Official Luthiers Forum!

Back about a year ago a friend called to tell me that a woman in California had been busted for selling real tortoise shell picks. Well, I got a call this afternoon from the person who had originally supplied the story. They said that today's Santa Rosa Press Democrat was carrying an article on the woman, who it turns out I have indeed known for a few years, although wasn't aware that she was dealing contraband tortoise. She's Chinese and living in the states, and travels to China frequently on business as an importer of violin and guitar making parts and materials. Very cute and petite, but also a hard-ball business woman. A quick search just now found it on the paper's website at: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20 ... hell-picks. He also says that once Ms. Song was video-taped selling some picks at a West Coast bluegrass festival, her home business was then raided while she was away on a trip to China, and besides finding a lot of tortoise the federal agents also confiscated her computer which had files on everyone she'd sold picks to. She was supposedly buying them in China for about $.27/each, then reselling for $7.00.

As even this sketchy newspaper article recognizes, a more or less effective argument can be made for salvaging and recycling old antique items such as boxes, bracelets, and combs (especially if damage has ruined their collectible value), but it's another issue entirely if the material involved has been recently taken from endangered turtles which were swimming freely only a short time before. In practice, the law doesn't necessarily recognize the difference, primarily because once an artifact has been converted to picks it becomes impossible to prove those picks came from antiques and not raw back plates.

Dang Chuck good to see your my friend we are honered to have the Duke of Pearl here with us

there's a guy here on the east coast who goes to all the big festivals and sells them from $40-75 each and sells tons of them. He has them catalogued in a book like you would keep baseball cards in. I bet he made $5,000 at a recent festival. If he ever gets busted he's DONE!

And as for proving the origin of the pick material I don't believe US Fish and Game care. Tortoise shell trading is illegal...period...to those guys.

Lets hope they don't go after all the purchasers.

_________________
"We might not be big but we sure are slow"

Just to be clear about the law: the federal regs don't actually ban ownership per se; what they do forbid is to "buy, sell, trade, barter or exchange". In other words, if U.S. Fish & Wildlife wandered into your house and spotted a Hawksbill turtle shell hanging over the fireplace, there's nothing they can do about it (unless of course they're there because you've been dealing the stuff!). What they can do is make a note that you have it, and on any subsequent visits cause trouble if it's not still in your immediate possession. What's illegal is any "transfer of ownership" (other than a legitimate inheritance) -- does this mean a friend could have it as long as it's just a "loan"? That would probably need to be decided in court. I have the regs, but can't find any specific mention about remanufacturing old antiques, although that may exist somewhere (the regs can be confusing to decipher, and much of the law deals with endangered or protected species in general).

In the meantime, for any tortoiseshell antiques you now own, I'd suggest placing a small sticker somewhere on each item reading "Not for sale". If you decide to make picks from an antique, it might be smart to first take several photos of the item, then take more photos of the item being laid out and cut up into picks, keeping both a written and photographic record of how many picks you wound up with. If challenged, keeping this documentation would at least establish on your part "good intent" in a court of law, and "intent" is a very important legal consideration; but this would still not excuse you to sell (or even give away) any of those picks. In fact, if any picks became too worn or broken to use, instead of tossing them it would be wise to just keep them on hand in order to avoid being accused of having sold them. When dealing elephant ivory while possessing both a Federal Ivory Permit and a "Symbol Marking Permit" (to mark the container in which ivory had been shipped), this was exactly the tactic I used in order to prevent problems if ever confronted by the law -- a clear photo of each tusk including any markings, then on the back of each photo a note as to when and where it was purchased, and notes on every piece sold from that tusk including weight and to whom it was sold.

Check out Harry Fleishman's reply on the MIMF for another point of view.

http://mimf.com/cgi-bin/WebX?50@195.mwH ... @.2cb69bd3