Ivory Products
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Back in 1980 when I was a card-carrying member of corporate America, I took a part-time job working a couple of nights a week at Quincy Marketplace in Boston. For those of you not familiar with it, Quincy Marketplace is made up of three very old and very long buildings. The center building is actually named Quincy Market and it is flanked on either side by the North and South Market buildings.

In 1976, these buildings were refurbished and turned into a wonderful tourist-oriented urban mall packed with retail shops and restaurants. The center building also has what is called the Bull Market. This is made up of dozens and dozens of pushcarts, each representing a different artisan. Quincy Marketplace is located right behind famous Faneuil Hall. As a matter of fact, many people call this area the Faneuil Hall Marketplace.

Originally built in 1742, Faneuil Hall was a meeting place and a site for early protests against the British. Samuel Adams spoke there many times. It burned in a fire but was rebuilt in 1762 and was then expanded in 1806 by Charles Bulfinch. This very famous meeting place is also referred to as "the cradle of liberty."

My part-time job was working for a store that sold all different types of ivory products. I didn't take the job because I needed the money. I took the job because Quincy Market was a happening place. This shop was owned by two gentlemen, one older and one younger. One was from Michigan and the other was from New York. They decided they would turn the ancient art of scrimshaw into a business so they formed a partnership and opened what turned out to be a very lucrative shop.

Scrimshaw

They were both artists so they were able to create their own product right on the premises while the customers watched. The younger partner used a more modern technique and the older one offered a more traditional style much like you would see on scrimshaw that was done back in the old whaling days.

Scrimshaw is the art of etching drawings onto natural materials such as ivory and bone. It was prominent on whaling ships between 1817 and 1824 and survived until the ban on commercial whaling. A pointed metal implement is used to do the etching. You will find that today many scrimshanders actually use dental tools. Once an etching is complete, different inks are used to color in the grooves of the etching. Although the most popular motifs have always been traditional designs such as tall ships, mermaids and whaling scenes, you will also see many pieces adorned with flowers, birds and animals.

Sources of Ivory

While working at the shop, I was taught that only a certain number of mammals have real ivory. The mammals are elephants, walruses, wooly mammoths, mastodons, sperm whales and killer whales, also known as orcas. The name killer whale is misleading. A killer whale is not a whale at all but a member of the dolphin family.

In recent times, I have read some articles that list other mammals as ivory bearing such as hippos and narwahls which are medium sized whales found in the Artic. The material found in all other species of whales is called baleen.

Ivory Merchandise

In the early 1980's, we could barely keep the showcases stocked in the shop. Quincy Marketplace was always jam packed with people and I swear every one of them took home a piece of ivory or bone. We offered all kinds of ivory jewelry to include earrings, brooches, necklaces and bracelets. Most of it was scrimshawed but some of it was carved.

If I remember correctly, pieces that were carved came into the store that way. The ivory was carved elsewhere by other people. An example of carving would be an elephant tusk that was shaped to look like a long line of elephants, one following the other. A scrimshawed version would be a tusk still in its original shape with drawings of elephants etched into the ivory.

The shop also carried whale's teeth, tusks, netsukes, ivory handled knives, ivory handled walking sticks and large plaques designed to be attached to the tops of music boxes, jewelry boxes or Nantucket lightship baskets.

Nantucket Lightship Baskets

If you are not familiar with them, Nantucket lightship baskets come in many different shapes and sizes and are highly collectible. The scrimshawed ivory plaques are usually placed on the lids of Nantucket lightship basket purses. Most of the other baskets do not have lids. Unfortunately, there are reproductions of these baskets out there so you have to be careful. On those reproductions, you will mostly find faux ivory plaques such as resin and rather than authentic scrimshaw the decoration will probably be done with a laser.

Back in whaling days, ships acted as navigational beacons off the coastline to help protect the whaleships so they would not get hung up on the shoals. These ships were called lightships. With not much to keep them busy, the crew would weave baskets to pass the time. They were exceptionally well made with a very strong and tight weave. This was important since they were designed to carry water.

They looked a lot like the baskets that were available on the Island of Nantucket back then hence the name Nantucket lightship basket. A real lightship basket purse made by a well-known artisan with a real ivory plaque can sell for as much as $5000 today.

Netsukes

Netsukes are miniature sculptures that hail from Japan. They date back to the 17th century. A kimono worn by a Japanese person had no pockets so he would hang either a pouch or a box from a cord that ran through two small holes in the netsuke and then he would attach the netsuke to the obi (sash). Most netsukes were made from ivory, some from bone.

Today there are many netsuke reproductions and they are usually made from boxwood, nut or a resin material. The real ivory netsukes are highly collectible. Each sculpture represents a particular person performing a task with certain objects surrounding him. They each have a meaning in Japanese culture.

Regulation of Ivory

Ivory has been regulated since 1976. In June of 1989, it became illegal to import ivory of any kind into the United States. The ivory teeth of sperm whale had already been banned before this. Reproductions of these teeth are now common due to the lack of availability. The driving force behind the ban was of course the endangered status of both elephants and sperm whales. The rate at which they were being killed for their ivory was horrifying.

Ivory that was already in the United States before the ban still continues to be bought and sold. The two owners of the shop where I worked expected such a ban would happen at some point so they stockpiled as much ivory as possible. I left that job in 1982 because of my travelling schedule but the store is still in existence today only it is under new management and in a different location within the city. I am sure that they have since run out of stock and now have to rely on buying real ivory products through private sales, estate sales and auction houses. Scrimshanders today may also find that they can only obtain these items within the borders of their own state.

Exceptions to the Ivory Ban

Eskimos are exempt from the ban and are allowed to sell and ship walrus ivory but anyone receiving such ivory should be careful to have official paperwork showing the transaction to be legal.

Both wooly mammoths and mastodons have been extinct for 10,000 to 40,000 years. Since these elephant-like creatures are in no way threatened, there are no restrictions on buying, selling or shipping their ivory. A number of years ago, large pockets of these mammals were found frozen in the ice and their ivory was harvested. I imagine that any future pockets of them that might be found will be free of restrictions as well.

eBay

In 2007, eBay banned all international sales of ivory products. In 2008, they expanded the ban to disallow any and all sales of ivory both domestically and internationally to be effective in 2009.

Reproductions

Since ivory has always been highly collectible, the present restrictions on its availability and distribution have lead to an influx of reproductions. Some of the reproductions are made from resin or a form or plastic but there are new materials available now that make it really difficult to tell the difference.

Believe it or not, fake ivory in some form or another has been around for hundreds of years. It is hard to believe that reproductions were in existence even back then. Therefore you cannot assume that a piece of ivory is authentic just because it is old. Heck, sometimes you don't even know if it is even old. Some people try to age ivory by staining it with tea.

If you want to evaluate a piece of ivory, you need a magnifying glass. Ivory, especially polished ivory, has a distinct grain to it. Make sure the grain appears randomly. If the grain is absolutely perfect and exactly the same throughout the entire piece it is probably not real.

There is a sure way to tell and that is the needle test. You need to take a needle or a straight pin and heat it with a cigarette lighter until it is very hot. Apply the needle or pin to the piece in an inconspicuous location. If the hot needle leaves a mark or a melt spot on the piece, it is not ivory. Ivory does not burn. Neither does bone. However it is easy to distinguish bone from ivory. Bone is very porous and has little pit marks and does not have a grain.

I recently read that ivory will glow under a black light (UV) but I have not heard of that before and cannot vouch for this technique. I don't know if it is true or not.

Comments

At our auction house, we sold quite a bit of ivory but I will admit that none of it was very special, at least not when you compare it to some of the pieces I sold years ago at that shop. If you are ever in the vicinity of a whaling museum, take a couple of hours and go see what they have to offer. There are some fabulous pieces of ivory scrimshaw in these museums that were done by the original scrimshanders.

Written by Anne Benedetto, Auction House Talk
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