OT: Identify this carving

[Chris Hogg]

Many years ago a neighbour brought this back from the Middle East where he worked, as a thank-you for keeping an eye on his house while he was abroad. It's about 28 inches high when folded tight,

25 inches when opened out . It's carved from a single palm trunk, I believe. The carving is intricate and interlocking, to make the whole thing 'flexible' . I've seen small ones, but none as big as this. As some here are quite widely traveled, I wondered if there was a standard name for these things, and if so, what it was.

[Tim+]

I don?t know what you call it but it won?t have been carved from a palm trunk as these have fibrous, pithy hearts. I think they?d just big grasses.

It is interesting. I was expecting it to open out wider though. Is that really as far as it expands?

Tim

[Chris Hogg]

Thanks for replying. Yes, it doesn't open very far. When it was first given to us, it had a rather crudely carved wooden bowl that sat in the top, which we got rid of. The top ends of the ribs are camel heads. I've uploaded it into google images and searched to see if it comes up with a matching image, but it found nothing like it. Small ones, say 8 inches tall, do occasionally appear in 'ethnic' gift shops here in the SW, so I assume that it's a class of ornament and they all have the same name.

[spuorgelgoog]

I shall ask my Syrian friends tomorrow.

Owain

[newshound]

I think of them as African rather than Middle Eastern. One of my kids brought something similar back from a trip from Kenya to South Africa.

[The Natural Philosopher]

yep. I have a three pronged one that used to have a sea urchin on top with a bulb up its arse. I would say more african than middle eastern, but its soothing anyone can do with a knife and time and a bit of wood

[Chris Hogg]

It could be African, I don't know, my neighbour worked in Kuwait and Saudi.

Each camel's neck divides and both parts can be traced down to and recombine at the foot diametrically opposite. 8 necks - 8 feet. Quite intricate, and would require quite a lot of pre-planning to work out what to cut away and what to leave, but once done a few times would be easy enough to repeat on any scale. Could be a traditional pattern passed down through a family perhaps.

[Chris Hogg]

Ah! Thank you for that suggestion. Searching for African intertwined carved stand, I think I've found it. It's known as a Cobra stand. They come in various sizes with various numbers of legs, from three upwards. See for example

although this is Indian, and none are as large as mine. Easy enough to carve a camel head in place of the cobra head, for the Arab market, and yes, they're definitely camel heads - they have ears.

Thanks to all who gave it thought.

[michael adams]

[Richard]

Could be yours for about 25 quid:

[Tim Streater]

Well that's apt, innit! A COBRA stand. Does the job, is complex, and most people can't figure out how it works.

[Thomas Prufer]

I picked up two bits of scrimshaw, at price that was very good even assuming it to be a not-scrimshaw replica. It turned out to be a not-scrimshaw replica, made from plastic -- usually called high-quality resin in the more truthful sales ads. (Price was "about a pint of lagers worth").

The internet and the eBay is full of these particular bits ("Victory Nelson scrimshaw", if you are bored). The tusks on all of these seem to come from the same mold, going by the cracks, only the amount of black paint in the cracks varies. However photos show the carving of the "tusks" is individual. So somewhere carvers are scratching pictures of Nelson and the HMS Victory into resin tusks, previously lovingly rubbed with black paint by dedicated tusk blackers...

Thomas Prufer

[michael adams]

Photos can show anything. A year or two back in town centres in West London there was a spate of chaps supposedly carving sand sculptures of dogs. These things were life size dogs on blankets laid on the pavement. However whenever you saw them, they were only ever putting on the "finishing touches"scraping sand off the dogs back or something. With a bag of sand at the side. This was around 10.00 am in the morning. I'm pretty sure these things were hollow molded with a sand finish but I wasnt going to turn up at 7.00 a.m. just to catch them at it. Photos of these guys could have looked pretty impressive as well. Just as with some "buskers" you can waste your time watching them to see if they're actually playing anything at all; or if its all coming out of the amp playing the "accompaniment"

The carved lines will have been presenet in the mold or moulds. Once they've taken a two part rubber mold of an original - an easy shape to copy they may also make some easily carved plaster tusks so as to change the design a bit and make moulds of those,

michael adams

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[Pamela]

"Bargain Hunt" and similar weak tv programmes are the main reason I now avoid broadcast tv.

[michael adams]

Negatives, negatives its always negatives with you, isn't it ?

Why did you snip the good part ?

" there's 5 minutes of gold starting around 12.40 when the various seasoned auctioneers give their honest opinions on the items bought by the teams, and the market in general."

If you're interested in this sort of thing, second-hand, antiques collectibles then the kind of information imparted in these 5 minute segments is the kind of thing you won't readily find elsewhere.

On most modern sets its quite easy to turn the sound down as required. There's no longer any of this having to get up out of the chair and walk to the other side of the room and turn a knob any more. Or having to persuade someone else to do it for you.

michael adams

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[Pamela]

I snipped that comment because I don't agree with there's "5 minutes of gold". The whole program is trash, designed to appeal to greedy old people who hope to turn their junk into antiques to make some money. It's cheap voyeuristic tv with little merit. YMMV.

As I already wrote, I rarely watch UK broadcast tv. I think you must be a bit strange because why would you watch a channel you didn't like, with the sound down? I just watch something else I like better.

[michael adams]

Because I'm listening to the radio or doing something else and only turn the sound up and pay full attention when that 5 minute segment begins.

People who imagine that simply because you turn a TV set on, on whatever channel you're thereby required to sit down in front of it staring open mouthed taking in whatever comes out of it are the strange ones.

michael adams

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[Pamela]

Surely you have BBC iPlayer and can stream your golden 5 minutes without having to wait for them to be broadcast. Streaming telly lets you watch what you want, when you want.

Maybe I'm wrong but I thought that way of watching tv went out of the window decades ago. Although some football fans still display that mesmerised behaviour! :)

[michael adams]

And I want to watch that bit while I'm eating my lunch. TV wastes enough of peoples time as it is without wasting even more of it by encouraging them to watch what they want, when they want. If that 5 minute segment had been at 3.15 in afternoon I'd have never have seen it in the first place, never mind wanting to watch it on streaming TV

michael adams

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[Pamela]

You can eat at the same time as streaming a tv programme to a smartphone in the kitchen or even a smart tv in the living room. You're in control!