Chinese Crystal ball, one of a kind? Hand carved and crystal?

[lvdcrazy]

Found this at a old estate sale, i have searched endless online and cannot find anything that looks similar. please advise if this is valuable? maybe ancient chinese

 

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[GeoW]

Sitting on the see no evil, speak no evil, and hear no evil monkeys no less.

g

 

[Digger RJ]

Nice!!! Congrats!!!

 

[Al D]

It is glass

 

[Squirrel322]

The three monkeys are a Japanese thing.

 

[DCMatt]

It's a feng shui piece. Clear sphere attracts love, luck, and wealth. The "no evil" monkeys keep your home safe.

 

[Red-Coat]

Welcome to Tnet

As ‘Squirrel322’ says, the imagery originates in Japan but they’ve also been made in China. As ‘alan m’ says, I’m sure it will be glass, although the term ‘crystal’ is also used for some types of glass.

You’ll find them with the monkeys carved from wood, ivory or its substitutes; or cast from bronze or other metals; and with the ball in a variety of colours. The problem here is that it could be moderately valuable but that will depend on the quality to which it has been made, how old it is, and whether it has any signature of other markings to attribute it as not modern.

To give you an idea, the first one below has a bronze cast stand which is signed and can be attributed to the 19th Century from Japan. It sold for $1,880. The second one is a modern feng-shui item and would sell for less than $40.



I know the modern one is gaudy and obviously not an antique but I’m showing you the two extremes… and everything in between those extremes exists too, including pieces which cannot be reliably dated, except to say they’re probably vintage but not antique. My guess is that yours is vintage and perhaps has a low three-figure value… unless it is authentically marked or signed.

Looking closely at your pictures, if yours is cast metal then the casting is not of high quality. The ball also appears not to be a perfect sphere. It looks to have a flattened area where the monkeys are supporting it.

 

[Yang Hao]

The three monkeys are from Japan but there is a theory the three monkey inspiration came from China via Confucianism's
"The Analects" 孔子《论语》from 《颜渊》Yan Yuan verse one (the source is in bold):

Yan Yuan asked about perfect virtue. The Master said, "To subdue one's self and return to propriety, is perfect virtue. If a man can for one day subdue himself and return to propriety, all under heaven will ascribe perfect virtue to him. Is the practice of perfect virtue from a man himself, or is it from others?" Yan Yuan said, "I beg to ask the steps of that process." The Master replied, "Look not at what is contrary to propriety; listen not to what is contrary to propriety; speak not what is contrary to propriety; make no movement which is contrary to propriety." Yan Yuan then said, "Though I am deficient in intelligence and vigor, I will make it my business to practice this lesson."

颜渊问仁。子曰：“克己复礼为仁。一日克己复礼，天下归仁焉。为仁由己，而由人乎哉？”颜渊曰：“请问其目。”子曰：“非礼勿视，非礼勿听，非礼勿言，非礼勿动。”颜渊曰：“回虽不敏，请事斯语矣。”

Yan Yuan was a disciple of Confucius.

 

[jeff of pa]

size ? Years ago I Bought a 5" one just to have it.

Cost was $100.00 Ended up selling it for $20

I see the exact same thing is $50.00 Now,

that is if the china ones are solid glass too

I used to Like Dragons & Stuff like that

 

[Wildcat1750]

Very interesting ball and a lot of interesting information coming up about it...
Welcome to TNet!