Ivory
Yesterday was part surprise, part shock and part sweet nostalgia. I was dusting yesterday early afternoon, and decided as I was dusting my collection of blue and white porcelain to look in the huge ginger jar made of Indonesian Delft my mother in law gave me when she moved to a retirement home.
My wonderful mother in law who I loved deeply and treated me like a daughter gave me all of her Indonesian Delft ware. She knew I'd collected blue and white Staffordshire and some other blues and whites, that my dining room in the States was filled with it.
This jar was filled with Styrofoam packing peanuts. I never took them out. Figuring with all our moving plans for here and other places perhaps I'd better keep them in. I wasn't going to put anything in the jar anyway. Safer to keep the peanuts.
Dusting, and it finally dawns on me that the jar is heavier than it should be. I shook out all of the peanuts and at the bottom were the most amazing things. Completely unexpected. Almost like messages from beyond from my mother in law.
There was this, a lovely hand painted egg Christmas ornament, quite large, personalized for my later father in law Cha Cha Charlie and my mother in law. It was a peace dove carrying an Irish four leaf clover. I was touched as my father's father was Irish, and I've always felt a kinship with that nation. It was big enough to mount on top of the tree where I don't have a star, and my old Nuremberg Angel didn't make it through customs in one piece. Shooting stars. It does not match my pretty Christmas ornaments from Germany, but it's perfect.
I'll treasure it forever.
The next thing to emerge was a tiny cloisonne egg and minuscule carved wooden stand. The entire thing is not much bigger than a gumball.
Sitting in my sewing room with my antique thimbles and the other cloisonne items from my mother in law.
But the biggest surprise lurked at the very bottom.
Hand carved statutes from Indonesia. At first I thought they were bone, or maybe Bakelite. But after looking at the inside at the cross hatching I was pretty sure it was likely ivory. Bone always has striations from the blood vessels, ivory does not. Tested it this morning, and yes it is ivory. Did the simple hot pin test. Heat a sewing pin over an open flame. Bone gets a little black scorch mark and smells like burning bone. Ivory does not get marks and very little smell. Bakelite or plastics melt and you get that distinctive burning plastics smell.
Purchased by my late mother in law in likely Bali or Indonesia in the late 1950s. But now I have an interesting problem. It's not 1947 or before manufactured so I cannot legally sell them, or take them in or out of countries. There are four of the figurines, all about four inches high and so exquisitely carved with great detail.
My wonderful mother in law who I loved deeply and treated me like a daughter gave me all of her Indonesian Delft ware. She knew I'd collected blue and white Staffordshire and some other blues and whites, that my dining room in the States was filled with it.
This jar was filled with Styrofoam packing peanuts. I never took them out. Figuring with all our moving plans for here and other places perhaps I'd better keep them in. I wasn't going to put anything in the jar anyway. Safer to keep the peanuts.
Dusting, and it finally dawns on me that the jar is heavier than it should be. I shook out all of the peanuts and at the bottom were the most amazing things. Completely unexpected. Almost like messages from beyond from my mother in law.
There was this, a lovely hand painted egg Christmas ornament, quite large, personalized for my later father in law Cha Cha Charlie and my mother in law. It was a peace dove carrying an Irish four leaf clover. I was touched as my father's father was Irish, and I've always felt a kinship with that nation. It was big enough to mount on top of the tree where I don't have a star, and my old Nuremberg Angel didn't make it through customs in one piece. Shooting stars. It does not match my pretty Christmas ornaments from Germany, but it's perfect.
I'll treasure it forever.
The next thing to emerge was a tiny cloisonne egg and minuscule carved wooden stand. The entire thing is not much bigger than a gumball.
Sitting in my sewing room with my antique thimbles and the other cloisonne items from my mother in law.
But the biggest surprise lurked at the very bottom.
Hand carved statutes from Indonesia. At first I thought they were bone, or maybe Bakelite. But after looking at the inside at the cross hatching I was pretty sure it was likely ivory. Bone always has striations from the blood vessels, ivory does not. Tested it this morning, and yes it is ivory. Did the simple hot pin test. Heat a sewing pin over an open flame. Bone gets a little black scorch mark and smells like burning bone. Ivory does not get marks and very little smell. Bakelite or plastics melt and you get that distinctive burning plastics smell.
Purchased by my late mother in law in likely Bali or Indonesia in the late 1950s. But now I have an interesting problem. It's not 1947 or before manufactured so I cannot legally sell them, or take them in or out of countries. There are four of the figurines, all about four inches high and so exquisitely carved with great detail.
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