Featured Asian style Tiger cane topper? Bone? Ivory?

You guys I think it’s wood, let me get some photos

 

Here’s the wooden post. I see those S-lines right around the chin the best.

There’s glue on the end by AntiqueAnimals posted Sep 10, 2020 at 10:10 PM

Where the wood meets by AntiqueAnimals posted Sep 10, 2020 at 10:10 PM

 

OK, wood then....and it looks like it was being used as a display rod....stuck into a base.....

 

Crosshatching


Parallel

Yellowing & splitting


Splitting without significant yellowing


Yellowing without splitting. Notice yellowing is greatest on highest surfaces where plaque has been touched more.


Direct experience with the substances that can look like ivory is also helpful in recognizing the difference. Celluloid & related materials are good visual mimics of ivory & also yellow with age & handling.



The front of this cameo has clearly been molded, not carved; the reverse shows striations that are much more unbroken than those in ivory. In the hand, the piece is too light in weight for ivory & sounds like plastic when tapped with a fingernail.

The Chinese produce tons of stuff in ivory colored resin that can even have some hand work on it. I haven't seen any that has the yellowing & splitting or any kind of 'grain', although it's probably out there or soon will be.

 

very informatieve. Thank you all for sharing

 

@808 raver , your ivory looks bleached, which is something Indians did to emphasize the purity of the material and the contrast with the decorations.
Indian elephant ivory has the same characteristics as African elephant ivory. The Schreger lines are best seen on rounded areas, which your boxes don't have anyway.
Absence of visual Schreger lines does not mean an item is not ivory, but presence of Schreger lines means it is.

My antique tribal Rajasthani ivory bracelet, made of Indian elephant tusk, not bleached. It has 'regular' ivory lines, Schreger lines, and cracks, and some old orangey henna stains.




Back of a ca 1800 Japanese manju netsuke, the ivory is most likely Indian, not bleached. Schreger lines on the rounded sides:



Detail of a 16th-17th century Madurese Tumenggunan (regent's) keris hilt, Javan elephant ivory. The Javan elephant is thought to have been the same species as the Indian elephant.
Difficult to see, but there are Schreger lines on the side of the head of the hilt:



I had this photo on file, apologies for the (lack of) quality.
Note to self, take new, better photos of the ivory Tumenggunan.