Featured brass triangle tray with bone ?

hello, can bone be cut that fine or is it some stuff of the old "plastic" stuff as ivorine etc. ?
all ideas welcome. TIA.

 

Bone can be cut that finely, depending on the density of the piece of bone used. I think your sleeping beauty could be bone.
Could you post a pic of the underside of the neck, the edge? I know it is a tricky spot to photograph.

Ivorine generally has ivory-like lines, but no cross-hatched Schreger lines:

 

My first twitch is bone. The way this chipped bit looks layered, not typical of plastic, but bone like, I think.

 

Here's a bone carving that I found a while back (and posted to the forums). A lot of detail, some very fine.

Love the tray...Does anyone know the usage and why the eyes would be closed?

 

Cow bone, lizard bone, something in between? I want to be the right amount of impressed with your lovely, but intimidating frog.

 

From my research, it was either bovine (seems kind of small), or possibly deer. The whole piece was about 8" tall and the toad end was about 2" give or take.

 

Fid didn't give a size, but it looks like a vide-poche, literally empty-pocket. It sits on a hallway table, and as the gentleman of the house enters he chucks his small change and keys on it. Which could be why her eyes are closed, protection.

Alternatively it could be a little bedside tray, for hairpins, earrings, and anything else the lady of the house forgot to take off before going to bed. The girl is already asleep, it is late.

 

Thanks for the explanation, AJ!

 

the base is 30 cm (appr- 12"). for calling cards ?

 

That is much bigger than I thought. Part of a desk set maybe?

 

that's not unusual in art nouveau. besides the poppies as an element of decoration it's a sign of relaxing and sweet dreams. think of Baudelaire about hashish or de Quiney with his opium and laudanum - they still had an influence on the art world.
also showing the neck open would correspond to a visible ankle in Victorian times; the long hair often found - let your hair down etc..
in a certain sense the art nouveau was not only a liberation of the academic art schooling, but also a teeny wee bit for the women. but only a little...

 

Ah, makes good sense. Thanks for the explanation.

Now you're speaking my language ! Well, a language that I knew in the 60s and 70s.

 

One that some of us, er, others are still familiar with...................

 

les paradis artificiels ...

 

as long as you know it for what it is, it is some times so much better than the one you can be forced into unbidden......

 

What a great looking tray. Love it.

Is that new acquisition or something you've had for a while, Fid?

 

newly bought for myself. on second chance. end-price was 155 €, then I received an email that it wasn't paid by the "Winner" - pure shill bidding as usual - and got it for 80 €.

 

you mean you volunteered ? my GF did that. when she hears some old music and I tell her "it's the Who, dear" she replies "oh, I've seen those live when young, but can't remember anything". no wonder in the city where LSD was invented and every chemist had a few dozen sheets of blotting paper at home.

 

I think there is a good possibility she is ivory, I see faint vertical cracks on her lid and under chin and neck areas.
In need of a good clean, and removing glue blobs between her eye corner and hair line

 

I'll try to make better pics with the additional lense later.
frankly, I excluded ivory because it's deep drawn, so probably mass-produced.