Figural !

[HughChen]

Originally Posted by David

Here are a couple of rather nice Bali hilts carved in bone. These two are contemporary carving which i believe are done with moose bone, which has become a popular medium for contemporary Balinese carvers. I believe the detail on these later carvings is fairly high quality.

Yes David, I agree they are of high quality. But it's much easier to do high quality with electronic tools contemporarily.And New ones are open to sale in scale, whereas old good ones are difficult to find. Because of that, I think old carved hilts are still much more attractive to me.

Originally Posted by David

These are nice carvings Hugh, but honestly i would hesitate to label them as VERY high quality. First of all, usually the highest quality would be reserved for ivory, not only a more valuable material, but one that lends itself to a more detailed level of carving than bone. But even bone can be carved to a higher level of carving than the examples you show. Please understand i am not saying those examples are undesirable. As i stated, they are really nice hilts that i would surely welcome into my collection. But i just wanted you to be aware that they are not the highest level of Balinese carving skill.

I agree that ivory is always better, but ivory can cause some legal confusion so I'm afraid to be so into it that I cannot control myself to try to get one at legal risk.

It's a pleasure for me to see these high-quality carvings you've provided. Are these made of bone or ivory? It's beyond my ability to tell which are better, or to Rank them in terms of quality. If someone can do it to help me understand better, it will be much appreciated. In my naive eyes, I think they are as good as the pair I represent which was sold in a French aucion. I found them sold in very high price. I apologize for my lack of artistic sensitivity. Due to my sluggish appreciation ability, I have to rely on your expert view as an indicator to understand the quality of something. I myself can only tell which is good and which is not good, still lacking the ability to tell how good and which one is better .