Victorian Parasol with Carved Bone or Ivory Handle

[jondar]

Someone may have posted this already but here is a simple test gun owners have been using for years to determine if pistol grips are real ivory. Hold a straight pin in a pair of pliers, heat the end of the pin over your kitchen range to red hot, touch the pin to a place on the article you're testing in a place that won't show later, bring the article close to your nose.  If it's real ivory it will smell like burnt hair.

[jondar]

Forgot to mention that animal bone (I suppose human also) will give the same burnt hair odor, but unlike elephant ivory cannot be milled or ground as deeply without revealing the porous base.  Looking at your umbrella handle carving I would think it is either ivory or synthetic.

[talesofthesevenseas]

I had read about that smell test but with no experience to draw upon I don't know if I can make that call. There is also a test where you put a drop of acetone in an inconspicuous place and if it is celluloid it will dissolve. I think I will start by using my jewelers loupe to try to see if there is the criss cross grain shown on the gaming chip example above and I will take it to the antique store ivory guy for his input and then I will go from there.

[talesofthesevenseas]

One more duestion. Wouldn't we see some kind of mold line or dimple with celluloid? Thanks for all the help with this.

[KC]

Tales, not necessarily....they made some pretty phenomenal pieces that didn't show any mold lines.  They also had some type if "heating device" that could go over flaws and "meld/melt" it to smooth the flaws!

[talesofthesevenseas]

OK good to know. I'm thinking that if it is that difficult to tell if it is ivory or celluloid, I'll still be able to use it with my costuming regardless since it will still be authentic to the time period, even if it is celluloid. So determining the material will be more about whether or not I paid to much, LOL.

[regularjoe2]

I'm with KC on the 'lack of mold flash' thing .

Sometimes higher quality items would go through wet polishing as well , using a rubber wheel &/or ball with cerium oxide (rare earth compound , still used today for polishing many things) suspended in water .

[talesofthesevenseas]

Good news on the parasol. It came in this morning and I took it to the antique dealer who carries a lot of ivory in his shop. He loved it and said it was "beautiful" and "absolutely and definitely ivory." So I'm very pleased with that. He also said that the fabric appears original. I was surprised when I got it that it did appear old, but quite stable and in pretty darn amazing shape.

I have learned a lot from this one. D&B- it is cool to the touch, but not cold like stone and not warm like plastic. It definitely has its own kind of feel to it. I'm "getting it." LOL Thanks for teaching me that!

A few things that didn't show in the photos. I can clearly see the grain, and the criss-crossing is easy to see in places even without magnification. Also the carving is VERY deep in places, with cupped almost tubular leaves at differing angles and layers of leaves, that I don't think could be pulled out of a mold.

The antique dealer also said that he felt the break could be repaired by making an impression from elsewhere on the carving and making a plastic piece that would fill it in. I may do that at a later date. For now a nice bow over the spot will do the trick until I find someone who could do that and determine what the cost would be. I wonder how difficult it might be to do a latex mold... they do sell that stuff at Tap Plastics. I suspect though that this is something that ought to be handled by a pro, not by me.

[KC]

Glad you got it and are happy with it!

Did he say anything about the threaded piece inside?  If he thinks it's original or replacement?

[talesofthesevenseas]

No he didn't comment on it.

[regularjoe2]

Good for you , talesof  !

I'm still curious about my earlier question about it possibly having a 'plug' in the end of the handle , though .

You're becoming an ivoritrix now !

[talesofthesevenseas]

An ivoritrix?!!! LOL

I just looked at the end of the handle and this is interesting. There is a round carved feature right at the end of the handle that may be some type of plug. It is kind of inconsistent from the rest of the carving and doesn't connect to the rest of the carving. It's a round feature all buy itself, but it is carved and raised. I was expecting to see a flat plug that was flush, if anything at all. I need to look at it under magnification, my eyes aren't what they used to be and I can't tell if it is actually just as carved piece or something separate. If it is a plug, they were careful to disguise it. I will take some detail photos tonight and post them.

[talesofthesevenseas]

OK I've got some photos and some answers...

This is a look at the parasol handle without a flash. It is a little more true to the color. The actual color is something between the white you see with the flash, and the gold you see without it.


Here's a shot with the flash showing the criss-crossing grain on the ivory. This was about the clearest shot I could get of it.


This is the end of the parasol handle. Its just part of the carving. I looked with my jewler's loupe and it is definitely not a plug, so it's not narwhal tusk.


The rod looks to be a later repair and not part of the original parasol. The break goes all the way through and the rod is holding the two parts together.  You can see the glue that oozed out in this photo. Looks like a pretty amateurish repair, but it does hold it together. For now, a bow will hide it easily, and I'll look into having it redone properly.

No doubt the indomitable Mrs. Weatherby clubbed a liverpool pickpocket on the head with it as he was trying to make off with her pocketbook, whilst giving a shrill cry of "Now you've gone and done it you bloody hooligan, you've ruined my best parasol!!!"

[jkski8884]

Very cool! and I love your costume! I would love to get into reinactments-however I know theres a lot I would need to learn about before doing so

[talesofthesevenseas]

Not really, its pretty easy unless you are getting involved with an organization that has very strict historical accuracy guidelines like the Civil War reenactors. And even then if you ask for help you'll likely get a lot. But its very easy to get going with some of the Victorian and wild west events especially now that there is a whole steampunk genre that is Victorian science fiction and is open to some extremely wide interpretations in costuming. With those events its all about brass goggles and time travel so you can really have fun with it. Thanks for the compliment on my costume!