Featured Total Ban On Ivory Sales In The UK Proposed.

Just lovely...
The skill of the Ivory carvers in Canton never fails to amaze me, I love Dieppe Ivory too but it's very expensive supposing you can even find some.

 

I think the problem, at least here in the US, is not so much is it old and/or historically significant, it's can you prove it? Proof like do you have original receipts from when it was first bought? If not, and I suspect most pieces do not have that kind of documentation, what needs to be done to prove it's pre-ban?

 

Some items might not be Elephant Ivory but to the ordinary man in the street it isn't easy to tell.
I just assume my Ivory is from Elephants.

 

around here...I assume it Walrus !!

 

Good idea....I'll do that

 

I just assume I'm stuck with it. :-(

 

Have often thought that if I could sell my few inherited ivory pieces (mother bought a couple of bracelets in big sales held right before US ban law went into effect), I would be happy to donate the proceeds to an elephant conservation/protection program.

Every time they hold a big, much publicized smashing or burning, all I can think is, You fools. You're just making it rarer, more expensive, more worth risking poaching for.

I'm most disgusted by ivory going to traditional Chinese medicine, seemingly mainly for purposes of improving male potency. Rhino horn, ditto. My solution is fake news: get a reputable medical journal to publish a convincingly scientific sounding paper on how just touching ivory can make a man impotent, get that spread around on the Internet - many animals saved.

 

Slight problem, walrus is now on CITES appendix III (2017).
I have some antique dugong ivory keris hilts, dugong is on CITES appendix I (2000).
I guess you have to check locally what that means for sale.

 

Yes we can't win...
I guess we just have to keep and enjoy our collections whatever kind of Ivory it is

 

I didn't mean to suggest that walrus, was a easy sell anywhere...just that around here most Ivory that you encounter....will not be elephant.

 

There are ways to differentiate the types by appearance alone:

https://www.fws.gov/lab/ivory_natural.php

https://www.realorrepro.com/article/Ivory-genuine-fake--confusing

The problem is differentiating antique from modern & then documenting. Know nothing of these people, but they claim to do it, for a price:

http://www.ivoryexperts.com/

 

Thank you for the links

 

I still see lots slipping by in carefully worded eBay listings. I only report when I suspect the item is modern. Some things you know are antique & I see no benefit to anyone or anything in taking them off the market.

I know a third generation antiques dealer who specializes in Chinese work. He thinks there will eventually be some kind of legal easement for some ivory that does not have documentation. We'll see.

I have a handful of ivory cameos. If they cannot be legally sold by the time I need or am ready to part with them, some 'lucky' museum will put them out of sight in a storage locker.

 

Absolutely dito all you said above, folks, that is stupid and won't help elephants to destroy antique works of art

Those Cambodian or Thai ivory stamps seem to enter these exceptions, what do you think? (Anyway, not going to part with my ivory pieces)

 

Can't even imagine someone could destroy such pieces under law

 

No, nor this (have shown before on another thread):



Or this (sold as Celluloid by an English auction house):



There are just some kinds of things that aren't being faked these days, that are clearly well before any legal restrictions, despite no documentation. Wonder if there is now a rising field of faking the documentation? There's a business opportunity.

 

Just came back from previewing some jewelry going up in a local auction tomorrow. I found in two separate lots a piece with elephant ivory described in the catalog as celluloid

 

I see that one cherub is still on the booze.

 

As I have expressed elsewhere, when I acquire antique ivory, I feel I am honoring the sacrifice. It's not the existence of pieces like these that is driving the market demand that leads to the poaching. Making trade illegal is only going to mean an underground market. The poachers get so little pay, it would probably be cheaper & more effective to give would-be poachers a stipend than to have wardens, who have an impossible (& dangerous) job & cargo inspectors.

 

Living in the US, I'm close to it myself these days. I sent this out at the time. The other one was until recently for sale by a well known London dealer. After looking at many other similar pieces, I'm convinced they are by the same hand & probably companion pieces; one is a tiny fraction larger, as it would have to be.