Antique Narwhal Tusk & Silver Walking Cane

• Narwhal - The narwhal is a medium-sized toothed whale that grows to around 4.5 metres, and lives year-round in the Arctic. Narwhals have two teeth, and in males, the more prominent tooth grows into a swordlike, spiral tusk up to 2.7 metres long. The ivory tusk tooth grows right through the narwhal's upper lip. The tusk was used in the early 1900s to make walking sticks, canes and as part of small accessories. The sale of narwhal tusks is now prhibited under the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) agreement.
• Sterling Silver - Sterling silver is a mixture of 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% of another metal, usually copper. Fine silver is 99.9% pure silver, and is relatively soft and the addition of the very small amount of copper gives the metal enough strength and hardness to be worked into jewellery, decorative and household objects.
• Ivory - Ivory is a hard white material that comes from the tusks of elephants, mammoth, walrus and boar, or from the teeth of hippopotamus and whales. The ivory from the African elephant is the most prized source of ivory. Although the mammoth is extinct, tusks are still being unearthed in Russia and offered for sale.
  
  Ivory has been used since the earliest times as a material for sculpture of small items, both in Europe and the east, principally China and Japan.
  
  In Asia ivory has been carved for netsuke, seals, okimono, card cases, fan supports, animals and other figures and even as carved tusks.
  
  In the last 200 years in Europe ivory has been used to carve figures, for elaborate tankards, snuff boxes, cane handles, embroidery and sewing accessories, in jewellery and as inlay on furniture. Its more practical uses include being used for billiard balls, buttons, and a veneers on the top of piano keys.
  
  The use and trade of elephant ivory have become controversial because they have contributed to Due to the decline in elephant populations because of the trade in ivory, the Asian elephant was placed on Appendix One of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), in 1975, and in January 1990, the African elephant was similarly listed. Under Appendix One, international trade in Asian or African elephant ivory between member countries is forbidden. Unlike trade in elephant tusks, trade in mammoth tusks is legal.
  
  Since the invention of plastics, there have been many attempts to create an artificial ivory

This item has been included into following indexes:

• walking sticks and canes, material
  • ivory or ivory mounted 209
  • narwhal 3
  • silver mounted 435
• walking sticks and canes, types - walking canes 319