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This piece was imported from Japan in the 1940's, but it is believed to be of Chinese origin. There are two very small leaves engraved on the top of her headdress.

The signature underneath is sort of like a plug that fits in a hole. The word on the bottom of the plug would mean "tooth" or "fang" or "ivory" if it was inverted.

I was told the top symbol means "beautiful" or "pretty."

Any idea who carved this piece and when it was carved? Please click the link to view pictures as I can't seem to get the file size right to post them here.

Link :Pictures of Ivory Goddess

I checked your photos and did not see any Schreger lines, therefore I don't believe your statuette to be ivory, more likely it is a plastic or synthetic faux ivory.

If you can find the schreger lines and post a clear photo of them, I will change my opinion.

I have included the link below to a webpage discussing the subject, hope this helps.

You can also Google "Schreger Lines" to see more photos of what they are close up.

Cheers
Gman

URL Title :Ivory : Genuine, Fake, and Confusing

The writing shown on the plug is 美氏, transcribed "Mei Shi" in mandarin pinyin Chinese, with a potential secular literal meaning of "Beautiful Woman" in the context of a carving like this. However, if I'm not mistaken in what I've read, then strictly speaking in the Buddhist context, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are considered to have form in their various manifestations but not gender. So I should mention that the same two characters also can be translated as "Beautiful Family".

Also, in my opinion, it's a toss-up as to whether this carving is a Chinese Guanyin or Japanese Kannon, as I've some of the latter images in pretty much the same costume.

Best regards,

Bill H.

It is Japanese. The quality is inferior to most of the carvings I have seen that come from the 1940's.....looks more like the rushed mass produced work from the 1970's that led to the banning of the ivory trade.

It may be the quality of the photography, but I don't see any Schreger Lines. I don't believe that this is ivory.

Cheers,
Stan

I'm certainly no expert, but I'd be highly shocked if this one turned out to be made of plastic. Knowing the background of my grandparents-in-law, it would be a bombshell.

Having said that my wife and I teamed up to take a couple more pictures. We can see through the ivory by shining a flashlight underneath. It is difficult, though, to get that to translate into pictures.

We also Googled "how to turn your iPhone into a blacklight," and took a couple of pictures with that (inside my messy closet as you can see).

Do these pictures prove it's not made of plastic? We've already had a guy with Bonhams suggest it was carved in the early part of the 20th century. They no longer deal in ivory, but he suggested it could value in the $3000 to $4000 range. They saw the same pics as you guys, but perhaps you're more knowledgeable than Bonhams auction house.

See linked pics.

URL Title :Backlight and \

I think I see Schreger Lines in the second back lit picture. It was just poor photography.

Cheers,
Stan

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