Ignorant ivory ban

SIR – Michael Gove’s virtue-signalling in banning ivory sales will not save a single elephant – but will have a huge impact on Britain’s antiques trade, which brings in a great deal of money.

Non-collectors have no idea how many artefacts contain ivory – teapot insulators and finials, keyhole escutcheons and portrait miniatures (quite apart from Japanese netsuke), the faces and hands of Deco figurines, Japanese Shibayama and weapons. There is hardly a collecting field in which ivory is not found.

Now, to be saleable, items must be 100 years old and “important”. Few will qualify – and how will it be decided?

This decision ignores the advice of the British Art Market Federation, the Association of Art and Antiques Dealers, the British Antique Dealers’ Association and others, and is based on ignorance and sentimentality.

London EC1