Featured Chinese ivory carving

The whole thing is just "mwah" (kissable)

I think the base may be separate.

Her face looks a bit Western, which makes sense for PRC dating.

 

I also was thinking that Ivory yellows when exposed to light!!! Is it not??

Jal.

 

It cracks and yellows in direct sunlight, spotlight, or near a heat source, which is why that is always avoided. But keeping it in the dark is another cause of yellowing.
Keeping it out of direct light, in relatively low light, is best. My antique ivory is in north facing rooms (northern hemisphere), not near windows or artificial light sources.
I have had the items in the photos I showed before for ca 40 yrs, and I know they were on display in a similar way for a long time before that as well.

Some Byzantine ivories are still pretty white because they have been on display in churches etc as subjects of veneration for most of their life, ca 1000 yrs:

 

Interesting, Holly, thanks for posting it. If Jal's figurine is mammoth ivory, he has nothing to worry about.

 

It looks very Asian to me, no 'sweet' big eyes. And clearly influenced by the old Tang statues, with those rounded cheeks.

 

Very interesting information related with the light, thank!!!!!
But do you know why if it is in the dark, also is yellowing? it is very courious reaction.

Jal.

 

I don't know how it happens exactly. I think it is the same for bone, but I'm not sure.

 

You are welcome. Opinions are just that. But in my almost 40 years in China I never saw an antique with a stamp like that, thus my guessing it's a arts & crafts piece (maybe ivory --- plenty of them; antique is what I question.) But who knows; everything is possible. Kind regards. JB

 

i do think so!

 

It's impossible in my opinion to answer directly/easily to that color question, this is more complicated than near any others materials, so many other influences can cause a change in color, I can only say something confirmed by experience and by curators or collectors etc.…
If you have your ivory in a storage without change of humidity(50%), temperature and without IR and UV as they does be kept normally, their color never vary if they have no organic charge, in fact and especially on african original ivory there is a lot of human skin and grease in the porosity which can come dark to black through the time and you do never attempt to retire this color, it's integral part of the item.

 

Just so. Both of these cameos belong to me & they are not far apart in age, and yet:

 

I'm thinking that other important factor could be the age of the elephant, the size of the tusk, and the zone of the tusk where the item is made.

Jal.

 

This change the aspect of the ivory at the beginning(when animal is killed or years after), they are different ivory depending from countries but time make them more similar, when working with antique ivory for repairs they are hundreds of nuances but they all come from the transludescence capacity of the ivory when the first colored layers are taken out under a compared thickness, but the shavings are always pure white when cut.