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Given the size and shape I would guess these are sperm whale teeth. I see a lot of this material here locally since the inuit people of Greenland have used it for carving tupilaqs originally to sell to tourists but these have now become sought after collectors items. Unfortunately their trade is now restricted as with most ivory. The inuit people are still allowed to harvest walrus ivory to sell so we can still get that material here. The price of this material which is supposed to be the best quality of ivory since it's not prone to cracking usually follow the price of silver.
Hi, Mark. I will ask Peter. The first of the areas you identified is a break that has been glued back together. The other two are breaks in the ivory. Because these were carved so 3-dimensionally, there are lots of isolated, free-standing bridges, and several of them display cracks. Luckily, most are still attached on each side, so although they are cracked, nothing fell off.
Hi, Avatar. My first though was whale teeth as well, but I have a sperm whale tooth, and it has a nearly round (only slightly oval) cross section, so I discounted that. But when I look online, I see lots of sperm whale teeth that are flattened just like these. I think you are right!
The Japanese carved lots of whale teeth. I wonder if these could be Japanese copies of the Chinese motif?
Hi All,
I thought you deserved a follow up on this. I sat down this evening with my friend the SEM operator, and this is what we saw. First, we looked at the broken area (Photo 1). It was not featureless, as it would be if it were plastic, but instead showed a strong fibrous texture. When we analyzed the material using the Energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS), it showed the material to consist of Calcium, Phosphorous, Oxygen, and Carbon. As dental enamel consists largely of hydroxyapatite (Ca5(PO4)3(OH)), plus some organic matter, this is exactly consistent with what is expected for a tooth. then we looked at the smooth surface adjacent to the break (photo 2). This shows clear marks of having been carved and polished; it is not molded plastic.
Next, we went down to the base of the tooth below on of the bats (see the attached color photograph). I was interested in seeing what the brown material along the lower edge of the tooth was. I thought it was cementum, a mixture of enamel and organic material that occurs around the base of the tooth, holding it into the socket. This is shown in Photo 3, which as a SEM photo of the area indicated by a black arrow in the color photo. It is hard to interpret, but what you are looking at is the smooth enamel edge of the tooth, with the brown cementum showing as a rough area below it. Because the cementum is softer, it displays chatter marks from the carving process. The EDS spectrum for the cementum is also attached. It is quite similar to the enamel EDS map, but has a little more carbon (organic matter), indicated by the relatively higher carbon peak, and slightly higher concentrations of minor components like iron and sulfur.
Finally, there is a SEM photo of some part of the face or wing of the bat (photo 4)--it is hard to tell what it is, with a 1 mm field of view. But the important part is that is clearly shows that the bat was carved, not molded. Looking at these teeth on the SEM, we saw internal texture, and no bubbles anywhere. Lots of evidence of carving. These are definitely carved teeth, not molded plastic.
As Avatar suggested above, I think these are sperm whale teeth. Also attached is the bottom view of a sperm whale tooth that I found on the internet. the cross section is exactly the same as my carved teeth.
The still leaves the original question! What age are they, and what is the source? Are these Chinese (no record of carving whale teeth), or possibly Japanese (known to carve whale teeth)? The motif is old, maybe 17th century(?), but could these be more modern teeth copying the older style? Ah, research!
Charles
Hi Charles,
That's good news. Send pic's to Peter he may be able to provided the missing answers.
Michael
Yes, fascinating! So much trouble for a pair of carved ivory. But yes, it's interesting with the Chinese motive but I would guess that they are likely carved by Chinese settlers in an area where this material was brought in by whalers, most likely America since this is your location. I also wondered if they could be Japanese but I don't think so. But who knows? By coincidence I follow a lot of Japanese sales and there are lots of restricted materials available like sperm whale tooth, elephant ivory and tortoise shell. Sometimes I'm tempted to buy some but if they find it in the customs they'll confiscate it ...
Hi Charles,
Can you upload some good closeups of the carvings, pleases? Although nicely done I suspect they are machine carved, which would imply fairly recent made. If hand traditional tools were used then chances for them being older are higher. I was inspecting the pictures and I’ve noticed certain elements that are quite promising and some that don’t appear to me as done some time ago.
Fingers crossed it’s all good and old.
kind regards,
Adrian
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Hello again,
I’ve checked the pictures again and to me they appear as very recent. Few things worth mentioning: artificially aged with some strong tint, without any signs of natural patina, absolute lack of harmony in composition - as a whole it’s chaotic, carvings itself done in a rush and I don’t think only hand tools were used, there are a lot of those nasty scratches left, they didn’t even bother to polish and buff it properly, but good and genuine buffing leaves no rows for tinting. In general I am struggling to see any features of genuine old work here. I am seriously hoping to be wrong and I wish you can obtain a positive opinion.
Kind regards,
Adrian
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Hi Adrian,
Here are the close-up photos you requested. I actually like the carving and think it is fairly detailed (in these photos, the bat heads are only 5 mm across), but have to agree with you that the patina is a bit lacking in terms of depth and complexity. But maybe that is because these are whale teeth and not elephant ivory--the enamel seems pretty dense. In the closeups, it is clear that the brown tinting is mostly in the fibrous texture of the enamel itself, and you can see the banding in the enamel better--layering that parallels the outer surface of the tooth, and that seems to pick up the tinting better or worse in individual layers.
I guess, right now, I am leaning towards these being 20th century, and either a homage to older styles or intended to fool. We will see what Peter says. Peter had opined that these were composite, but that was before I sent him the SEM data. I haven't heard back from him yet after sending him that.
Charles
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