Canton ball* in finely carved ivory decorated with intertwined dragons in a foliage pattern, 1st lower layer openworked with stars and small circles, from China, from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
This ball is in good condition.
A note: tiny wear of time, see photos.
Specimen in worked ivory, prior to July 1, 1947 and therefore compliant with EC Regulation 338/97 of 09/12/1996 art.2-Wmc.
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* The Canton Ball , also called "puzzle ball", "Chinese puzzle ball" is a masterpiece of creativity and beauty whose complexity is surprising. Its production reached its peak during the Ming and Qing dynasties. The design of Cantonese balls obeys three rules of perfection: YA (refinement), SI (extreme delicacy) and FAN (elaborate complexity). They are composed of several nested spheres separated from each other, so that each internal sphere moves freely one inside the other.