Anybody know anything about ivory?

[Deleted]

My friend gave me a bunch of his mother's jewelry to sell.  I've sold everything I was confident about, and now I'm down to the iffy's.  The owner traveled extensively and bought jewelry everywhere.  She went to Asia and Africa also.  I have a nice goldtone necklace with dangles.  I'm sure about the jade Buddha and dangles, and the 2 tiger's eye horn dangles.  But there are 2 flower type dangles that look like ivory.  I've investigated testing for ivory, but can't really determine if it is or not.  If it is, I can't sell the necklace legally.  It just occurred to me that I could remove those dangles and sell it that way.  Any other ideas?  I probably won't get much for this piece, so it's not worth spending a lot of time or money on.  Any suggestions?  Sorry for the dim photo.  I brightened it in Photobucket, but PB is taking its sweet time catching up.

[frakinfashion]

Call it faux ivory and you will be okay. Actually say it's faux ivory or bone, you're not sure. 

[zoesam]

Are you sure you can't sell it? It's been awhile since I looked it up, but I thought there were exclusions if it was prior to certain date. You would have to research the law, but I did think there was a loophole.

[Deleted]

If you look at it with a loop and there are tiny holes or looks porous, then it's bone. I would sell it but would not label the ivory looking pieces at all. Unless of course you can tell if it's bone. Your picture is very clear. I wouldn't worry about it.

[Deleted]

Thanks for the input.  I realized after posting that I also thought it could be bone when I first looked at it months ago.  I'll check it again with my magnifier.  I'll probably just go ahead and list it as an Asian piece and not go into detail.

This necklace is pretty well made.  The woman didn't buy junk.  

I have a few other pieces that may or may not contain ivory.  Only one large piece is so smooth that it's either some sort of bone or even plastic.  Even so, it's a very nice heavy piece that might appeal to someone.  

As an animal lover, I'm really hoping that none of these items is made of real ivory.

[betabutton]

It's often easier to determine if something is Ivory when the piece is larger. Ivory often contains a patterning almost like waves in subtle shades of ivory or cream. No texture can be felt because ivory is usually polished smooth. The "dangles" in your piece looks like they have some carving and then "tea staining" to emphasize the carving and I have often found that is bone.
If the piece contains jade you are certain about then using "semiprecious" to describe the elements would be accurate and also encompass the ivory...sort of. If you are asked any questions by potential buyers I would avoid a specific reply and say " undetermined".

[Deleted]

Beta.  I'm not really certain about any of it.  I suppose it could all be "faux".  But as I said, this woman did not buy junk, so I'm betting it's real whatever.  Even her costume jewelry was high end, just not current styles.  I got $75 for an Yves St. Laurent necklace.  When I first looked at it, I thought "well this is all fake stuff, not worth much."  Then I looked at the tag.  Amazing how just someone's name on a piece can make a $5 piece into a $75 piece.  And I'm betting she paid lots more than that for it.

Thanks for the help.  I think I'm just going to go with "bone".  When I get around to the other questionable pieces, I'll post pics, if anyone is interested in seeing them.

[Emerald_Door]

It looks like aventurine more than ivory, to me.

[Emerald_Door]

Of course, it's hard to tell from a picture, but try googling aventurine.

Here's a picture. www.brittanypublications.com/jewelry-custom-semiprecious19.html

[Deleted]

I know Emerald.  The aventurine looks more like the jade pieces on this necklace.  I'm just assuming jade because it was purchased in Asia.  The parts that could possibly be ivory are the "flowers".  I hate dealing with these "mineral" pieces.  I've sold quite a few, including some of my own.  I'm never sure of what the stones are, even the ones I purchased myself.  I just take my best guess and note it in my listing if I'm guessing.  I did research up the wazoo when I was selling my own collection, and I was reasonably sure they were genuine because I bought them from QVC in the old days.  These days, who knows?  Maybe I should just list this stuff as "oooh, shiny" or "oooh sparkly" LOL

I sold a pin yesterday that I listed as silvertone, because it wasn't marked silver anywhere.  It did have genuine mineral type stones attached as dangles.  But when I cleaned it with a polishing cloth, it sure cleaned up like silver, and there was a lot of tarnish on the cloth.  I bought a silver testing kit, but even that is iffy.  I'm not about to risk listing something as genuine anything when I don't know it for a fact.  It just isn't worth investing a great deal of time for the prices these pieces get.

There was one piece I'm glad I spent time on.  I had an old cameo of my mother's.  Since my folks were dirt poor, I figured it wasn't worth much.  But I cleaned it up anyway and was ready to list it.  Checking comps, I saw some similar pieces in 14K.  So I got out my magnifying loupe.  To my shock  I found "14K" hidden away on the clasp.  It was actually white gold.  I think I got about $100 for that one.   

The stuff I have left, I just want to get listed.  If someone gets the deal of the century, good for them.  I want this stuff out of here!

[Emerald_Door]

Oh! I'm sorry, on my screen the little flowers look like the gold-tone metal. I thought you were talking about the Buddha and faceted teardrops.  I missed where you said you were talking about the little flowers.  Where's the dunce cap smiley?

As an aside, testing metals can be tricky. I once bought a lot of antique sterling silver flatware from one person. He tried to sell me a piece that wasn't marked sterling or 925 but he insisted it was because he had tested it. I declined to buy it and later looked up the mark that was on the piece. Sure enough it was silver plated. I know it was an honest mistake, but it's an easy one to make.

[Deleted]

While I was researching jewelry I read that for some stones only a certified gemologist using specialized equipment can determine the type of stone.  Well, that's not me.  I know we need to honestly represent the items we're selling, but especially with the mineral stones, who the heck knows or cares?  You like it, buy it.  If not, don't buy it.  Simple enough, no?

And as for the silver testing, I quickly gave up on that.  I'm pretty good with colors, but really couldn't tell much difference between red brown and deep red brown, the colors resulting from the test.  So, if it's not marked sterling or 925, I'm not saying that it's silver.  Then, of course, you read how even items marked sterling aren't.  

If I was an expert gemologist or metallurgist, I'd probably be doing something other than selling my worldly goods on ebay anyway.

[Deleted]

I lived in Kinshasa, Zaire (Belgian Congo) for a few months just before the ban on ivory came about in the USA.  I bought ivory at the Grand Mache (flea market) and in a couple of stores.  It was legal to bring ivory into the states at that time.  The market sellers would run after me with a book of matches, putting the flame to the ivory to show it was ivory and not bone.  Ivory does NOT burn. 

Have a look at this link for some info.  I did the PIN TEST a couple of times on vintage jewelry and decorative items I picked up over the years. 

www.wikihow.com/Tell-Ivory-from-Bone

The biggie part of the ban was "elephant" ivory in Africa and Asia.  Smaller animals have tusks too and it was not until later some of these were included in the ban.  But all ivory was banned for purposes of selling on ebay and other popular selling internet sites.  If you look, there are still private websites selling "Pre-Ban" ivory jewelry and decor.  Ebay does not want to deal with what is "pre-ban" so they just banned all ivory from their website.  Etsy did the same.

Notice the old pianos with ivory keys advertised for sale are very valuable as a source of ivory craftsmen as the musicians want their ivory picks and the artisans still make jewelry out of the old ivory.

There are old age elephant farms or preserves in Africa/Asia where they wait for the old elephants to die and it is legal for them to sell the ivory.  This is all regulated and licensed... so they say.

If you look in google, you will see a lot of private auction houses selling ivory of all kinds...
www.liveauctioneers.com/search?q=carved+ivory&hasimage=true&by_date=2015-03-14T16%3A06%3A31.725Z

Have a look in google images and there are a lot of websites selling ivory.

www.google.com/search?q=ivory+jewelry&biw=1016&bih=597&tbm=isch&imgil=UbfkvWGO79M6VM%253A%253BJUtbk5FRnUBzyM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.liveauctioneers.com%25252Fitem%25252F14337510_two-pieces-of-carved-ivory-jewelry-20th-c-cons&source=iu&pf=m&fir=UbfkvWGO79M6VM%253A%252CJUtbk5FRnUBzyM%252C_&usg=__tFB8rGvPa_0AuWGokKg-A5XLutw%3D&ved=0CDYQyjc&ei=K1cEVZP7IbSNsQSY1IDwAQ#tbm=isch&q=ivory+jewelry&imgdii=_

I would not sell anything potentially made of ivory on ebay but that is just me.  They crack down off and on and it is not worth a policy violation to me.  If you price something over $100. as "faux" ivory, then it is hard to believe someone would pay that much for plastic or bone but up to you.  Your sample piece looks like rock/minerals to me??

Ebay took down my listing for IVORY color sheets some years ago and that was it for me. I never use the word Ivory in a title since then.  They stuck a policy violation on me and there was nothing I could do about it.  Ha!