Bone, plastic or Ivory?

[fatso]

New set arrived this morning. Barker & Ellis as sponsors, Birmingham for assay office, 1971 to 1974 hallmarks. Brand new condition.
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj51 ... nRepro.jpg
My questions: what are the insulators made from?
How to look after them to prevent cracking? Should I oil them?
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[kerangoumar]

highly unlikely to be anything other than plastic from that time period.

however -

one thing you can do is to look at the sides of the insulators with a loupe. ivory will give you cross-hatching - in some direction, so you might have to look all around before you come across evidence thereof; ivory also has a sort of "jelly-like" appearance. bone is usually whiter, harder, with coarser cells and a brittle appearance. plastic -- the best way is to heat a sewing needle and stick it into an inconspicuous spot and if it goes in, with a sickening smell, most likely it is plastic.
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[fatso]

Hi, you left me worried. I would never dream of brutalising my beautiful repro silver with hot pin- as there would be no place I could inflict this torture without a tell tale signs of my barbarity. However, please bear in mind that the world wide ban on trade in ivory took effect in 1989 only. Also, I am led to believe that the ivory leaves black crack like lines of the blood vessels feeding the bone- and you can see one on my Barker& Ellis pot, 1971-but one only.
I have inspected also my pride and joy, this beauty by Martin & Hall Co, Sheffield 1860- coming from the times the British Raj used to blast away happily with elephant gun at anything that moves, and it does display the "cracks" required, no doubt ivory:
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj51 ... Teapot.jpg
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj51 ... y1860C.jpg
So does my repro Queen Anne silver but a single "crack" only:
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj51 ... 1Ivory.jpg
Finally, to cap it all, an example of walrus ivory, I was made to believe. This one has had a small chip and I have given there your brutal treatment with white hot pin. It did smell horribly and did not ignite, what a relief!
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj51 ... sIvory.jpg
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[kerangoumar]

the use of ivory for insulators pretty much disappeared well before the ban against ivory was instituted. if you look closely at your sheffield teapot you can see the variations of density that mark genuine ivory ("french ivory" also has striations but they are straight - definite giveaway) the barker ellis photo is too blurry.
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[JLDoggett]

When I worked for Towle Silversmiths in the mid 1970's we had a supply of ivory insulators which we used for certain high-end patterns. For the other pots we used either antler or bone. I left about the time they were switching to plastic (in the late 70's).
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[fatso]

Thank you both for valuable comments.
My Barker & Ellis pot does have this jelly-like appearance to its insulators.
It would also be regarded as a high-end product by its previous owner-perhaps some crazed english spinster aunt who put it in the display cabinet away for 37 yrs without the single use in this time. This does not surprise me any more. In fact I do own some half a dozen geriatric virginal sets but prefer personally to take my tea in the old battered silver batchelor pot which has been visibly shot at while in the trenches of Great War in 1918.
This way I can imbibe with my traditional 3'o'clock tea the luck of the pots previous owner!
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[fatso]

Nothing illustrates better then the pictures:
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj51 ... otShot.jpg
here is my lucky tea pot, hallmarked in Birmingham 1918. It does display crude characteristics of the fuss free insulation: extensions made from some white metal tubing, cross bar fashioned from hard wood and attached with two sturdy screws. And it works!
And here is the proof of injuries received:
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj51 ... ngBlow.jpg
It might be the figment of my imagination but I prefer to believe that Gentleman Officer has been sipping his sacro-sanct afternoon tea in the trenches of the Great War. The Jerry knocked it out of his hands with bullit.
So the good Gent, risen to anger, raced to the machine gun post and said tra-ta-tata in reply to opposing trenches.
Nice legend and the tea tastes superb afterwards when the story would be told to fellow workers.
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