What is it?--Value? Antigue or garage sal
 

Had some family inherited boxes lying around and finally got to opening some of them.

Found this thing, appears to be ivory. It looks like it is segmented together. It is very large and pretty heavy. Lots of detail. It could use a cleaning.

Glorified cheese cutter? Worth anything?



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Looks valuable to me. Don't clean it - lots of things are ruined due to overzealous owners wanting to give it a buff. There are several online valuation sources that will help if you can submit a photograph.

don't clean it !
always loved this on the A-roadshow...
it was worth $$$$..but someone cleaned it,repaired it..
now..$

Rika

Looks like it's worth some coin. Definitely don't clean.

I believe it to be Ivory..a test is to take red hot pin and touch the materail somewher that is not obtrusive and if it smells of burning hair it is Ivory.

That said it is Chinese..not carved very finely...so it is a later piece say within 100 years to be safe. Most likely the last 40. It seems to be a TOURIST TYPE of ware..perhaps it is a letter opener?.cermonial in nature?

Yes it does have a moderate value because it is Ivory..I would say a few hundred more or less.

+1 on the "tourist-type" piece.....
And I concur with Tabs about the material. IF it is Ivory, maybe a few hundred... if it is some other hard, bone-like material, not so much more than sentimental value.
Any clue as to a date for it? When your folks made the trip over? Such as that? That would help in determining region/provence it is from as well as material, age, value.

I'm far from expert. These days there are lots of similar ivory-look Asian carved things out there. Many of them are carved out of some sort of bone (not necessarily Elephant tusk/ivory).

Like I said, I'm no expert, it could be 10 years old or 110 or 210, but my vote is that it's not that old or that valuable (although, if you tried to buy something like that in a shop, today, I bet you'd pay anywhere from $150-400 depending upon the shop.

I base this on the fact that I like things Japanese. I've got a couple of the modern netsuke because I like the way they look, and they look pretty much just like that (except smaller).

Not valuable. Tourist crap.

Sorry to say this, but it is so.

The carving is painfully crude.

The blade is a joke, and underscores the "souvenir" element of the thing.

It's almost certainly bone instead of ivory.

Definitely not collectible.

Trust me on this.