Featured only the horse is ceramic

dear all

found these 2 horse and cart decorative pieces. i believe the cart is mother-of-pearl. it is spotty and dirty and difficult to wash out with soap and water. similar items found on google, horse and mother of pearl cart, gorgeous compared to mine

4" in total length, the cart is 1 3/4"
my horses are ceramic, one lost it's head and a leg still got the bits, so any advice on how to glue them back? what are the metal bits made of and should i try to polish it? they do look like they are quite old.

regards
phaik hooi

 

Those are sweet. Too bad the one is broken.

 

luckily they are not a pair
different metal attachments to mother of pearl cart
it is mother of pearl, right?

 

I see the differences you are talking about. However, the basic designs and materials are all the same.

Just an idea as I know this happened in some countries.
Not sure where these were made, but wonder if there wasn't a company that employed families to make product. Therefore you will find little differences of construction, because they weren't made by the same person.

I would call this MOP. Different shell nacre is called MOP. Don't know what kind of shell this would have come from.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nacre

 

I think these sweet little pieces are more than just decorative, their function is probably open salts for the table.

 

Found these:
https://www.rubylane.com/item/135488-517horsecart/Antique-French-Palais-Royal-Horse-Carriage
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-Fr...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
https://www.ebay.com/itm/PALAIS-ROY...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

 

Hello Phaik Hooi - cute items. I would not polish the metal. Sometimes it causes more problems than it solves. The patina (tarnish) can be very important and destroying the patina can hurt the value. Just a very gentle cleaning with dish soap and water are more appropriate. Make sure they dry fully. Are you planning to sell? If so I would not try to make repairs. Instead I would sell them as is and let the buyer decide whether or not to restore. If you do decide to glue please use a water soluble glue. It makes it much easier if someone wants to reverse your repair and have it redone by a professional.
Don

 

The shell is likely to be polished sections of a nautilus shell, though there are other possibilities.

 

tq! will keep as is

 

A definite possibility, but think more likely to be clam shells ground down to the nacre. I have a fondness for shell novelties & admit to owning a few. Only 1 uses what appears to be a section of nautilus; others are clam or scallop. The nautilus is much deeper than clam shells of about the same circumference.

A lot of these things seem to have been sold as souvenirs of seaside locations. Clams would be plentiful & inexpensive raw material. It would be a wasteful use of a relatively expensive shell to cut one down to the size & shape of the cart beds while clams would need only polishing.