Dating Chinese carving

8 I recently picked up this carving and am having trouble dating it. It's larger than most I've seen at approximately 24" x 19 and unmarked. The pieces I usually encounter are the smaller cultural revolution type, usually carved in boxwood. Any insight would be great.

 

Any markings on the bottom?

 

Unfortunately no. It's completely unmarked. I added a photo of the bottom

 

It doesn't look hand carved in the photos,probably modern and cnc router carved.

link............

 

Looks hand carved to me.

 

I also think it's hand carved. You can spot the imperfections which hint to this.

 

Thanks for the link Hollyblue. While i couldn't get it to play it did point me into the direction of cnc carvings. I see what you mean. Some larger carvings are done on cnc axis machines. However this one appears, upon close inspection, to be completely hand done. There are too many inconsistencies in the surface, especially on the smooth rounded areas (boys head, koi's head etc.) Also there are areas where you can still see evidence of the rough chisel work that was done, especially under the koi's tail. I only wish whoever did this piece would have marked it in some way. Either way, my better half has deemed it too large to live in my collection since the area for my carvings is limited to a shelf in my office and is not to find its way into other parts of the house (sculptures of people creep her out) so it will have to seek residence elsewhere in the near future.

 

I like it. Pm me if you ever decide parting with it. I already got a nice space for it in mind

 

3D laser scanning can reproduce any imperfection from the original model.The 7 holes on the base also look like they are for a "pin" chuck.

 

It was probably done both by machine and hand. The 6 holes on the bottom was caused by the wood chuck vise on the lathe or cnc machine in order to spin it. After the machining was done with the rough cut, it was then chiseled and sanded by hand.

Kevin

 

Thanks Kevin.
I am unfortunately a novice when it comes to wood carving techniques and always eager to learn. The questions I have are; If it was first turned on a lathe wouldn't it have a more, for lack of a better term, cylindrical appearance? If you look at it the back part especially it has a very flat appearance and all of the widest points on the figure are consistently even with the widest points of the base which appears very rectangular almost like it was taken from block. And secondly, if it was first cut out with a machine, why bother wasting your time chiseling and chipping away at the underside parts that nobody sees when you could conceivably just cut it out with the machine (a router type bit or something along those lines) to achieve the desired shape and leave it at that? It seems Like a lot of work to give a hand carved look to the parts that nobody is really gonna see anyway. Like I said I'm a novice so any insight would be great. As far as the holes on the bottom It was suggested that it might not be screw holes from a lathe faceplate but rather a base may have been attached to it so it could be worked without moving or tipping but, again, I just don't know anything about modern woodworking.

 

I think it's a modern wood carving based on the 7 holes (not six from my original post). The holes may have come from the CNC machine or something like that to remove the vast majority of the wood. Also, it's possible that the woodcarver bought an already seasoned wood blank (circular) that was formed by a lathe. This way, the woodcarver could carefully choose the best piece for the carving he or she had in mind. This would be easier than trying to find a fallen tree, etc. Do they make wood carving clamps that screw in the bottom? Yes. However, I would still consider those clamps modern because I've not seen any antique Chinese wood carvings with that kind of hole alignment. However, my search wasn't that extensive. If I had to choose an answer between modern vs antique; I would choose modern. I cannot give you a definite answer because I'm not an expert in any one field. This explains why I buy just about anything.

Kevin

 

Again, thanks Kevin. I'll just have to do some more research. Hopefully I can find something similar to base a date on. As I said before the wife is not happy that it's in the hall and it will probably live elsewhere eventually but in the meantime it will give me something to ponder. All the best.

 

CNC engravings on eBay

 

how ya ever gonna know the difference between this and handcarved.....??

 

IMHO Japanese, hand carved 1970's?

 

I'd suggest yumcha at a fine restaurant, and then an evening of Peking Opera...