The Tagua Nut is the fruit of a palm tree from Ecuador in South America. It is known as "Vegetable Ivory", and has a colouration, texture and weight similar to Elephant Ivory

	The long practised skills of the Ivory carvers continue to shine through in the carvings of these Tagua Nuts, in the form of "Netsukes", and small ornaments. The carvings are approx 2" in size, and the nut has to be soaked for a month to make it soft enough to work. After carving the nut dries back to it's original hardness, and the figure is decorated with colour using single hair brushes.
Tagua Nut Sets: Three sets of Tagua Nuts are in our catalogue. A set of four sumo wrestlers with their Oyebata (stable master) ready to prepare themselves. A family set of three Netsukes, father, mother and baby, and the bored teenage daughter. Fuk, Lok, Sau (Happiness, Prosperity and Longevity), 3 Gods on a rosewood stand.
	Authenticity each carving comes with a certificate of authenticity explaining the origin of the tagua nut and the month the figure was created and each figure has a circle showing where the stalk attached the nut to the tree
The close up shows the fine detail achieved by these master craftsmen, whose skills are being preserved by the use of "Vegetable Ivory", as a humane alternative to elephant ivory.
to see a larger collection of netsukes just visit our gallery pages