Ivory Pageant

Ivory has long been considered a very beautiful artistic material to the human eye, and has a long standing history dating back many centuries of humans using ivory for carving exquisitely capturing works of art, and for working functions too. All though some people may not even realize it, there are many different animals that ivory can actually come from, but what is considered to be absolutely "Real" in the true meaning of it is, to be from the teeth and tusks of mammoths and elephants.

Since elephant hunting for ivory was banned in the 1970's, the only real remaining source of what would be considered "Real" material allowed today is the 10,000 year old extinct mammoth. If you ever come across real elephant ivory during today's collections, it must have been crafted before the time period of the ban or illegal elephant tusks. It is best to NEVER support any type of purchasing of today's real elephant tusks,if you have knowledge of it coming through illegal means. Make sure that you collection has only very old, but legal elephant tusks or the currently legal mammoth ivory.

The most common ivory of today are the older elephant tusks, the extinct mammoth , the sperm whale , the hornbill and the walrus ivory. There is also the hippopotamus teeth which is also very common, and maybe more than that of the others in some areas of the world, including the mammoth tusks. It is Hippopotamus ivory that is often commonly used for inlays, buttons or most any other flat surfaced items or upon most any flat surfaced area. It is walrus and the sperm whale ivory that is more commonly used in the makings of smaller objects of usage or artistically hand crafted collections of design. Highly popular in China, is the hornbill beak for making small brooches, buckles and other small wearable and collectible designs.

Even with so many choices it is the mammoth ivory that may be the most valuable due to it being the only one of two "Real" ivory originals, but also for the fact that mammoth tusk is unique within its self because of how many thousands of years old it is, and because of being directly from an extinct animal. Because of the mammoth being extinct so long ago, all though seemingly plentiful today, there will be a time when mammoth ivory will again be extinct in the another way. Even though the true number of mammoth still to be excavated is really unknown, there will be a time when there will be no more mammoth left to excavate for the makings of new mammoth tusk collectibles.