Featured Total Ban On Ivory Sales In The UK Proposed.

Yes, it was faux. I do not touch ivory.

 

Has anyone seen this? I'm certainly not making light of it, but I'm wondering: coincidence, conspiracy, or what?

Top ivory investigator stabbed to death

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/top-ivory-investigator-stabbed-to-death/ar-BBIIWzK?li=BBnbfcL

 

Sickening. A 'botched robbery' just when he was writing up his findings? Guess an assassin would have come armed with more than a knife & would have inflicted more than one wound. Hope his notes are decipherable & his wife or a colleague will complete the report. Horrible to think the robbery may have been prompted by the thief's belief that there was ivory/rhino horn in the house.

 

Here's a seller trying to tiptoe around & get their point across photographically:



They don't know me, so may not trust me to be correct, but did write them to explain their worries are over. She's lovely; she's coral.

 

No worries about that one! It's a beauty and someone's sure to pounce at the right price.

(just took a look at the auction ... I'm not a player alas.)

 

I got a perfunctory 'thank you' from them. Just looked at the listing again to see if it had been changed. Nope, but noticed this time that 'item specifics' say it is shell. Either it's really, really tiny or seller's dimensions, 4 x 3 mm, are wrong. It will not be snapped up. Title will not turn it up in most people's searches. If they changed to 'coral cameo' it would get found by folks who buy pricier cameos & would shine among the many with the same subject that are being sold as coral but are really conch shell.

 

If they won't listen there isn't much you can do, besides watch it get relisted at hopefully a realistic price. This one, if it's that small, won't be.

 

Thank yous’ are too traumatic for some people to utter.

 

Buty it and resell it. Make sure you share the results with them.

 

She might, if it weren't so overpriced.

 

Oh. I thought she hinted it was underpriced???

 

Evelyb30 said it for me. They might find someone who would pay that much, but first that person has to find it. Would love to know who tagged it as ivory, whether it was seller or a jeweller. I see so many cameos incorrectly identified as to material by someone with GIA after their name.

 

It can't possibly be. Like the Lord's prayer on a grain of rice. They meant mm.

I just brought it in here as the amusing opposite of carefully crafted listings for genuine ivory pieces. Sneaking around needlessly & to their own detriment.

 

GIA-trained folks seem to know precious stones, but have zilch training in things like coral and shell. I had one old jeweler sell me a ring with angel skin coral balls in it as enamel and pearl. It didn't change the value of the ring, but...(LOL)

Odds are they meant CM instead of MM.

 

That's it exactly. I have seen them mistake shell for stone &, shockingly, stone for shell.

A few years ago one poor woman was trying to sell a ring with what a jeweller had told her was a genuine alexandrite, for $40,000. She told how her uncle had brought home several such stones when he returned from being posted in northern Africa & gave her one, how she remembers going with her father to have it set, in 10K by a chain jewellery store. It was clearly a color change sapphire of the type routinely, incorrectly, described as synthetic alexandrite. In the 1940s Egypt was cranking out jewellery using them. Tried to dissuade her, as kindly as I could, but no, 'a jeweller told me...'

 

I've seen that before too. It's enough to make a joolie tear her hair. Argggh!

 

The ring had something like 60+ watchers. No doubt she assumed that meant it was a rare & fabulous piece someone was sure to buy, instead of that they were like me, watching out of curiosity. She only needed to look at the listings for other 'alexandrite' rings to see many similar ones for a few hundred dollars or less.

 

Coral is subject to similar CITES restrictions as ivory. It is not free pass for it to be coral instead of ivory, it is still banned or heavily restricted in commerce.
The problem is and was that coral reefs were being demolished a lot faster than they grow in sensitive areas with tourist trades in the stuff.

 

Thankfully however, individual US states haven't banned the sale of vintage coral.