Posted 9 years ago
TinyT
(24 items)
It's around 3cm long and 2cm wide. It's cold to the touch like stone and is carved with a scarab beetle. It looks opaque until you shine a torch through it then you can see that it's translucent. It appears to have a pale green paint or something on it, maybe in previous years it was green with the scarab then highlightedt in red
A Scarab, the dung beetle that rolled the Sun across the sky in ancient Egypt, these were originally used as jewelry and amulets.
During times of modern day discovery and exploration in Egypt, these pieces became popular again as Egyptian revival pieces.
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Do you have any idea what the material could be?
Not sure, it's something I would need to see in person, however celluloid or bakalite are slight possibilities.
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Its neither as it won't scratch with a knife or mark with a hot pin. Feels like stone.
It could just be Chech glass, but again, without seeing in person, I don't know ;)
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It appears to be able to scratch glass quite easily.
After doing a bit of research into Czech glass I think I agree with you both. There are even pictures of red Czech glass scarabs on the web and some have the same green finishing.
I was trying to look into the hardness as it appears to be a lot harder than today's glass. So thanks for the info, I think the mystery has been solved !
You sure this isn't cinnabar? The mustard color stuff on it looks like sulphur to me. If you look at it under a magnifying glass does it look a bit porous?
Thanks, I have just had a look and it does seem a bit pourus, if you dab a bit of water on it and wipe it off you can see where it has been.
The colour on it is more of a green and it also appears on the back and in the drill holes.
Is cinnabar translucent?
Not really but I think that light being shown through it would depend on the thickness of the item. I have a Cinnabar snuff bottle, will put it over a bright light to compare.
Cinnabar wouldn't scratch glass.
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