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Originally Posted by David
I dunno Marius, i can only speak from my own personal perspective. When i see a nice, well-worked antique ivory hilt on a keris i personally never base its worth on the type of ivory it is crafted from. How does one compare unique and individually crafted pieces? If you are speaking about the purchase of the raw material for these miniature works of art you may indeed indeed be on to something, but i base the worth of antique ivory hilts on their level of craft, age, intricacy of carving and the rarity of the form, not on whether the ivory is elephant, ivory or marine sourced. 
As i stated, from photos on the internet hippo and elephant might pass for one another. In hand i would image that people who trade in ivory can indeed tell the difference. For one thing Schreger lines (cross-hatched diamond lines) seen in elephant ivory are unique to that type of ivory.
https://www.fws.gov/lab/ivory_natural.php |
Yes, yes, totally agree, but I was referring solely to the raw, unworked ivory.
