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Can You Tell Fake Ivory From Real?
Older Chinese carvings done in ivory are some of the most beautiful works of art ever done. Ivory was a medium that allowed true masters to show off their skills. It can however be very difficult to determine ivory from bone, plastic and other resins that are used to imitate the look and feel of real ivory. One of the problems is that ivory comes from tusk and teeth from different animals and the look of real ivory can vary greatly depending on the source.
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Magnifying Glass
When examining ivory a magnifying glass is a must, somewhere around 15x is good. Just cause a piece is older does not mean that it is ivory as faux ivory has been used for hundreds of years. The best way is by looking to see if the object has a grain. If it has a grain and you see cross hatching at the bottom of the piece this is a very good indicator you have ivory. Look for a grain pattern that is random as many fakes will have a pattern that is a little to perfect. Generally plastic is smoother than real ivory and bone. Bone is generally more pitted and does not have the grain of ivory.
Hot Pin Test
You can also use the hot pin test that we suggested you use on jade. A hot pin can not penetrate real ivory as it will plastic. Also when you touch bone with a hot pin it might not penetrate but when you smell the object you will smell something close to what burning hair would smell like. When you touch ivory and smell where the pin has touched its more of a burning teeth dentist office type of smell. Of course as with any test you perform you want to do it on the bottom of the object.
UV Light
One method used by serious collectors is to examine a object under UV light. Ivory when examined under UV light is bright and fluorescent where most fakes will not fluoresce and are dull. UV lights are affordable and are a must for any serious collector of ivory, jade, paper, porcelain and oil paintings. Knowing the history of a object will also help authenticate it.
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Old Chinese Calligraphy and Dragon Art
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Older Chinese dragon artworks are often found on painting or in ink. Works done in ink like Chinese calligraphy or paint have a long history of being misrepresented in Chinese art. Even works that we attributed to known Chinese masters were often done by students. A master would do the outline than the student would fill in the rest in a style close to that of the master.
Hacking
The above is example of hacking. A artist may not have time or is working on a project and a student does the majority of the work, while the artist still puts his name or seal on the work. This is a act of deception that was common to get better value for the work and be able to turn out more.
Altering
Altering involves taking a genuine work and turning it into a more valuable work, either by adding or subtracting a portion. This is done with careful scraping, cutting, erasing, bleaching and washing. The goal is to turn a work from the same time period into a more famous one and adding a masters signature. This is not to be confused with legitimate restoration. On close inspection with the help of magnification it can be easy to see the signs of alteration as its difficult to do without leaving behind evidence.
Copying
Copying a original painting is not easy to do. Good copies that are not easy to detect take perfect brush work. Trying to copy every brush stroke of a original leaves the artist very confined and he is unable to produce a natural brush stroke. Not only does the brush stroke have to be right but the exact bend of the brush and speed of the stroke. Many copies will have brush strokes that are tight and more uniform than originals. Experts claim they can tell fakes because they look lifeless do to this uniform brush work.
Tracing
Tracing especially older Chinese Calligraphy is among the hardest to detect. Superimposing a piece of silk over older Chinese calligraphy on a light window, a artist can trace it with a pointed brush outlining it exactly and filling it in with ink later. Experts often rely on the smell of the ink to get a gut feeling. Probably 99% of older Chinese calligraphy, although beautiful is fake.
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