Editing Ivory (section)

==Consumption before plastics==
[[File:Decorated ivory.JPG|thumb|An elaborately carved ivory tusk in [[Sa'dabad Palace]], Iran]]
Before [[plastic]]s were introduced, ivory had many ornamental and practical uses, mainly because of the white color it presents when processed.  It was formerly used to make cutlery handles, [[billiard ball]]s, [[Key (instrument)|piano keys]], [[Great Highland Bagpipes|Scottish bagpipes]], buttons and a wide range of ornamental items.

Synthetic substitutes for ivory in the use of most of these items have been developed since 1800: the billiard industry challenged inventors to come up with an alternative material that could be [[Manufacturing|manufactured]];<ref name="Shamos 19992">{{Shamos 1999}}</ref>{{rp|17}} the piano industry abandoned ivory as a key covering material in the 1970s.

Ivory can be taken from dead animals&nbsp;– however, most ivory came from elephants that were killed for their tusks. For example, in 1930 to acquire 40 tons of ivory required the killing of approximately 700 elephants.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xSgDAAAAMBAJ&q=Popular+Science+1930+plane+%22Popular+Science%22&pg=PA45 |title=Ivory Tusks by the Ton|journal=Popular Science|date=November 1930|page=45}}</ref> Other animals which are now endangered were also preyed upon, for example, hippos, which have very hard white ivory prized for making artificial teeth.<ref>{{cite book |author= |title=Tomlinson's Cyclopaedia of Useful Arts |title-link=Tomlinson's Cyclopaedia of Useful Arts |publisher=Virtue & Co |year=1866 |editor-last=Tomlinson |editor-first=C |location=London}} Vol I, pages 929–930.</ref> In the first half of the 20th century, Kenyan elephant herds were devastated because of demand for ivory, to be used for piano keys.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dyYDAAAAMBAJ&q=Popular+Science+motor+gun+boat&pg=PA32|title=Piano Keys From Elephant Tusk|date=January 1937|journal=Popular Science}}</ref>

During the [[Art Deco]] era from 1912 to 1940, dozens (if not hundreds) of European artists used ivory in the production of [[chryselephantine]] statues. Two of the most frequent users of ivory in their sculptured artworks were [[Ferdinand Preiss]] and [[Claire Colinet]].<ref name="Catley">{{cite book|last1=Catley|first1=Bryan|title=Art Deco and Other Figures|date=1978|publisher=Antique Collectors' Club Ltd.|location=Woodbridge, England|isbn=978-1-85149-382-1|pages=112–123|edition=1st}}</ref>