Cameo

Is this some type of resin? I don’t think it’s bone. Kind of made to mimic ivory but likely it’s not.

 

Hum... The curve at the back, the crack showing evidence of fibrous (non homogenous) texture, the obvious hand carving...
All that screams ivory to me!

It is a really beautiful piece

 

How interesting. It's Josiah Wedgwood.

 

I’m suspicious bucause ivory is usually glossy and smooth to touch. This one has a bit of rough surface.

 

Because it is not entirely finished, the outside of the oval seems to be the rough tusk
I suppose the profile oval was to be used on its own.

 

Could be the base of a large tusk, where that conical hollow would be apparent. It appears to be unfinished/unpolished, so difficult to see the diagnostic characteristics of ivory, but the cracks look genuine. If it were a block of resin, it seems unlikely they would reproduce the interior structure of a tusk - they would just make a block. They would also probably just cast the thing, rather than carve it.

 

I don't know what to make of all those parallel lines. They seem to be carved.

I don't think they're Scheger lines.

I wonder if it's CNC cutting.

 

Screger lines are parallels in some parts of the tusk, and show cross hatch pattern in other, depending too of the the orientation of the cutting (I don't know if my explanation is understandable )

What is CNC?

 

CNC - Computer Numerical Control. A computer controlled router machine. I noticed the same thing around the edges of the cameo recess - not typical of historical tools. Perhaps it is a modern experiment.

 

Sand the top or bottom flat smooth and if it is elephant or mammoth you should see Schreger lines.

 

Doesn't look hand carved to me.

 

Does look like ivory, and almost certainly machine carved.

 

These very white places look wrong to me. Without being able to touch it, my impression is that it is artificial, but may have been taken from a piece that is essentially folk art.