Featured Horn? snuff vs perfume vs ?? bottle - need a little help please.

This piece came in a lot of assorted bottles I got a few months back.

I have found similar ones listed on eBay. Some call it a perfume but others refer to it as a snuff bottle. Some have a metal "applicator" attached to the top of the cap but it is missing on mine. I tend to doubt the perfume bottle possibility but ...

It is 2 1/2" top to bottom & approximately 1 1/4" across.

I believe it is made from horn but what kind & from where?

There is a loop on one side possibly so it could be worn as a necklace or ??



Thanks for any & all advice or opinions!!

 

that's delicious.....

may be horn.....hard to tell from here

A scent bottle ???

it's doesn't look like it has much age ....

 

Looks awfully new from here too.

 

You could use it as a plumb bob in a pinch

 

It would work for that, although the chain might throw it off..unless you unhooked the chain from the base and tied a string to it.

 

Looks to me like buffalo horn, might be India?

 

I doubted the sellers who claimed this was an old piece. There are too many of them out there.

Do you think that India is a possibility because of the color or because of the metalwork?

Speaking of the metalwork maybe @Any Jewelry might have some thoughts.

 

I can buy buffalo horn here in the UK so it was only a guess as to origin but India do use a lot of buffalo horn and it's the right colour, I know because I've had to replace it on more than one occasion when restoring Indian antiques. I don't think it's old and it could have been made anywhere but it has a certain charm

 

Well this seller seems to think it is Victorian.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1159516214...RU&osub=-1~1&crd=20231024043552&segname=11021

As far as I can tell this is the 3rd listing of this piece for this seller. Their first BIN was $275.00.

Ooooh, this seller thinks it's Edwardian.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/3548141262...QzPNvXuefuEnjoawLm3rBMXsvF|tkp:Bk9SR_6-nM7sYg

 

Could it be a smelling salts bottle (I forget the proper name of it), you know, the ladies would put something pretty smelling in it and carry it in case they ran across some obnoxious smell in the streets.

 

What does this look like when it's present? Kohl bottle?

 

funny how the metal is exactly the same on all 3..

 

scent bottle ??

 

Yes, it is horn, from India, probably from Kerala in the south. Not very old, but very nice.
I'm with @808 raver , the horn could be buffalo horn, it looks like it.
The metal is base metal. I like the way the body is made, and used to have one like it, which I sold.

I now have an 'upgrade'. The same horn body, only the other way around, so teardrop shaped, with an enameled silver stopper and silver applicator.

Spot on.

 

Their dating and pricing is ridiculous. I think I sold mine for 30 euro, and bought it for less, maybe half.

 

My 'upgrade', with an enameled silver stopper and silver applicator (tested):



As you can see, it has the same horn body, only the other way around, and no wires in the grooves.
(And I really should start that kohl bottle thread....)

 

Thanks to everybody for all the suggestions & advice!!!

These two listings are perfect examples of why everyone here stresses to never rely on the listing price of an item & never trust an eBay description without doing your own research to confirm the stated facts.

Your pricing sounds more in line with what I was thinking.

I can't remember exactly when I got this piece but I do know it was part of a large lot of assorted bottles. Usually, when I bid on these lots there is 1 or more that I want for my collection & I sell off the rest. Quite often what happens is I end up selling the "cast offs" for more than I paid for the whole lot which means that I got the keepers for "free".

 

Same here.