Real elephant and mammoth ivory shows Schreger lines: a pattern of crossing arcs, like engine turning or a faint diamond-shaped net, visible on any cut end or flat surface and often on the sides of a carving where the surface cuts across the tusk. Nothing else has them. Bone, the most common honest lookalike, shows instead tiny dark pits and short dashes, the channels that carried blood vessels through living bone, scattered over the surface like fine pepper. Plastic, celluloid and resin have neither; they show mold seams, perfectly regular printed stripes, warm to the touch, feel light, and a hot pin pushed into a hidden spot sinks in and smells acrid. Those checks separate nearly every piano key, brush handle, netsuke and chess piece at home. What they do not settle is elephant against mammoth, which decides whether the piece can legally be sold; that comes down to the angle of the Schreger lines and, in hard cases, a lab.
Quick answer
- Elephant and mammoth ivory: crossing Schreger lines on cut surfaces, cool, dense, creamy with a faint grain.
- Bone: tiny dark pits and dashes, slightly lighter, often a dull chalky look where worn.
- Plastic and celluloid: mold seams, too-regular stripes, warm, light, melts under a hot pin.
- Selling elephant ivory is banned or tightly restricted in the US, EU and UK; mammoth is legal in most places. Values as of late 2026: about $100-2,000 for antique carvings that can be sold legally, with piano keys and plain handles close to nothing.
How to check yours, step by step
- Find a cut surface and look for Schreger lines. The base of a carving, the end of a tusk section, the flat back of a plaque, the end of a piano key or the side of a billiard ball. Under a 10x loupe in raking light, elephant and mammoth ivory show two sets of curved lines crossing each other to form a pattern of small diamonds or chevrons. The pattern is strongest near the outer edge of the tusk and fades toward the center. If you see it, the piece is proboscidean ivory: elephant or mammoth. No other material, natural or artificial, produces it.
- Measure the Schreger angle. Where the two sets of lines cross near the outer edge of the piece, estimate the angle that opens toward the outside of the tusk. Elephant ivory averages well over 100 degrees, often 115 to 120. Mammoth ivory averages under 100, often 85 to 90. Pieces near 100 are ambiguous. Photograph the pattern with a ruler and measure on screen rather than by eye.
- Look for pits instead. If there are no Schreger lines but the surface shows tiny dark dots, short dashes or fine channels, usually with a slightly rough or chalky feel in worn areas, it is bone. Bone is honest and common: most antique brush handles, knife scales, dominoes, dice, cutlery handles and cheaper carvings are bone. Bone is also lighter and a little more yellow or grey than ivory, and takes a less lustrous polish.
- Check for mold seams and printed grain. Celluloid (sold as French ivory, Ivorine, Ivoride from about 1870 to 1940) and later plastics show parallel stripes that are too even, often repeating in a way real grain never does, and a fine seam line where the two halves of the mold met.
- Weigh it and feel it. Ivory has a density of about 1.7 to 1.9 and feels dense and cool. Plastics run about 1.1 to 1.4 and feel warm and light.
- The hot pin, only on a hidden spot. Heat a needle and touch the base or the inside of a hole. Ivory and bone do not yield and smell faintly of burnt hair or burnt bone. Plastic yields, the pin sinks in, and the smell is acrid or, with celluloid, like camphor. Celluloid is flammable, so use a tiny spot and have water nearby.
- Look under UV. A longwave UV flashlight makes ivory and bone glow a soft white or pale yellow, while most plastics glow a brighter blue-white or stay dull. Supporting evidence, not proof; some plastics mimic the glow.
- Rule out the other ivories. Walrus ivory has a marbled, bubbly secondary dentine core. Hippo ivory is extremely dense, fine-grained, with a thin enamel layer and no Schreger lines. Sperm whale teeth show concentric layers on a cut end and are often scrimshawed. Vegetable ivory, the tagua nut, shows a fine pattern of tiny cells under the loupe, is never larger than a hen's egg and smells like burnt nut under the pin. Walrus and whale are covered in the US by the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
The legal side, plainly
This is the part that matters more than the material test. African and Asian elephants are on CITES Appendix I. In the US, the 2016 rule under the Endangered Species Act closed almost all commercial trade in African elephant ivory across state lines and across borders, with narrow exceptions for documented antiques over 100 years old and for items where the ivory is a small part of the whole, and many states (California, New York, New Jersey, Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Illinois and others) ban sales within the state too, some of them including mammoth. The EU since 2022 bans trade in raw ivory and allows worked pieces from before 1947 only with an official document, and the UK Ivory Act in force since 2022 is a near-total ban with narrow registered exemptions. Mammoth ivory is legal to sell in most of the US and the EU, which is why the Schreger angle matters. Owning inherited ivory is legal; selling it is where the rules bite. None of this is legal advice; a dealer or auction house that handles ivory knows the current rules for your state and will say so before taking a piece.
What ivory pieces sell for
The prices below are for pieces that can be sold legally, as of late 2026: mammoth, documented antique elephant ivory where a lawful route exists, bone and celluloid. A piece that cannot be sold has no market value, however fine it is, and most elephant ivory in American homes now falls in that group.
| What you have | Material | Typical value, about | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Piano key tops | Elephant ivory veneer | $0-20 for a set | Thin veneer, little demand, often illegal to sell |
| Brush, mirror and dresser set | Celluloid (French ivory) | $20-80 | Common 1900-1940; value is in completeness |
| Knife and cutlery handles | Bone, sometimes ivory | $20-150 a set | Bone is the norm; the silver blades matter more |
| Dominoes, dice, gaming counters | Bone | $20-100 a set | Bone and ebony sets are common |
| Billiard balls, antique | Elephant ivory | $50-200 each | Collected, but hard to sell legally in many states |
| Japanese netsuke, signed, 19th century | Elephant ivory | $300-3,000 | Hard to sell lawfully; auction only with provenance |
| Japanese netsuke, modern | Mammoth or resin | $30-400 | Mammoth versions trade freely |
| Chinese carved figure or puzzle ball, 6 to 12 inches | Elephant ivory | $200-2,000 | Pre-1947 provenance needed in the EU; many states ban sale |
| Mammoth ivory carving, modern, 3 to 8 inches | Mammoth | $100-1,500 | Legal in most places; bark and blue vivianite stains are typical |
| Scrimshaw whale tooth, pre-1972 | Sperm whale | $200-2,000 | Marine Mammal Protection Act rules; fakes in resin are common |
| Victorian carved brooch or bangle | Elephant ivory | $50-300 | Small pieces; often sold under antique or small-part exemptions |
| Tagua nut carving | Vegetable ivory | $5-40 | Honest and unrestricted |
Resin netsuke and resin "whale teeth" are far more common on the market than the real thing, and the hot pin settles them in seconds.
Ivory, bone, plastic: a side by side
| Point | Elephant or mammoth ivory | Bone | Celluloid or resin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Surface pattern | Crossing Schreger lines on cut ends; fine grain on sides | Tiny dark pits and dashes | Mold seams, printed stripes that repeat |
| Color | Creamy white to honey, warms with age | Whiter or greyer, yellows unevenly | Even cream; celluloid often yellows and cracks |
| Weight and feel | Dense, cool | Slightly lighter, cool | Light, warm |
| Hot pin | No mark, burnt hair smell | No mark, burnt bone smell | Sinks in, acrid or camphor |
| Under longwave UV | Soft white or yellow | Soft white or yellow | Bright blue-white or dull |
| Cracks | Long, fine, following the grain | Short, irregular | Crazing, shrinkage, warping |
| Legal to sell | Elephant: mostly no; mammoth: mostly yes | Yes | Yes |
Age cracks in ivory run with the grain, long and fine, and the surface takes on a mellow honey color that is deeper where it was handled. A piece that is evenly yellowed everywhere, or has been stained with tea to look old, shows a flat, uniform tint with color pooled in the carving's recesses. The organic logic here is close to our guides on amber and pearls, where weight, warmth and a hot pin do similar work.
How WorthPic reads ivory photos
WorthPic runs on the newest and most capable AI model available, tuned for exactly this kind of identification. Photograph the piece whole, then a close-up of the base or any cut surface in raking light, and it looks first for the one pattern that settles the material: crossing Schreger lines for elephant or mammoth, pepper-like pits for bone, seams and repeating stripes for plastic, cellular dots for tagua. If the lines are clear and a ruler is in frame, it estimates the Schreger angle and says which side of 100 degrees the piece falls on and how confident that estimate is. It reads the carving style, any signature or mark, the wear and age cracks, and the mounts, and from that gives an honest value range with a plain note on whether the piece can likely be sold in the US, EU or UK and under which route. It says when the photo cannot decide, which with ivory is usually a worn surface with no cut end visible, or a Schreger angle close to 100, and asks for the photo that would help. It identifies and estimates. It never authenticates and never gives legal clearance; an auction house specialist, and for the border cases a forensic lab, is what settles both the material and whether it can lawfully change hands.
Common mistakes
- Taking a cream color and a fine grain as proof of ivory. Celluloid was designed to copy both; the Schreger lines and the hot pin are the tests.
- Calling bone a fake. Bone is a real, honest material used for centuries alongside ivory, and most antique handles and gaming pieces are bone.
- Selling elephant ivory online. Most platforms prohibit it, and interstate sale in the US is restricted with narrow exceptions; a listing can lead to seizure.
- Assuming mammoth is legal everywhere. Several US states include mammoth in their bans.
- Bleaching or oiling an old piece before sale. Collectors value the honest patina, and oil darkens cracks permanently.
- Treating piano keys as valuable. The ivory is a thin veneer, the sets are common, and the sale is restricted.
What to photograph
- The whole piece from the front and the back on a plain background, with a ruler for scale.
- The base or any cut end in low, angled light, close enough to show the surface pattern. This is the photo that settles ivory against bone against plastic, and with a ruler in frame it allows the Schreger angle to be estimated.
- Any signature, mark, label or old auction sticker.
- The worn areas and the age cracks, which show patina and whether the surface is natural.
- Any mounts, fittings or stands, which often carry silver or gold marks.
- A photo under a longwave UV flashlight if you have one, in a dark room.
When to get it looked at in person
- An auction house specialist in Asian art, works of art or antiques knows the current ivory rules in your state and country, can recognize period carving, and will say whether a piece can be offered at all. This is the first call for any carved figure, netsuke or tusk.
- A forensic or gem lab with experience in ivory can separate elephant from mammoth on a measured Schreger angle and, where needed, by other methods.
- A specialist dealer or collectors club for netsuke, scrimshaw and chess sets, where the market knowledge matters as much as the material.
For the furniture and boxes that ivory inlay often lives in, our guide to antique furniture identification covers the rest of the piece.