a heck of a time figuring out what this is made of - I think there's a chance it's ivory - it's very smoothly polished. With a strong light, there are some lines which look like cracks - seems to be some other texture visible (hard to get photos of) under magnification too, but no schraeger lines - I know that not all ivory has them. At first I thought it might be some kind of plastic but it feels harder than plastic would be - no mold lines, it's not glass or porcelain as it doesn't feel cold enough for that. It's signed down by the tail - hopefully someone will recognize the siggy/name.

3.25 inches (8.25 cm) in length - weighs 2.5 ounces (71 grams).

 

Too big to be vegetable ivory, so maybe whale tooth or walrus? (although it looks more like something man-made)

 

This looks familiar - especially that color...

The scribing doesn't look like ivory. More like resin.

@komokwa?

 

Like her/him

 

The color actually looks more consistent and more saturated in the pictures than in real life - it isn't as deeply yellowed as the pictures make out, and there are areas that are whiter - also there are internal fractures /lines not really visible in the pictures which make me think not resin - but agree about the sig appearing resin-y perhaps. Sorry I'm blaming the pics - I'll try to get pics in sunlight in the morning.

 

After looking some more - the lines i'm seeing in it look almost like craquelure or crazing on pottery (maybe it is ceramic?) - here's a couple pics I upped the contrast on a bit to bring out the lines:

 

I can see some of what you mean...

 

Haahahahaha!!!!!!
Where the hell did you find that ???

I can't even remember where mine came from...
All I know is it came to me after 2002....and it sits here...like some lonely child among my Inuit art work.
It's warm, like some kind of plastic...resin....something like that.
My siggy is similar enuf to be by the same hand.....copywrite symbol and all.
It's a baby white coat seal......which I thought was stained by tobacco smoke...but yours is the same cream color.

The lines on mine look like yours.....and if you pass your fingernail across the body you should find that some if not all are surface indentations......
I can see mine with a good spy glass, in the right light...

More than that............. who knows ?????

 

Looks like it is resin................ https://picclick.com/BABY-SEAL-PUP-by-John-Perry-Hand-sculpture-183509610597.html

 

He's a FEELY SEALY: a sculpture that is soothing to the touch. They are molded from our proprietary resin compound, Pellucida, in a form that resembles polished whale scrimshaw, that we call Balanite. It is about 3 inches long - perfect for the average hand. Each is SIGNED discreetly on the underside and it comes with a CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY. We usually ship very quickly, sometimes even the same day if the order comes in early, otherwise it is nearly always the next day, the exceptions being Mondays when, because of the number of orders coming in from the weekend, some orders may not get shipped until Tuesday.

Out of stock on Amazon, so no price.

But Perry may have been making them for awhile. Yours looks like it has some age to it...

 

Thanks Komo - looks like INH and Scout have pinned down an ID for us

 

Thanks Scout! Feely Sealy - ha - he does beg to be held in the palm!

 

Thanks Holly!

 

Thanks INH

 

Maybe Balanite doesn't hold up all that well. Weren't we wondering if yours was Bakelite, @komokwa?

 

Looks like he's currently selling them on Etsy for 10 bucks. You can see how they yellow as they age - brand new they are baby seal white

https://www.etsy.com/listing/458054...PJ_2zN_Vj5xarlFVfdwPdzi3hl4PDkQhoC7BwQAvD_BwE

 

Maybe not: ( from his website)

In 1973 John Perry founded the Studio with the concept of applying the very latest materials and molding techniques to the reproduction of his sculpture in order to make it as broadly accessible as possible..
He developed “Pellucida.” a compound.of resins that can be presented in a variety of forms, the frosted white version resembling bisque porcelain, the beige version, Balanite, looks like polished ivory, and the black version, Ebonite, like polished ebony.