A 19th century narwhal tusk that sold at Hannam's on July 16 for £7500.
A 19th century narwhal tusk offered for sale at Hannam's (23% buyer's premium) in Selborne, Hampshire, has sold to an online bidder.
Estimated at £3000-5000, the lot was hammered down for £7500 on July 16. It came with a bespoke black lacquer display stand and a CITES certificate.
Measuring 2m14cm (7ft), this was one of the tallest lots in the two-day auction.
Such items will soon not be permitted to be sold in the UK. The Ivory Team at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) announced in June that the trade in ivory from narwhal, killer whale, sperm whale and hippopotamus will be subject to much stricter controls from around September 1 (see ATG No 2648).
These four species are already listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES) and previously only items older than 1947 could be traded.
The Ivory Act that came into force in June 2022 covered only elephant ivory but a consultation was launched in 2021 to discuss extending the ban to include other mammals. The proposal was approved in May 2023. The forthcoming ban effective nullifies the trade in narwhal tusks and scrimshawed sperm whale (physeter macrocephalus) teeth made by sailors in the 18th and 19th century.
Given that most of these works of art were made using solid ivory, few would be eligible for registration under the so-called 'de minimis' exemption that permits the sale of pre-1947 objects made with less than 10% of ivory. Only a small handful of items made pre-1918 might qualify as exempt due to their being considered objects ‘of outstanding artistic, cultural or historical value’.
