At this moment a client of mine needs new stop faces for his
Rushworth & Dreaper 2mp reed organ. Those stop faces were made
in the days of real ivory or similar.
I have placed an offer to Laukhuff GmbH and they indeed sell stop
faces of mammoth or mastodon ivory, and it is original material, so
I think the keyboard material must be also available. But if there
is enough for the next 100 years, I don't know.
Ivory transporting is more difficult than ever before. You need a
document from a licensed appraiser/valuer under oath, which is the
work like I do for clients with special instruments from the 19th
century. Even then it is not always sure that they will trust your
certified documents. We all know that elephants need to be protected
from poachers, but with a certified document for the sale you can
use the ivory of elephants who died a natural death. And here is
a problem, I think.
Anyhow, be careful with transport to the USA with ivory. It is
even possible they will take it away at customs inspection, then they
destroy it and you get the bill to pay.
Louis Huivenaar
Netherlands
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