For sale. This is from a piano dating back to 1909, the keys are in great shape. The piano has been distroyed as it was an old upright player piano and it was falling apart. So I salvaged the keys... They are the real ivory and the real ebony. I am in TN. I am not sure if the sale of these ivory and ebony keys are legal and am not sure how to find if they are.

You are correct, it is illegal to sell ivory, although ebony is a wood and not.

Tick

I understood selling Ivory from piano keys are okay up to a certain year. What year is that. These Ivory keys are from an old 1909 upright player piano.

I have no knowledge of selling any kind of ivory, old or not. Why didn't you mention this in your original post ? Yes I understand where the ivory is from but what difference does it make ? Ivory is ivory as I said and no one wants to buy it because of elephant poaching. Would you care to know how they remove the tusks and leave the animal bleeding to death.

Tick

People do want to buy old ivory, it is not illegal to sell antique ivory in most countries. A lot of people use it for making scrimshaw and restoring old pianos. I see no point in losing beautiful old pianos or losing skills to such a beautiful art, after all that animal lost it's life over a hundred years ago and the hunters are also dead. If you use antique ivory you are not supporting an evil industry you are most likely keeping a dying art alive.

People do want to buy old ivory, it is not illegal to sell antique ivory in most countries. A lot of people use it for making scrimshaw and restoring old pianos. I see no point in loosing beutiful old pianos or loosing skills to such a beautiful art, after all that animal lost it's life over a hundred years ago and the hunters are also dead. If you use antique ivory you are not supporting an evil industry you are most likely keeping a dying art alive.


You make some good points about scrimshaw art (actually an eskimo art and they used walrus tusks, bones from other animals for their carving). I still say, any ivory, old or not being used for any purpose, is still supporting the poaching in Africa of these wonderful animals. Your sentiments are wonderful, but misplaced as far as I am concerned. There are many ways to keep this art alive, and not necessarily dying, native Canadians still do it, but not by old or new ivory tusk.

Tick

Scrimshaw is an art form that is just a much an art of sailers and whalers as Eskimos. Yes most commonly it is done on the bones and teeth of sea animals such as whales and walruses but these animals are also beautiful, it is also sad for them to get hunted. A lot of scrimshaw artists use piano keys as a cheap alternative to buying antique whale bone and tooth (which is also illegal unless it is old enough) . The only people who use new whale bone are eskimos as some tribes have permission to hunt a certain amount of whales to sustain their comunities. You can use other types of bone and things like antler but all I'm saying is I don't think people who use antique ivory should be critisised.

Having said all this most buyers would probebly be wanting your keys for restiration of old pianos and using old ivory is the best way to replace keys.

I won't even touch ivory antique or not. I know they use some antique ivory for inlay in guitars and I actually refrained from buying a beautiful electric that had ivory in the fretboard for that fact. If you insist on selling it I know that a lot of luthiers would be willing to buy it.

I would be interested in buying old ivory piano keys. It is not illegal, since the piano was purchased before the ivory embargo was in place. Please contact me if you are willing to sell keys and let me know a price.

Have you sold your ivory piano keys yet? I would be interested in purchasing some if you have some available and wish to sell. Your ivory was obtained before the embargo on ivory and as such are perfectly legal to sell. It would not affect the ivory poaching in Africa or elsewhere. The international trade of ivory was banned by CITES in 1989 due to the dramatic decrease in elephant numbers. I would not buy ivory of any kind if it had been obtained after 1940. The only way to stop poaching is to only buy ivory with proof of supply prior to 1940.{E-mail removed}