Posted 10 years ago
completefl…
(30 items)
this seems very fragile. There also seems to be a smaller sculpted ball inside each one. i cant see all the way through to count them. it is 6.5 inches tall when the large ball is on the stand. and the ball has a 2.5 inch diameter. the stand actually twist into the base. it was a little loose so i looked closely and checked if i could tighten, it just twisted tight. Any info would be helpful. Thankyou.
Joe
It's a Chinese puzzle ball. Hard to tell what it is made from. Lookup identifying Ivory vs bone.
http://www.odditycentral.com/pics/chinese-puzzle-balls-the-rubiks-cube-of-the-ancient-world.html
U need to line them up by the biggest hole to count the layers. Change category to Chinese antiques.
Thank you so much. i will try to figure out how to change category.
This is exquisite and these balls represent to me Chinese crafts- beautiful, mystical, detailed, and story telling.
This is possibly not ivory or bone but resin. They grind up bone and mix it with a resin and carve from that. It does not take away from its beauty or value.
I use to see these for sale in Hong Kong back in 1971-72 when I was in the US Navy. They said then they were made from ivory. Ihave been looking for these ever since as I wish i had bought one. The reason I did not buy one is I seen them so many times. I am sure they sold a lot of them. In my research I found there is one in the Smithsonian.