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Posted 12 years ago
blunderbuss2
(199 items)
I was trying to figure this out. Beautifully carved ivory vial. Figured it was a perfume bottle but also questioned the use of ivory for a liquid. Asking friends in the "Chinnie" community I know, It turns out to be for snuff or something similar. Trying to get a translation of the characters on the bottom, & find out it is in reverse so is a stamp. I've done the ink-pad bit & hope one of them can tell me tomorrow. One said it looked like a name & probably used for a stamp or seal.
or maybe a opium storage vial -- cw had a good segment last month on opium tools and collections
Probably never know about the spoon as the top is stuck tight & leaving for Australia.
I love it! Beautiful! You can look up ivory and it will show the lines for real and different types of ivory, lines are different for mammoth and elephant and whale, walrus etc. Put some olive oil on to loosen top!
toracat, will remember that for the future but this piece left for Australia this morning. Thanks for the appreciation to you and all the others.
Hi, have one, and under a magnifier could see very tiny "pearls" in the design (as in your's in the windows).
I removed them with a needle and burned them... They melted with chemical odor!
So: not ivory, neither bone but an early kind of resin!
Anyway, it is not a new one but at least 40 years old.
I love this what a craftsmanship!
You have moved out of my field of expertise id. These were given to me by an Aussie friend. He had some aircraft experience & I cleared him thru security & payed him to help me. Then he started telling my clients that he had a lic. to work on their planes(for less of course). I let him go and gave him his stuff back. We are still casual friends but not close friends. Such is life in the tropics! Still trying to figure out how he thought he was going to get thru security with out my sponsorship? Unscrupulous people are a dime a dozen!
Actually id, we both thought it is ivory & both of us have good experience in that sort of thing. The texture, feel & temperature felt right. "Me not know, mon". By the way, I live in the "Wayward" Islands. That's history & I'm not interested in following up on them unless another falls into my hands. Appreciate your interest.
Just ck'd your id. Live near North Bay? Love Canada & been there 105 times. Beautiful country.
So id, the lower relief ones would be more likely to be real ivory? Never to old to learn. Well, I might be the exception! They don't float my way often so doubt I will see another one. My email is on my profile for chat. EH!
Id, I think you might be right,eh. As said, I'm no expert & it's not my field of interest, eh. A bientot, - EH.
That's one beauty of a snuff bottle. I'm a snuff taker myself and more into snuff boxes of the European variety, but I have been increasingly fascinated wit Chinese snuff bottles. I would be proud to own this one.
I thought so too, JF. The time it must take to carve on !
My wife collects these. She said it could be rhinoceros horn or resin. Very good detail. She has a cinnabar one like this.
Or like you said ivory.
Could you show a picture of the shovel and top.
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/211246-cinnabar-snuff-bottle
No idea where it might be now, Caper. Australia from SXM. The top was stuck so well that I was afraid of damaging it.
Hi guys! Glad to see you're doing better abd better, Bb2, even if you're getting this Ky accent... :-D
For the snuff bottle material, see there:
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/161090-stop-believing-those-are-natural-materia?in=collection-3416