Featured help with carved soft wood Royan figure 13"

Geesh, anyone buying those would want to know they are not hand carved WOOD!

 

I've come up against folks selling these as wood...hand carved....who will not believe me.....the worst being those from BC. , whom you would think would know what wood feels like...... so I have to press the point of the bubbles found on the item....the scuffing where the brown turns to a cream color....and the ubiquitous screw on the base....which is not a screw ..but the mold of the screw that was on the original wood totem...that the casting was made from..!

 

they could say brought down from heaven on angels wings.....and I would not believe that either........

 

well known sujet.
Bohemian nobleman, terracotta, 73 cm, Bechyne, 1920s - 30s.

 

Excellent link; and if "Hubcap" says it, you know it is true, and well-researched.
But as mentioned, the number of cast totempoles being listed in error on ebay as carved wood, is probably about 50% of their totem listings...
In addition to the cast-in "screw," I sometimes mention that real wood grain is indicated by differences in hardness, porosity and color; fake wood grain lacks those distinctions, relying on differences in surface texture, which can be cast-in. Real wood is typically made smooth as it is worked, and the raised or indented "grain" seen in the fakes is removed.
A great many of the cast totems which show wood-grain will be found to have vertical grain on the back; and horizontal grain on the front; pretty much impossible with real wood.