I have an antique flute (ca. 1840) with some (apparently original) ivory rings.
Could someone direct me to the CITES rules on travel with ivory of that age and provide some insights into whether it is possible to get some sort of certificate to carry with and (hopefully) avoid hassles?
Thanks and best wishes.
Steve
It’s been yonks since I looked into this so things may have changed. I am certain it couldn’t have gotten worse, so I can only hope it’s gotten better. First you must correctly identify with certainty the origin of the Ivory. Is it marine or is it elephant or some other mammal.
When I say identify, I mean with clarity unchallengeable by some yokel official at a border with his own Idea of how to apply CITES, otherwise you are left with your instrument in a warehouse impounded or worse, while you fight your case. When I looked into buying a lovely set of pipes out of Northern Ireland I found I was faced with dealing with three or possibly four different bureaucracies. I would have to prove with certificates the provenance of the Ivory in Africa (legal) its transit through Great Britain into Northern Ireland, and then from Northern Ireland to the United States. They all seemed to have different ideas about what constituted a legal chain of custody!!
When i requested information from our own US Customs, I got two (!) telephone directory size manuals covering the subject. Needless to say I did not proceed. YMMV.
Bob