Scrimshaw - Real or Fake?

I am incurable optimist. This very small slice (2 1/2" inches x 1" x 1/8" of something has a sailing ship engraved on it. I bought it to ask questions, so if something real shows up later, I can spot it. Therefore, I would very much appreciate you helping with my quest. I have a piece of modern scrimshaw by a current artist, but I would like to find a reasonably priced older piece. I would like to know how to tell the difference through the eyes of people who handle this type of art.
The reasons I thought it was older is the yellowish color of the piece, and it looks like a flake of an original piece of something. The argument for fake is that it has a bale that a chain is attached to. I appreciate any comments.

 

My gut feeling is it's real....looks like someone varnished it as well....but last couple of images in particular look to have some visible Schreger lines showing......so many can be so faint as well.....wait for others, as I know you will......
Here's a decent link with a ton of examples of different lines though!!!

https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=whalebone+and+schreger+lines&fr=yhs-trp-001&hspart=trp&hsimp=yhs-001&imgurl=https://curatorialtrainee.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/ivory.jpg#id=4&iurl=https://curatorialtrainee.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/ivory.jpg&action=click

 

Do you know what type of ivory you have? People have been dying ivory with tea for many years to yellow it to fake natural aging. I have 10,000 + year old mammoth ivory which is white. Dying ivory article ... https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...d-1947-law-uk-parliament-debate-a7564171.html

 

Thank you Aqui. I will certainly look at this.

 

Thank you Hollyblue. I will read this with care. To be concise, I shouldn't use coloring to determine real objects.

 

Here is a photo of mammoth ivory I carved years ago,if you saw it you would probably not know it was ivory. Also a link to an ivory carvers web page,she uses different dyes for her art.
https://natashapopova.art/

 

You are right. I would not have ever guessed your piece was mammoth ivory. You really opened my eyes with your wonderful carving. Thank you for the link. I knew there were current artists, but I believed they sought to replicate old forms.

 

The Chinese copy everything,some years ago Natasha posted photos of all sides of an okimono she had carved on The Carving Path forum.About a year after posting the photos she found exact copies made in China. The photos had been scanned and with some type of 3D software and replicated with automated carving machine.

 

A tribute to her art in a way, but I see theft of intellectual property as one of the worsening consequences of our digital world. I'll leave it at that, but she has my condolences for being the victim of such practices.

 

I have to keep an eye on my jewelry at our local flea market. I have caught people trying to take photos of my pieces, one group was very obviously looking to send it off to China to be copied.

My husband belongs to a painting group that does outdoor shows in the summer. People take pictures all the time saying they want to show the painting to their spouse. Two of their members found items (mugs, bowls, plates) for sale in Christmas Tree Shops with their artwork on it, complete with their signature

 

A sad commentary.

 

Looks like a natural material to me. What makes you say this?

 

I am not familiar with pieces made into jewelry but my knowledge is very limited.

 

It would not be odd for such a piece to have the bail screwed directly into the material.

It looks like a fragment of elephant ivory to me, but I do not know how the grain in a similar shard of walrus tusk would look. Your main question was real or fake. I'm very much on the side of real, just not sure what the material is. Maybe @komokwa has some thoughts on it.

 

Thank you I sure hope it isn't elephant. This is a picture of a walrus tooth. I can't glean anything from it though.



This is an elephant:

 

It's just too hard to tell what it is from the photo's..........
but I'd guess there's a good chance of it being a piece of walrus tusk...

 

Thank you so much. This makes me very happy. It will go into my permanent collection

 

BUMMER!!!!!