Welcome to Lazares Bazaar! eBay Trading Assistant & Education Specialist.

It's always fun learning about different objects and antiques in my business. I've recently had the opportunity to list three elephant Ivory carvings for a client of mine.

While I'm not an expert on such objects I am a dogged researcher and was able to find out some very interesting facts about these three pieces.

First, I had to try and find out when and where they most likely came from. They had Chinese markings on them so that was a helpful clue, and the seller informed me that they were inherited from his great grandmother who had traveled extensively around the world from the 1920's through the 1940's.

I was curious to find out what the markings said, so I posted some pictures of the pieces and the markings on an eBay community forum and within hours was immediately rewarded with their translations!

Each piece had a series of  Chinese characters in black and a square marking in red.  This red marking translated to "Made In The Reign of Chenhua".

Now Chenhua reigned during the Ming Dynasty 1464 - 1487, so at first I wondered if these could actually be that old.

Further delving into the subject matter brought me into contact with a UK dealer who was able to estimate their age for me as likely being from 1880 - 1920.

I was also provided with the following information: "most Chinese carvers scripted their works with dynasties or poems rather than a name, where as in Japan they signed them after master carvers"

This helped clear up the mystery of the red markings. Each piece also had a short poetic title as follows:

The 12" tall Ivory carving of a beautiful asian woman holding a bouquet of flowers read "Meiyan Hua Shen "Beautiful and Alluring Flowers and Spirits."

The 9" tall Ivory sculpture of what might be mother and daughter holding painted fans and featuring a colorful butterfly was titled "Cang Cong Nongdie A Blue Mass of Butterflies. (Actually, nongdie refers specifically to the Skipper family of butterflies)"

And finally the 7" long Ivory figure of a man possibly wooing his young love reads: "Tan Yu Gu Song Ting "Playing as the Lonely Pine Listens."

All three are so intricately detailed and exquisite in their design and beauty that it is absolutely intoxicating to the mind.

From what I am given to understand, Chinese Ivories of this size are hard to find and don't come to market very often, so if you are a collector and are interested in these you can view them in my eBay store at www.stores.ebay.com/lazares-bazaar 

Just enter "Ivory" in the store search box and they should all come up.

I should also note that per the CITES 1989 Ban on the International trade in Ivory (of which I fully support), these pieces were brought to the USA well before the ban (1920 - 1940), and can only be sold within the USA.

Stay tuned for my next installment of "Adventures of an eBay Trader" where I discuss the upcoming auction for an incredibly fine 1st Edition (Limited Edition) Signed copy of John Steinbecks "East of Eden". this is an incredible find that I'll be putting up for auction come September 5, 2008.  You can also preview it in my eBay store.

Warmest Regards to all,

Stephan at LazaresBazaar.com