Featured The Last Ivory Carver of Dieppe

Came across an interesting 2015 blog post and thought I'd share:

The Last Ivory Carver of Dieppe

 

Thanks for sharing. It's a sad situation, the ongoing threat of banning sales on antiques with even tiny bits of ivory is still percolating in the UK. Totally pointless and won't save a single elephant, the poaching trade doesn't come through Northern Europe. It will only be fixed by education in the Eastern markets, tackling deprivation in Africa and legal streams for ivory from naturally deceased elephants.

 

Antique ivory should be seen as something separate from modern ivory imo.
Many species of wood are now banned, and rightly so. But no one has taken an axe to beautiful antique furniture, or thrown antique musical instruments made from protected wood on the bonfire.

The problem is that we humans make decisions based on emotions, not on fact and thinking things through properly. The only time any thought is involved, is when we try and convince ourselves we have given something proper consideration.
Perfect example is our attitude towards those protected wood species, compared to the attitude towards certain protected animals. Trees are not endearing, cute or cuddly, so no bonfires for vintage or antique items made from protected trees. Thankfully.

 

Totally agree with both those comments, it's so unfair to collectors such as myself who built up their collections in good faith and now will be worthless in the monetary sense.

I have two pieces of Dieppe Ivory c.1800, The carving is exquisite.
The Dieppe carvers were the best in the world.

 

there are still some carvers around as restaurators in Paris; they are employed by companies that do one-to-one copies for museums with recycled material.
"as surely it is the Asian demand for a product which they believe can disperse misfortune and drive out evil spirits which has resulted in such tough restrictions regarding the sale of ivory" was certainly NOT what the gentleman said; I'm sure he used a word like Zizi to describe the problem....