Message #42150

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Dear Cathy,

    The combined lure of good Barbeque AND a Hornbill bottle to examine, is quite tempting!
Till I see it 'live', and pace Giovanni & YT, I will stick to my opinion that your bottle is ca.1890-1940. And I know Rick agrees with me, as to that dating.

     However, I agree with Pat, Tom, YT, etc., 100%, that the destruction of the Helmeted Hornbill as a species demands NOT buying MODERN Hornbill Ivory bottles.

     I must confess, that I had this discussion with YT in Singapore in 2014, and my argument was that, while I was against buying MODERN (post 1960) examples, there was nothing wrong with buying genuine antique examples.  But how does one make sure one is buying ONLY a genuine antique bottle? 

    Once I started looking into the issue, and remembering all the thousands of really bad quality modern bottles I've seen, I'm getting to the opinion that we need to find a way to protect the remaining living Helmeted Hornbill.

    But I still don't see why the job of protecting them means denying ourselves the beautiful antique examples. 
I liked Cathy's suggestion, that a paragraph or two be added to the chapter [Chapter 11 (appropriate! ), "The Story of the Famous Hornbill", in Mrs. Perry's book], describing the situation today, and recommending against buying Hornbill bottles.

Best,
Joey