Endangered species: ivory

MADAM – John Lewis’ letter (ATG No 2341) in which the chairman of the Public Monuments & Sculpture Association reveals he is seeking counsel’s opinion, in respect of a legal challenge to the proposed ivory trade ban, raises three key questions:

MADAM – We have been following the ivory debate in your pages with anxious concern, in spite of being specialists in vernacular, naive and folk art, whose business would rarely be directly impacted by the near-total ivory ban planned by the government.

A campaign to raise funds for legal advice on the government’s ivory ban proposals has received “a positive response”, according to dealer body BADA, which is organising the endeavour on behalf of the antiques sector.

Trade bodies whose members will be affected by the government’s plan for a near-total UK ban on the sale of ivory are seeking legal advice on challenging the proposals before they become law.

MADAM – The Public Monuments & Sculpture Association shares many of the concerns which have been expressed in your letters pages since the last statements from Defra on the ivory issue.

MADAM – Michael Baggott’s recent letter about the potential adverse impact of the ivory sales ban on the display of ivory pieces by museums is, with respect, misguided.

MADAM – I have been dealing in Oriental antiques for almost 50 years and have been a supporter of the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) for most of this time.

MADAM – We are all devastated at what is being proposed by the government in relation to ivory.

MADAM – I am sending you a photo of some small sewing tools in carved ivory, made c.1840.

A New York law banning the sale of antique ivory has been challenged in court by two leading US antiques dealers associations.

MADAM – Last year readers may recall a Victorian presentation ‘ivory tusk’ dinner gong was removed from display in one of the Royal Collection exhibitions.

MADAM – Thank you for printing my previous correspondence (ATG No 2337). If I thought that a ban on pre-1947 ivory would stop the death of 50 elephants I would stop writing.

MADAM – The government’s ill-conceived attack on antique ivory will likely mean that two pieces in my home – a 19th century Cantonese puzzle-ball chess set and my wife’s Corpus Christi acquired shortly after our marriage 50 years ago – now have no value in probate.

BADA has clarified a key element of the government’s proposals for a near-complete ivory ban – the stipulation that all items qualifying for the ‘rarest and most important of its type’ and portrait miniature exemptions must be 100 years old.

Roland Arkell and Noelle McElhatton on what the new ivory law could mean for art and antiques.

ATG selects objects with ivory – from teasets to Art Deco figures – recently sold at auction that may become illegal to sell under the law

The new, as yet unnamed law will allow for narrow exemptions to the ban. These comprise:

The art and antiques trade is calling on the government to re-think its planned restrictions on the sale of antique items containing small amounts of elephant ivory.

The general parameters of the government’s ivory ban, on the cards for years, are finally clear. As always with issues of CITES, the devil will be in the detail. Though the trade feels despondent in the face of the ban, a small concession on the currently very narrow 'de minimis' rule will make the ban a lot more manageable.

MADAM – Defra’s findings outlined in the post-consultation document include an extraordinarily impractical provision for the ‘de minimis’ exemption – requiring registration (with an as yet unspecified fee) of all objects with an ivory content below 10% created before 1947.