Featured What the heck is this? Any thoughts? I appreciate it! :-)

This belongs to a friend of mine. She bought it at a house sale. The flowers appear to be ivory? Thanks so much!

 

You can go back and edit out your duplicate photos.
Others will be along to help you.

 

Wow ! My first thought was 1860-1880s Chinese ,but the panels the flowers are set in sure look like more modern wood,so Im wondering if its a later piece. Though some are against it, I would do the hot needle test on a hidden spot on those flowers. If it smells like plastic,then youll know its later.Either way,its a statement piece !

 

Not sure what this would be called in Chinese but it is basically a curio cabinet. I don't think this is terribly old but a lot of work certainly went in to it. I am not seeing any signs of wear and the carving is not the highest quality. Johnny's good eye also spotted the newer luan panel in the insets. I would bet the flowers are plastic but I suppose anything is possible.

 

Here are others. Don't know if any have carved flowers like yours. Most of these are being called Japanese. You can't prove either Chinese or Japanese by me.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Chi...hUKEwjbv6aR343QAhXnxlQKHRCkBX0QsAQIJw#imgrc=_

Scroll down to #344:
http://www.forsythesauctions.com/auction020313_9.htm

--- Susan

 

Very well could be Japanese or Chinese in a Japanese style. .... or even Korean. They do a lot of furniture with applied decoration.

 

Yup, curio or curiousity cabinet. I've seen some astonishing 18th C ones.

 

Can you get a close up of the flowers?
Don't do the hot needle test. It can ruin the flower, or possibly catch fire.

Plastic might show seams around the edges. Plastic will be warmer to the touch. Ivory will be cooler.

Ivory has schreger lines

 

It's a piece to build a room around for certain. I doubt it's incredibly old, but it's decorative.

 

i doubt those flowers are real ivory.
their shape just doesn't seen to be from a tusk of any kind i know..

 

No TOTO no.

 

I'll ask her to send me a closer picture of the flowers. I appreciate all of the input! It's a cool piece, and I have never seen anything like it- not that I'm well versed in this stuff!

 

If they ARE ivory, they may have been carved petal by petal and assembled. Even if another material, I doubt that those dimensional pieces would have been produced "whole".

 

I was half wondering if they could be white jade or something. As I said, I know next to nothing about this type of furniture. I guess I'll wait till she sends better pictures. On a fun note, she paid $5 for it! No matter what it ends up being, she definitely got her moneys worth

 

And more!

 

For five bucks? I'll say! Odds are it's a relatively recent piece, but some import shop charged the original buyer about $800 - $1000 for it if memory serves.

 

Hope these are good enough quality to make seeing the flowers simpler.
Thanks again, this has been fun and interesting!

 

I'll be darned..........that looks a lot like ivory......hummmmmm!