In the wake of their fine issued by magistrates on October 13 for breaching CITES regulations, Chiswick managing director William Rouse has told ATG he will now "lead the way" in ending the trade.
The self-imposed ban will be almost total, although it will exclude items - such as a chest of drawers with an inlaid ivory escutcheon - "where the total amount of ivory is less than 5% of the total material in the object".
As reported in ATG, Chiswick sold an item in July 2012 catalogued as 'an antique carved ivory tusk worked as a train of elephants' to a Portobello Road dealer.
After the carving was confiscated by special constables from the Wildlife Crime Unit and the Arts and Antiques unit, it was sent for scientific analysis that showed the tusk was from an elephant that had died in the mid 1960s.
Last month Ealing Magistrates Court imposed a fine of £4500 (close to the maximum fine of £5000 that can be imposed for a single charge of CITES Regulations 1997) reduced to £3200 on account of the guilty plea.
