Mammoth ivory has the following characteristics:
1. The surface of the product is dark brown or blue and has been mineralized, indicating that it has been buried underground for nearly ten thousand years; In some finished products, the tooth skin is retained, showing the characteristics of heavy and retro products.
2. The cross section of the product has a clear and uniform longitudinal texture with a certain distance interval, which is a rhombic texture with arc crossing, and the cross section is less than 90 o.. This texture, also called Lutz grain, is a unique feature of mammoth ivory (see the figure below for the standard grain pattern of mammoth ivory).
Second, understand the characteristics of counterfeit goods.
At present, the common ivory counterfeits in the market are mainly bone products, animal teeth, fish teeth or other similar materials. There are mainly cow bones, horse bones and camel bones, and the bone products are passed off as ivory. The main products that imitate ivory with dental products are hippo teeth, sea ivory and so on.
The color of animal bones is very different from that of unprocessed ivory. The color of the bone is gray and dull, without the warmth of ivory. Therefore, counterfeiters often have to bleach animal bones first, and then polish and wax them.
Bone eye, feature display
However, the bleached and polished bone carving, even if it is processed well, will inevitably leave a small number of tiny black spots, which is the characteristic of bones, commonly known as "bone eye". As long as you look under a magnifying glass, you will definitely find "bone eye".
Therefore, as long as we grasp the "tooth pattern" of ivory and the "bone eye" of bone carving, we can better distinguish the authenticity of mammoth ivory products.
First-time collectors of tooth carvings should not think that the so-called "tooth pattern" is ivory, but also look at what the tooth pattern is, so that they will not be easily fooled.
Sea ivory, tooth pattern display
Sea ivory also has tooth patterns, but it is obviously different from the diamond Leeds pattern of mammoth ivory. Artificial ivory is also one of the common fakes on the market, which is synthesized by chemical process. Fakers deliberately imitate a kind of "tooth pattern", which is very deceptive.
Introduction of common fake ivory celluloid and tooth patterns
However, the so-called "tooth pattern" of artificial ivory is a regular parallel line without crossing lines, which is different from the natural tooth pattern of real ivory.
Third, the national inspection certification is more authoritative.
At present, the conventional method to detect and identify mammoth ivory is to analyze the elemental composition of ivory or judge the texture structure of ivory and determine the species. If you can't judge the authenticity of mammoth ivory through your own knowledge and experience, then you believe that the national inspection is the last killer mace.