Having seen hundreds of 'teens and 'twenties player pianos over the
years, I have often wondered why the ivory keyboards behave so
differently.  Some are as bright and white as the day they were new
and some are about as yellow as an orange tomcat.  I have heard that
keeping the keyboard cover closed causes ivory to discolor but I
wouldn't bet my first born on that theory.

The up-front quality of ivory must surely play an important role.
Were some harvested from dead elephants while others were from freshly
killed young or old elephants?  Is there any record of the companies
that converted the ivory tusks to piano keys and how did they secure
the tusks to produce the ivory keyboards?  I'm guessing they must have
had different grades of ivory keys.  Some are pure white, others have
a grain in them.  I find the variety interesting and it must be due to
how the tusks were cut.

This is a touchy topic in today's' world and rightfully so.  I am just
wondering if anyone out there has some historical information they
would share about the past keyboard ivory production for which we owe
such a debt of gratitude to the contributing elephants.

Larry Schuette
Raymond, Nebraska

 [ MMDigest articles about ivory are indexed at
 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/archives/KWIC/I/ivory.html 
 [ -- Robbie