Vintage Horn Carvings

Hi,
Doubt that the horn is rhino. I have never seen rhino horn as translucent. However I have been wrong before and I might be wrong again.
greg

 

Rhino horn isn't hollow all the way through, just at the base where it is joined to the head, see picture. The rest is solid, and not translucent.



Your horn carvings look like (water)buffalo horn to me.

 

Rhino horn isn't horn. It's compressed hair, so yes, it's solid. That's water buffalo. Seen lots of it, especially Indian.

Just as well - if it were rhino, I'd say you ought to burn it.

 

they are lovely items, full of old world charm......
if your friends friend thinks they are black rhino , sell them to him.....for $ 15,000 and let him turn a profit.......if he can.....which he won't !



but i see why he thinks it's rhino horn......

 

The tips of buffalo horns are also solid, which fools some people. In Thailand they go one step further, they fill the horns with resin and sell them as rhino horns.

 

I am pretty sure it is not rhino horn. For a start rhino horn is solid and most of the items apart from the side horns show a hollow centre. Secondly rhino horn has been much in demand for Chinese medicine for centuries, it had a high value whenever these pieces were made, so high that your set would have cost many thousands of much less inflated dollars.

I have sold and handled a few rhino horn items and have some within arms reach at this moment.
In Britain you can have items of worked rhino horn tested and certified as legal by a government laboratory for a reasonable price, they give a certificate that makes the items legal to sell.

I think the friend's friend might be asked to put his money where his mouth is and buy some very reasonably priced rhino horn.

That cup looks like rhino to me but I'd have to see the actual thing..

 

In all fairness, he was basing everything on photos he had been shown. He talked a good game to me. Throwing around fancy words and some things he pointed out made sense. I knew absolutely nothing about rhino horn prior to these. They were just fine last year when I didn't even ponder what hoofed beast donated this BAD HAIR DAY monstrosity to the craftsman that brought someones future wedding gift to life.What I do know is the pool of knowledge contained within this group is diverse, far reaching and pretty dang cool. Persons' use or abuse of words doesn't bother me much. I'm not easily offended when interacting with someone who has confidence in what they are telling me. I appreciate any and all comments. The man who evaluated the photo's seems to have a decent profession which requires a higher than average knowledge set and ( not that it matters ) he is of Asian decent. He explained each set of items in the pair made sense. But putting all of them together the way they are just don't seem logical. The carving and shaping workmanship was good enough where it needed to be unlike the underside of the "base" pieces. As my Uncle says..It was finely whittled with a dull axe. The maker made use of as much of 2 horns as he could. I'm sure carving each item wasted a good portion of it. He said I have the makings of a DIY Home Offering Worship Kit. If indeed my God liked me to burn incense,put out some nice flowers have a drink on him and say good things I have the hook up. We have to smoke outside because somebody borrowed the brass ashtray that used to be setting in that short lonely piece in the middle of one "base".
He did make an offer of sorts. If I could provide all necessary paperwork needed to keep him from giving free advice to his future cellmates at Sing Sing Prison for some blah blah blah - a couple of important words- more blah blah blah which I told him I fully understood. Then we could schedule something to see if a mutually beneficial agreement could be reached. I tried to just put them back on the shelf where they have been for years. In the middle of shimming this side, facing this side to the wall so it cant fall and safe proofing these unbalanced works of art a little flame lit in me. It smells like I just gotta know what the heck these are.I also like long walks on the beach, hot food and those plastic utensils they give you that look like a fork AND a spoon but can't perform either duty. (Joke) Now my new much smarter than I friends, you can say you've read my life story and something about prison food today. I would appreciate your comments and direction. I'm not sure if FED REG's allow me keep them, sell them or give them to a favorite Uncle that's getting married on his 4th journey thru life with his soul mate blah blah blah....thank you.

 

And the Award for most amusing two paragraph Thank You goes to...............


loved it!

 

Thanks for the chuckle!

Look like water buffalo horn to me and perfectly legal to sell.

 

I thought it was my flu playing havoc with the few braincells I have left.

 

Thanks, but don't expect that Christmas Card from the Water Buffalo Club THIS year

 

The brain is a terrible thing...

 

To be honest, they look like man made material to me. And I have seen tons of these.

 

Yes, South and Southeast Asia abound with horn carvings. Don't know about manmade material, though. Buffalo horn is also everywhere in South and Southeast Asia. I think in many areas manmade materials would be more expensive.

 

Yes indeed, and even more true in the past than today.
When my parents visited Ceylon and the Middle East in 1959, for example, it was common to see souvenir items with inlays of low-quality ivory; it was available locally, and cheaper than imported plastic. Same with horn; souvenir spoons often had horn handles; rarely plastic.