Check out this beautiful custom chess set, featured on the website English Russia. It seems to be a work in progress but, from the description, we gather that the grand scheme is for an ornately carved table concealing a glass chessboard and ivory pieces. Turning a handle shaped like a flamingo’s head will activate a mechanism that lifts the board out of the table and ready for play.
The work of an unnamed Ukrainian master ivory carver, each piece is a highly-detailed rendering of a Tenniel illustration – white players from Through the Looking-Glass and black players from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. See the website for pictures of the man at work and a longer description of the project. Let’s hope that pictures of the finished work make it online too.
It is my understanding that we cannot legally purchase Ivory in the U.S.
The Russian carve in Mammoth Ivory…the Wooly Mammothextinct for the last 30-40,000 years. Non endangered species. It can be sold and sent internationally without c CITES permit.
Elephant Ivory Antique ONLY can be sold and traded internationally (chess sets) with a CITES license and permit, showing when it came into country and also being exported.