Elephant ivory has been carved, shaped, and traded for centuries, valued for a combination of physical properties that made it unlike any other natural material. It is smooth, durable, and easy to work with fine tools, which led to its use in everything from piano keys to billiard balls to religious sculptures. Today, international trade in elephant ivory is banned, but understanding what it was (and still is, illegally) used for helps explain why elephants remain under threat.
Why Ivory Was So Prized as a Material
Ivory is essentially dentine, the same material that makes up the core of human teeth, but on a massive scale. A cross-section of an elephant tusk reveals a distinctive checkerboard pattern of dark and light lines, called Schreger lines, created by tiny shifts in the cells that deposit dentine as the tusk grows. This internal structure gives ivory a grain that carvers can work with, similar to wood but far more refined.
The balance of mineral content and collagen in ivory determines whether it feels “hard” or “soft.” Forest elephant ivory has a pronounced criss-cross pattern of collagen fibers that makes it stronger and more durable, which is why it has historically been preferred in Japan’s ivory market. Savanna elephant ivory contains less collagen relative to its mineral content, making it softer and slightly more brittle, though still highly workable. Chinese carvers have traditionally used this softer variety. That physical range, from hard and resilient to soft and easy to shape, meant ivory could serve wildly different purposes depending on the species and the section of tusk.
Piano Keys and Musical Instruments
The most iconic use of ivory in Western countries was for piano keys. Between 1840 and 1940, companies like Pratt, Read & Co. in Connecticut processed hundreds of thousands of elephant tusks, using mechanized cutting lathes to slice ivory into thin laminates that were glued onto wooden keys. Pianists preferred ivory because it absorbed moisture from fingertips, reducing slippage during performance, and it developed a warm patina over decades of use.
Cheaper plastic alternatives began appearing in the mid-20th century, and by the 1950s, plastic keys had completely replaced ivory ones in new pianos. Modern high-end pianos now use synthetic materials engineered to mimic ivory’s texture and moisture absorption. Ivory was also used for guitar nuts, violin bow tips, and bagpipe fittings, though in much smaller quantities than the piano industry demanded.
Billiard Balls and Household Goods
Billiards depended fundamentally on the mechanical behavior of colliding balls, and by the 19th century, those balls were almost invariably made from elephant ivory. A single set of billiard balls required ivory from a large, high-quality tusk, and the growing popularity of the game in Europe and America created enormous demand. By the 1860s, ivory billiard ball suppliers were under so much pressure that manufacturers began actively searching for replacements. That search eventually led to the development of celluloid, one of the first synthetic plastics, and later to the phenolic resin balls still used today.
Beyond billiards, ivory turned up in knife handles, combs, buttons, fan ribs, chess pieces, dominoes, and the handles of walking canes. Its smooth surface, resistance to cracking under normal use, and ability to take fine detail made it a go-to material for any small object meant to feel luxurious in the hand.
Ornamental Carving and Religious Objects
The largest share of ivory demand, historically and today, has been for decorative carving. In East Asia, ivory has been carved into figurines, name seals (called “hankos” in Japan), chopsticks, and elaborate sculptural pieces for centuries. Chinese ivory carving reached extraordinary levels of intricacy, with artisans producing concentric puzzle balls and layered scenes carved from a single piece of tusk.
In Europe, ivory was carved into crucifixes, devotional panels, and portrait miniatures from the medieval period onward. African and South Asian cultures also used ivory for ceremonial objects, masks, and jewelry, though the scale of use was far smaller than the industrial demand that developed in Europe and North America during the 19th century. In modern illegal markets, carved ornamental pieces and jewelry remain the primary products driving poaching.
The International Trade Ban
Rapid population declines in African elephant herds led to a ban on international ivory sales in 1990, enacted through the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Under U.S. law, importing African elephant ivory is illegal, exporting it requires CITES documentation, and buying or selling illegally imported ivory in interstate commerce is prohibited. Even ivory that was imported legally before 1990 carries restrictions: the burden falls on the seller to prove the item predates the ban, and items imported for noncommercial purposes cannot subsequently be sold.
Despite these rules, illegal trade persists. Eight countries, including China, Kenya, Thailand, and Vietnam, were identified as significant source, transit, or destination points for illegal ivory and agreed to develop action plans to address the problem. China closed its domestic ivory market in 2017, a major step given that it had been the world’s largest consumer. Still, black market demand continues to fuel poaching across Africa.
Telling Legal Ivory From Illegal Ivory
One challenge for enforcement is distinguishing elephant ivory from mammoth ivory, which is legal to trade because woolly mammoths are long extinct. Traditionally, experts examined Schreger lines under magnification: the angle of these lines differs between elephant and mammoth tusks. But this method fails when ivory is heavily processed or carved from the center of a tusk, where the lines are often invisible.
DNA-based methods now offer a more reliable alternative. Scientists can extract and amplify tiny fragments of mitochondrial DNA from ivory samples, even from fossilized mammoth tusks where the genetic material has degraded over thousands of years. One technique targets a short stretch of just 116 base pairs from a specific gene, achieving identification success rates above 96% for mammoth ivory and 100% for African elephant ivory. These forensic tools help customs agents and prosecutors determine whether a piece of ivory is legal mammoth material or illegal elephant product.
Modern Alternatives to Ivory
Nearly every traditional use of ivory now has a substitute. Piano keys are made from acrylic or resin composites. Billiard balls use phenolic resin. Knife handles are crafted from bone, antler, or synthetic materials.
For decorative and jewelry purposes, tagua nuts offer a natural alternative. These seeds from the Phytelephas tree in South America dry to a hard, creamy white material that closely matches ivory in color, texture, and density. Tagua can be carved, shaped, polished, and dyed, making it suitable for rings, earrings, necklaces, and fine furniture details. Originally used as buttons before cheaper plastics took over, tagua has found a second life as an eco-friendly material in artisan jewelry. Unlike synthetic substitutes, it has the organic warmth and scratch resistance that once made ivory desirable, without any cost to living elephants.