Featured Netsuke Figure Is it Ivory? How Old and Who Signed?

Could just be down to patina. The older the surface, the darker the colour. That’s my experience anyway.

 

I have some tagua nuts that are over 20 years old and they look like slightly yellowed ivory.

 

I’m not sure how old my netsuke is. Any thoughts greatly appreciated but perhaps I should start this as a new thread. I don’t want to hijack this one which is very interesting.

 

The striations on the right make me pause. Marks like on his lip, make me think resin.

 

I have no trouble with the possibility of tagua nut based on color:



However, @Karen S. what is the height? It looks too large for tagua nut: it is roughly the same circumference from top to bottom; it would take a huge nut to carve out a piece like this.

I think it is more likely to be a Chinese casting taken from a carved piece that had a crack in it. This glass intaglio looks cracked:



It's not. The original gem is:



I think that's what we're seeing here:

 

Could totally be a cast crack, buuuut.

I'm wondering if these photos, as good as they are, are taken on a phone that defaults to some smudgy softening of details.

The more I look, the more I think we need new pics.

 

Well the only way to tell is a needle test. I do understand some people won't like it but it will be only way to tell for sure. I will post the rest of them later tonight.

 

Wrong post

 

#4 is ivory, but how did he get into this thread?

A hot needle test is not necessary. An ivory piece of any size will reveal itself somewhere on the surface. Sometimes magnification is needed. Resin can be really convincing, but you can search a piece all over & not find any of the lines that show a growth pattern.

 

Wrong thread, please delete post