For those interested in knowing about mammoth ivory: It is typically brownish in color, in cross section it has a "chevron" grain pattern in contrast to present elephant ivory which has "engine turning" patterns (really, better described by the eye from what you see than this terminology/note: there is a difference in this latter grain pattern between African and Indian elephants), and occurs in vast amounts by carcasses of mammoth's preserved in the frozen tundra of Siberia. I've heard that hunters' dogs sometimes feed on preserved mammoth meat and that there is a project to someday recreate an offspring which will be around 60% mammoth genetically (and 40% modern elephant) using cloned DNA from specimens.
It is considered entirely legal, since it is considered fossil material from an extinct species. For those interested, there is an old book entirely about ivory and its use in art which I can look up at work and post the reference. (I work as a paintings conservator at an art museum). Back to the lute, at the time of his death Robert Lundberg was making a lute that had mammoth ivory spacers between the rosewood ribs. Kenneth Be Cleveland, Ohio --
