Busacca Gallery

Description:

Beautiful Authentic Antique Ivory Billiard Ball, circa late 1850s to early 1860s Crafted from the center of the tusk. There is a growing market for specialty ivory cue balls and even entire ball sets, featuring numbers and logos. These ivory balls are hand made and represent one of the rarest ivory styles of billiard balls found today.

Reference:

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billiard_ball

Billiard balls are used in cue sports, such as carom billiards, pool, and snooker. The number, type, diameter, color, and pattern of the balls differ depending upon the specific game being played. Various ball properties such as hardness, friction coefficient and resilience are very important to the finer points of gameplay. The earliest balls were made of wood, and later clay (the latter remaining in use well into the 20th century). Ivory was favored for a period, but by the mid-1800s, elephants were being slaughtered for their ivory at an alarming rate, just to keep up with the demand for billiard balls. No more than eight balls could be made from a single elephant. In an uncommon show of accidental environmentalism, the billiard industry realized that the supply of elephants (their primary source of ivory) was endangered, as well as dangerous to obtain. They challenged inventors to come up with an alternative material that could be manufactured, with a US $10,000 prize from Phelan and Collender of New York City being offered.