Mozaic Pieces

[heavydude]

Has anybody ever seen anything like these.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[heavydude]

Close ups to show the workmanship and detail.

[ironlord1963]

Those are amazing items.  Looks like bone to me, glued and or nailed to some sort of surface.  Have any ideal what they are glued and nailed on? Or are they hollow?  I have not personnally seen the likes of these before but can't wait to see what shows up here about these.  Welcome to the forum Heavydude and thanks for posting these wonderful items.

[talesofthesevenseas]

I believe what you have is called bone marquetry. Here's a horse with an auction estimate of $2000-$3000!

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.stuartholman.com/fall05/jpgs/zDSC_0437.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.stuartholman.com/fall05/cat8.html&usg=__Xbhe-4ydT5ijj456lYcMNtgrzsg=&h=175&w=175&sz=4&hl=en&start=22&sig2=FLZMyL0HlnPKI8k2M2Zkjw&tbnid=cTo4M68ks_5U0M:&tbnh=100&tbnw=100&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbone%2Bcovered%2Bstatue%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26start%3D18&ei=jspTS-ueLY3ktAPmiIX-Aw

[heavydude]

Those are amazing items.  Looks like bone to me, glued and or nailed to some sort of surface.  Have any ideal what they are glued and nailed on? Or are they hollow?  I have not personnally seen the likes of these before but can't wait to see what shows up here about these.  Welcome to the forum Heavydude and thanks for posting these wonderful items.

Thanks for the response.

The lion (3 and 3a) is light weight, about 1 lb 10 oz. I'm guessing that the inside is probably light weight wood, possibly hollowed out. The others are also light weight but commensurate with their sizes.

[heavydude]

I believe what you have is called bone marquetry. Here's a horse with an auction estimate of $2000-$3000!

Thanks for naming the technique. That gives me a new way of looking for similar items.

The auction horse is almost 4' tall, big enough to ride, but mine is just curio cabinet size.

[KC]

Interesting!  I was thinking some sort of ivory piece.

Learn something new every day!!!!  This site is great!

[heavydude]

Interesting!  I was thinking some sort of ivory piece.

I don't think it's ivory. Maybe faux ivory or some sort of synthetic.

I tried the hot pin test but couldn't melt a hole in it. That's not saying much since I had to heat the pin on an electric stove and wasn't sure it got hot enough.

The first picture is a close up of the visible grain and the second picture I got off the internet and it was identified as laminated bone. Doesn't really look like the same grain.

I've read that regular parallel grain is indicative of synthetic material.

Anyway, I'm not much concerned with what it's made of as much as where it came from, who made it, when it was made, and if there are other examples somewhere.

For all I know they could have been turned out by the thousands and sold to tourists for 5 bucks in a bazaar someplace.

Or someday I'll go on the Antiques Roadshow and get told they are worth hundreds of thousands.

Keep those comments coming

[talesofthesevenseas]

Check out our recent posts on ivory and bone in the topic about my antique parasol. There is a lot of shared info on IDing bone ivory and celluloid. It is really hard to see but on ivory you will have a criss-crossing bi-directional grain. Bone is straight grain and you will see the little mini dark crack lines like I see on yours. Ultimately I found an antiques dealer who dealt in ivory to confirm my piece, but there are photos showing different examples of the grains. I think the info that helped me will help you too. Just run a search for parasol or go back two or three pages

[heavydude]

Check out our recent posts on ivory and bone in the topic about my antique parasol. There is a lot of shared info on IDing bone ivory and celluloid. It is really hard to see but on ivory you will have a criss-crossing bi-directional grain. Bone is straight grain and you will see the little mini dark crack lines like I see on yours. Ultimately I found an antiques dealer who dealt in ivory to confirm my piece, but there are photos showing different examples of the grains. I think the info that helped me will help you too. Just run a search for parasol or go back two or three pages

I found your parasol topic and read all the posts. I was already pretty much convinced that my pieces aren't ivory and one of the websites seems to have confirmed it:

http://www.antiquegamblingchips.com/distinguish_iv_bon_cel.htm

I have a bone letter opener that has the dark spots common to the bone chips in that website's photo.

My mosaic figurines don't share the pitting that bone has. Nor do they have the cross hatched grain that you describe on your parasol and are present on the ivory poker chips.

My figurines do, however, share the parallel grain similar to that of the plastic poker chip and dice.

The only thing stopping me from a final conclusion of some sort of plastic is that I couldn't get the hot pin test to work.

[wendy177]

It looks to me to be made from some sort of seashell , the close up seems to have shading that reminds me of shells. Really nice pieces I would contact a really good auction house and send photos. good luck let us know what you discover.

[heavydude]

It looks to me to be made from some sort of seashell , the close up seems to have shading that reminds me of shells. Really nice pieces I would contact a really good auction house and send photos. good luck let us know what you discover.

Thank you.

Seashells never occurred to me. I found a seashell guide on the internet. There do appear to be some seashells that have similar grain pattern. I'll check further.

[waywardangler]

Look at these at http://www.goantiques.com/detail,chinese-bone-ivory,136513.html , very similar in design and construction.  I agree that it does look like shell because of the pinkish tint on some 'scales'.  They are very neat.  Do you think the glue globs are newer repairs or part of the original construction?  I have never seen anything like them. 

[heavydude]

Look at these at http://www.goantiques.com/detail,chinese-bone-ivory,136513.html , very similar in design and construction.  I agree that it does look like shell because of the pinkish tint on some 'scales'.  They are very neat. 

Thanks for the link. That's amazing. I've been looking for comparable items on and off for two years and this is the first time I've seen anything that came remotely close to mine. Certainly looks like the same technique of gluing small pieces to a carved figurine.

Do you think the glue globs are newer repairs or part of the original construction? 

Not repairs. The photo of the small section of "scales" has been enlarged 5 times from a 12 megapixel photo so the minute details are right in your face. When you look at the following photo you see that the gluing was mostly a little sloppy and many of the "scale" joints look like that. But when you see the piece at arms length or on a shelf, all that stuff blends in and doesn't really show. Anyway, it adds to its "character".

[ironlord1963]

   I have been so in awe at this thread.  I was in debate between hand carved pieces and Hobby bead store items, but after carefully looking I'm sure the later is not the case.  Just looking at the Lion is stunning.  The detail of the carved line just above the eye.  Is the other side the same?  The tongue the teeth and etc.  Imagine the amount of work went into these items.  Kinda curious about the horse with the nailed look about it.  Then we come to the glue, sure is not elmers. Kinda looks like it hardened into a crytal or very hard clear surface.  Any ideals going in anyones head about the type of glue or adhesion used?  All in all I just really like the items of this thread, you have very wonderful pieces there.  Hope you and all of us here on the forum finds the answers to this one.