info on seated asian ivory figurines?

Question

I have a emporer ond emporist carved in ivory ( i think) and they are signed in asian on the underside. I am looking for info or a site to find info

Answer 1

What types of characters? There are many Asian languages...If they are in Roman script, then perhaps Vietnamese, If they are characters like 全音， 春哈，these could be Chinese, Korean or Japanese. Look at the faces carefully, if the eyes are just slits, then probably Japanese or about 600 years ago in China, that was the stylized face. The head gear is also important to establish the identity...Many of the contemporary copies are actually cast heavy plastic and even colored to resemble ivory (sort of a light yellowish-brown). If you haven't done so, you will need good photos of them before anyone can tell you much about the provenance (if they are authentic). Traditionally most Chinese emperors are standing and there were only a few notable empresses....Xi Xi is perhaps the best known as the Dowager Empress or often called 'Old Buddha" but she was not associated with her husband (She wasn't the Tai-tai or the supreme wife..only number two) and it is said that she poisoned him and later her own son to become empress. However during the 1860s and later, things Chinese became popular in Europe and America and many artisans created alot of fancy work for export but they had not relationship to either truth or history.