~~~ were made by the FRANZ HIESS & SÖHNE of WIEN (Vienna) Austria.

Franz is first noticed in the 1870 Vienna city directory as being a Turner and further research at smoking pipes collectors' forums know of the products he and his four sons made which included clocks and other gaming sets.

Thus far, I have only found this thick, oval plaque which is over two inches wide and served as a "buck" dealer chip (button) so described as such in German. They also made chess sets along with Bone and MOP items and clocks, too.

I first noticed the chip on eBay when it was well into the fifth day with an opening bid and make offer notation at which time I found the seller's post on PCF, asking for any information. That post received one response suggesting that chipboard is a good place to as that question since there are a couple people over there who know about Ivory. That post sat at PCF for over 7 months without a single response other than the first response and, I have been searching high and low for any other Ivory that Franz and his four sons made along with MOP or Bone and find nothing.

If you notice; the piece is signed on the reverse in the same manner the signature is found on otjer objects from them or on the case/holder the item was housed in.

There has got to be Ivory gambling chips around but, thus far I and others who have been checking in Europe, South Africa and India, find nothing.

As far as an Ivory buck being rare, the published hammer says it all when such a piece turns up and, it stands to reason why since any playable set can have anywhere from 300 to 600 chips and way more but, only one Buck and one in this original state of preservation must me something that's not in too many collections since, I know for a fact that auction houses have been all over this piece from when the seller first introduced it on eBay, up until where it sits now in my bank vault.

I only wish Eisenstadt was around to see how this whole gig went down and, maybe he is, we do not know.

One thing I would like to mention which I did on eBay; for as long as I have been there since 1997, I have never met a more honest person than that seller who told me everything and I properly thanked him for doing so...