Posted on 04/23/2014 5:04:00 PM PDT by mdittmar
Beware! You may not be able to buy or sell anything of any age that is made totally or partially of ivory. Everything from a piano to a button. AAll import, export, resale or donation of items that contain ivory less than 100 years old from African elephants was banned by Executive Order from President Obama on Feb. 11, 2014. The ban will be carried out by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. This means that almost everything made from ivory after 1914 can no longer legally be sold or donated in the United States after May 31, 2014. To prove ivory is antique requires special forms and appraisals that may not exist, especially if the ivory was inherited.
Auctioneers, collectors, dealers, artists, musicians, museums, and others are concerned. We checked Kovels' online price guide and found many pieces that can no longer be bought or sold because at least part of the object is made of ivory. See the list below.
For more detailed information, go to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's International Affairs page and also read this Forbes article.
There are several existing laws impacted by this ivory ban. To make your thoughts known, contact your U.S. Senator or Representative or visit the Fish & Wildlife Service's website and either email officials there via the "Email" link on the right side of the homepage or use the social media links at the top of the page.
Live African elephants will still be protected by the law that forbids import or export of recently harvested ivory.
These are some of the pieces using antique ivory that will be illegal to sell: accordions, bookends, boxes, buttons, calling-card cases, canes, carved elephant tusks, chess pieces, crucifixes, cuff links, decorative screens, dice, doctor's dolls, fans with ivory sticks, figurines, flatware, fountain pens, furniture with ivory inlay, game pieces, guitars, hair combs, handguns, incense burners, inros, jars, jewelry (including pins, bracelets, beads, necklaces and earrings), knife handles, knitting needles, letter openers, magnifying glass handles, mahjong tiles, miniatures, Nantucket baskets, netsukes, page turners, pianos, puzzle balls, rifles, rondelles, scrimshaw, sewing boxes, shaving-brush handles, ship models, snuff bottles, tankards, tea and coffee pots with ivory insets in the handles (they keep the handles cool), trinket boxes, umbrella handles, urns, vases and more.
In the past, some antique ivory was crushed so it could not be sold or donated.
LOL Piscopo: Side by side your my amigo, nigro. Lets not fight
Another political “raid” on Gibson guitar in 3...2....1
One more stupid executive order to ignore...
LOL!! Now you’re talking
There is an easy way that ~could~ end Ivory poaching and reverse the destruction of Elephant herds in Africa (and it would even turn poachers into animal protection agents): It’s called capitalism.
Allow the poachers to “OWN” whole herds and then teach them that if they allow the elephants to produce babies then in the future when these elephants are near old age/death they then could collect the tusk, this may take a few years with a change in culture the current poachers would become fierce protectors of “their” WILD herds (and the lands that these elephants graze on).
Just my 2, but the socialists would never listen to this. -JS
I’m not certain, but I think there’s somewhere in Africa where that’s been done.
Ivory keys discolor with age. Sometimes they split. My piano (ca. 1930) had all of the ivory removed from the keyboard when it was restored in the 1960s and replaced with plastic. I don't think that they've used ivory for piano keys since the 1940s.
I do have a baby grand piano with ivory keys that was recently restored. The restorer recommended keeping the ivory keys and he carefully filed the sharp edges and polished them up real purdy. I would never have imagined that it would be illegal to sell.
Spot on. I spent many years in Africa. Outlawing trophy hunting, and commercial ivory led to the decimation of local animal populations, simply because they were reduced to the status of garden pest. When professional hunters and game managers were driven out, the field was left wide open to poachers and corrupt local officials who quickly depleted their greatest natural resource.
Curiously, I tried to link it from YouTube, but they had it pared down to about 30 seconds and excised Piscopo’s money shot (...”amigo, negro”), an obvious PC act.
This same bastard ate endangered species while he was in Japan.
Lying hypocrite with no care of the impact of any of his actions.
Rats! Now you’re going to have to fish around for the soap.
Patton’s pistols.
Seriously, how can they tell it wasn’t from an Indian Elephant instead of an African one?
This “ivory ban” doesn’t even prevent the legal hunting of elephants for sport.
Ear size
Ear size won’t tell which elephant the ivory in your piano keys is from. Just say ‘This is Indian Elephant ivory.”, and you have reasonable doubt.
That's racist!
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