Asian Necklace

What are the white beads, tagua nut?
Thanks

 

Sure could be... or maybe some kind of wood?
And the colored beads are maybe carnelian or coral, and turquoise?

 

The white ones want to be asian ivory. The others look like coral and Chinese turquoise. I'd have to have it in hand to be sure.

 

Ivory, but whether elephant or mammoth, I'm not sure... Kardi - you know about Schreger lines, right?

 

Not elephant, the lines are wrong. Mammoth wouldn't surprise me.

 

The lines are the same except for a slight difference in the angle of the crosshatch.

 

My problem with the comparison cross-sections I find online, is that they don't show how Shreger lines look on the surface of a carved object...

So, eveylb?? - is Mammoth wider and elephant narrower, or vice versa? I've never had them both in hand to tell the diff.

These look kind of wavy.

If Mammoth, restrictions are significantly less, as Mammoth are extinct.

 

https://www.fws.gov/lab/ivory_natural.php this ought to help.

 

Hollyblue, what do you think they are?

 

Yes, I've seen those (great) articles, but those show interior sections, not what they might look like on a carved item.

I think I would know if I'm looking at elephant ivory - it's dense and uniform.. but when it's looser like these beads, I'm thinking ... mammoth!

I just found this side-by-side comparison (Mammoth left, Elephant right) that makes makes sense to me:

 

Shoot, listed it last night at $33 and got a bid very soon and quite a few watchers.
Described the white beads as tagua nuts because that is what I thought they are.
I hope not to get in trouble.

 

Sorry, I answered in the wrong thread?! But I'll leave it here, anyway.

duh

Hi Cluttered - Some articles on testing the differences between brass, bronze and copper mention possible slight magnetic "interaction" with a very strong magnet, that's why I wrote 'supposed.'

It probably wasn't even worth mentioning, because the test involves using a very strong and not very handy Neodymium magnet. It works with brass that contains some ferrous materials - IOW, not pure brass.

Here's a bunch of people debating the magnetic qualities of brass.
What would make Brass magnetic?

Don't mean to confuse anyone...

 

The tagua nuts I have don't have lines,the white beads look like "French ivory/cellulose". The blue and red beads look like glass in the photos.

 

French ivory only goes in one direction...

I really think it's likely to be mammoth and there is a limited amount of mammoth jewelry selling on ebay. IMO

Apparently, it was banned in a few states, New York among them.

 

There is no crosshatch visible in the photos of the white beads. Mammoth ivory is banned for sale on Ebay as is elephant and walrus.

 

You don't see crosshatch on the center bead at the bottom? it's wavy, but I do see it...

I didn't check whether it's banned... I just checked to see if there was any jewelry by a Swedish designer because I know she works with mammoth ivory. Nothing by her, so I figured it was banned, but there some sold items clearly marked mammoth, just very few.