Carved Ivory Boat - Help identify?

Hi all! Some years ago, I inherited a foot long, carved boat, made of what I believe to be ivory. Pictures attached. I honestly don't know where to start with identification, and was hoping someone here could help me! Age, place of origin, materials, style, value - I have no clue about any of them! Any ideas what this is?

(Link to Imgur album because my pictures are too large in size to upload to the forums)

http://imgur.com/a/GLV0w

 

Welcome!
Most won't go to links...
Make your photos 480x640 and use the full image button for all photos always please.

 

Took a look. The material is horn (maybe water buffalo). The details may be ivory or could just as well be bone. Could not see them well enough to tell. I am finding very similar ones but no firm attribution. They say either Asian, Chinese, or Thai so far. Will keep looking.

 

Looks like water buffalo horn.

 

With Mother of Pearl accents

 

maori war canoe.......or thereabouts...

 

I got a Pacific island feel at first, like the Solomon Islands or Trobriand Islands, but there are no water buffaloes in the Pacific islands, and the inlay would be mother of pearl.

The fish remind me of Chinese gaming chips, but again, they would be made of mother of pearl.

 

I agree. Inlay is MoP. Ivory would look like a sort of pure, creamy off-white. This looks more shimmery and silvery, like MoP.

 

trobriand island canoes are out-riggers and have a special canoe prow,,,

 

Different islands in the archipelago have different styles, and even different styles for different purposes. This is a prow from a Kula canoe from Laughlin Island, one of the Trobriand Islands. Kula was the inter-island ceremonial trade ring.



This is the kind of style that first came to mind when I saw the boat: a little shark from the Trobriand Islands, and a turtle from the Solomon Islands. Both tourist pieces with traditional mother of pearl inlay. The Solomon Islanders also use dark wood, but to my knowledge none of the islands use buffalo horn, simply because it is not a native material.



By the way, Maori art is very different from the boat, far more sophisticated, and again, no buffaloes. Their inlay is usually not white mother of pearl but paua, a New Zealand kind of abalone.
I think we should look toward Asia for the origin of the boat.

 

well you are concentrating on the horn and i'm looking at the style of the water craft....maybe the two just don't jive...

 

I don't know, I'm sure there are boats like that in Asia. Look at all the different types of dragon boats. This one looks a bit like a crocodile, maybe it is a crocodile boat from......

 

Got one, from Aranmula, Kerala, India:



India is buffalo country, and they love carving those horns.

 

that's it then.....good find !!!

 

Thanks, I did need your input to start thinking again. That's how this forum often works, after all. I googled 'dragonboat India', and there it was.

 

that's right....one clue leads to another...and we are better than the sum of our parts...

 

Bingo! Did see one seller possibly attribute one to India but discounted it, as I could find no confirmation.

 

After the hunch or recognition it is down to finding the right search term. We got there in the end.

 

Absolutely right. For example, I don't know how many times I've seen people who couldn't identify a basket because they searched for "Native American basket." Had they searched for "Indonesian basket" they would have found it instantly; but searching just basket would lead to thousands of irrelevant results.
It is a real art to come up with search terms that are general enough, but still specific enough, to yield meaningful results; and to be free enough from preconceptions to do that.