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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Bronwen, post: 10433197, member: 5833&quot;]Last night found a piece in my display cabinet that contributes to the caved/molded lava discussion.&nbsp; Had to wait for today to photograph, &amp; pix are not quite all I would have hoped.&nbsp; Still, think they illustrate my points fairly well.</p><p><br /></p><p>The subject matter has a similarity with [USER=83302]@Snowman Cometh[/USER] &#039;s lady.&nbsp; This one has a flower in her hair, so inspired by Flora, but also a quiver peeking over her left shoulder, like a Diana.&nbsp; Brown color &amp; weight in hand are consistent with many lava pieces.&nbsp; Surface texture is that of fine grained solidified volcanic ash.&nbsp; Findings on the back, T hinge &amp; C clasp, look 19th century.&nbsp; The mount was black when I pulled her out.&nbsp; Some time &amp; elbow grease with a jewellery wipe showed her to be in a simple silver mount with twisted gold wire decoration, a common style.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]525001[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]525002[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Before posting the link, I skimmed through the article &amp; rather cringed when I read this, but decided to post it anyway, Will have to do some editing there.&nbsp; A complete absence of such scraping with be supporting evidence for a verdict of a molded piece.&nbsp; However, since it is something easily added, by itself it is extremely weak as evidence that something is hand carved.&nbsp; Its presence or absence alone proves nothing.&nbsp; My Flora-Diana has even more scraping, scoring &amp; gouging than the photo picks up.&nbsp; Nonetheless, I believe her to be molded.</p><p><br /></p><p>Even under magnification I can&#039;t really tell what&#039;s going on with the dark patch on the back, whether it is an area where the brown has been scraped away, something dropped on top, or...?&nbsp; I do know that despite having a lumpy look, it has a smoother, glassy feel to it when I run the edge of a fingernail across it, not the graininess of the brown.&nbsp; A fingertip cannot discern any change of depth between the two areas, but it looks more to me as though the brown has been scraped or simply worn away.</p><p><br /></p><p>What I see clearly that is a strong argument for a molded piece are the small blobs of excess material visible around the neckline of her gown and under her chin.&nbsp; Her face &amp; neck are so smooth, a craftsman surely would not have left these places unfinished:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]525009[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>What I am looking for in snowman&#039;s pix is any area that would have made it impossible to get the piece out of a rigid mold and that could not have been created by some hand finishing post-mold.&nbsp; So far, not seeing any.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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