Ivory restrictions could limit antique sales

INSTRUMENTAL ROLE: Scott Davis, owner of the Rhode Island Antiques Mall, with a piano with ivory keys. New federal regulations scheduled to go into effect will ban the sale of anything with ivory less than 100 years old to protect endangered elephants. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
INSTRUMENTAL ROLE: Scott Davis, owner of the Rhode Island Antiques Mall, with a piano with ivory keys. New federal regulations scheduled to go into effect will ban the sale of anything with ivory less than 100 years old to protect endangered elephants. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

Rhode Island Antiques Mall owner Scott Davis has hundreds, perhaps thousands, of reasons to be closely monitoring the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s development of new restrictions on the commercial trade of African elephant ivory.
They include countless items with inlays – or even slivers – of ivory on display in his shop, sold through his eBay business and in the inventory of more than 200 dealers in the Pawtucket antiques mall.
“Ivory was used in canes, tea sets, jewelry boxes and almost any item that was considered to be a luxury item in the Victorian period,” said Davis.
Antique dealers fear the new and evolving restrictions on buying and selling items with ivory will render a portion of their investments worthless, if pieces can’t be sold, said Davis.
The word from the Fish and Wildlife Service is that some rules are in place, but not all is set in stone.
“Before Feb. 25, 2014, the import of antiques with elephant ivory was allowed,” Craig Hoover, chief of the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Wildlife Trade and Conservation Branch, told Providence Business News on May 5. “Since then, all commercial imports of African elephant ivory are prohibited, regardless of age.”
Exemptions exist, however, for certain musical instruments imported for performances, museum specimens and inheritances or household moves when specific conditions are met, said Hoover.
“All of this uproar is somewhat premature, because we haven’t fully changed the rules yet,” he added. “For example, we haven’t amended our regulations governing what you can do with ivory in the U.S. yet. Before we do, we will publish proposed rules and give the public an opportunity to provide input.”
So it’s not clear yet how antique dealers will be affected, he said. “The most significant impact to them is if we prohibit interstate commerce under the Endangered Species Act,” said Hoover. “They will have to be able to demonstrate their item meets the exemption for antiques.”
Davis says confusion over the scope of the changes has already hurt his business.
“I can tell you it’s already cut my eBay sales by about 20 percent,” said Davis. “I have a very large eBay component to my business and I used to sell lots of ivory. It’s a very hot category and I had a lot of activity for items from the 19th century and early 20th century.
“The items had to be 100 years old and could only include 5 percent ivory, but they’ve started throwing off some of the things I listed,” said Davis. ”eBay is very reactive and on the cutting edge and now they want us to identify the exact material from the animal species, because many bones and horns can easily be mistaken for ivory.
“None of us really know what to do at this point,” said Davis.
The new regulations came down as administrative actions under the National Strategy on Combating Wildlife Trafficking issued by President Barack Obama on Feb. 11 and detailed in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Director’s Order No. 210, issued Feb. 25.
The new regulations require that criteria be met to qualify for an “antiques exemption”: the item is at least 100 years old, it is composed in whole or part of an Endangered Species Act – listed species, it has not been repaired or modified with any such species after Dec. 27, 1973 and it is being or was imported through an endangered species “antique port.”
The new regulations on the “antiques exception” of the Endangered Species Act also apply to items made from rhinoceroses, sea turtles and other species protected by that act. Those items are not included in the moratorium that applies to African elephant conservation and ivory, said Hoover. Marine antiques dealer Andrew Jacobson, of Ipswich, Mass., a recognized authority and consultant in that specialty, described the new rules as a “conundrum” and enough of a knot to convince him to completely halt the portion of his business related to scrimshaw, art pieces created by whalers mostly from parts of sperm whales, he said.
Often working as a broker and asked to advise clients interested in antique scrimshaw items, Jacobson said one major hurdle is the requirement that these products came into the U.S. through an approved antiques port, two of which are Boston and New York, designated in 1973 under the Endangered Species Act.
Scrimshaw that meets the Fish and Wildlife Service’s antique requirement of being 100 years old was created before the approved antique ports were designated in 1973. So a requirement that antique scrimshaw come in through an accepted port of entry can in some cases be impossible to verify, said Jacobson.
“I have acquired things for [clients] in this country that are 100 years old and are antiques and I have followed all the rules and gotten all the permits. I’m not going to do that anymore. The downside is much greater than the upside,” he said.
“I don’t use a lot of those materials, so it’s not a big deal on my end,” said Pawtucket luthier Otto D’Ambrosio, who makes and repairs high-quality guitars.
“Ivory is rarely used on modern instruments, it’s all bone. I think responsible craftsmen can find smarter materials,” said D’Ambrosio. •

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