| Show ivory on the auction block oneff one of the world s strangest marts is the ivory market at the london england docks center of the world s ivory trade here in a squalid warehouse the tusks of elephants from africa and asia are auctioned in in quarterly sales about 30 0 tons at each sale most alost of the ivory comes from carcasses found in the jungles and from stores accumulated by natives stores that may have taken generations to acquire the elephant has aa no such ch mythical death rendezvous as fiction aers h have ave built up while the war has undoubtedly undo 1 made ar great eat inroads into britaina Brit ains ivory business these pictures show what it was like n mm when business was flourishing e I 1 M I 1 ON top toe view of an auction floor before the opening of one of the quarterly sales the floor is divided into spaces containing numbered lots dealers bid on the lots not on separate tusks tush s lower A lot of ivory that has been knocked down to a bidder and weighed on the official scale af 3 elephants feet sometimes used for paperweights q tusks in topcoats they are sewed up in burlap to prevent scratching in transit alk ivory arch the original owner awill of this pair of tusks must have been a whopper whop perl I 1 each is Is eight feet ling leng from butt to tip note that some of the tusks are hollow ollow li others solid left an expert determining f the grain and texture of the ivory or y by using art an ordinary ali n ry flashlight b ivory filed away in racks for the next auction |
