A 'Teaky' Subject...

[dianecaudle]

Since you experts were such a great help with my oil can for WWII machine guns last March.   I thought I'd bring in something different.

My husband's cousin Gene was always going on ocean cruises and when he died we inherited a lot of his souvenirs.  This carving was one of the souvenirs, I believe.  It is seven inches tall, five inches wide and maybe a little over 2 1/2 inches deep.

It may not even be an antique but at least, in that case, someone might be able to recommend some other forum that might be able to help.

I don't know anything about teak wood but this carving has a somewhat yellow/brown sheen.  The carvinng itself is excellent and I think it would have taken an expert carver to have achieved such a well-done product.

Naturally, it is very light-weight and there is no signature on it at all that I can see.

I checked on Ebay and didn't see anything like it.  I even hate to try to sell it on Ebay since I would get nothing close to its real value.

Any suggestions?

Thanks, Diane

[waywardangler]

I am no expert on foreign woods but I do have a number of furniture pieces in teak veneer.  This does not look like teak to me (it might be the lighting).  Teak is widely used in the boating industry for its rot resistance.  I do not know how widely it is used for carving.

[regularjoe2]

Welcome back to the forum , dianecaudle .

The weight of teak is pretty close to the weight of 'typical' oak (rather dense & heavy) .

The wood on your nicely carved item is quite light in color , compared to your 'typical' teak .

I'd guess that it's made from a diff mat'l than teak .

[dianecaudle]

The guess of it being teak was just a guess, anyone have any suggestions?  I'm enclosing a few more pics of it.  I love the way the sculptor carved it, very nicely done.

[waywardangler]

Try this site http://www.windsong2.com/stories/Glossary_of_Woods.html  Teak is used for carving.  Many other woods on the page so it may be something other than teak.

[dianecaudle]

Wow, that was fast!  Thank you, Wayward, for sending me to that 'windsong' site, I didn't find what I needed there but I clicked on a few links and found a picture that was almost exactly like mine, both are hand-carved but the subject is common and mine is a slightly smaller carving--12" White Croc Wood Lord Rama Buddha Mask Wall Hanging  --was the name of theirs so I was at least close in calling it a Buddha and the guess that it was a mask was a fairly easy one.  Thanks for those who helped, especially waywardangler.

Dian

[KC]

Could it be balsa wood? 

[cogar]

Whatever type of wood it is, it was made from a pretty good size tree, given the "ring" size one can see in the 2nd photograph in reply #3.

 

[KC]

Seems that the White Crocodile wood is the most used wood for this style/item and that the Indonesian's used it alot to make the masks!

This site is nice to help folks....http://www.windsong2.com/stories/Glossary_of_Woods.html

CROCODILE OR SATIN WOOD Zanthoxylum rhetsa    The Indonesian name, panggal buaya, literally translates to crocodile teeth, referring to the knobby, tooth- shaped protrusions which cover the trunk. Native to lowlands from India to the Philippines, crocodile wood is usually white in color, some pieces have narrow, dark stripes. The heart is sometimes purple. The grain is straight and easy to carve and the wood is of medium hardness. Older trees produce darker wood than younger ones and the higher up in the tree, the lighter the color. A narrow-trunked tree, the wood is well suited to the elongated impressionist style of carving, popular in Bali since the 1930's. Crocodile wood is often called the Ivory of Woods because of its similar color and smooth finish.