It would take a book to give you a proper guide as to Ivories. If you have access to Seymour's Antique Gambling Chips, Revised Edition, this will give you all that you need. I only have one copy so cannot express you a lender copy for the show. But you should be able to get a copy before the show. Call Dale Seymour at 415 334-2800. Tell Dale I asked you to call and see if he will ship you a book by overnight mail--you'll pay a price for that service but you will recover your costs by not making mistakes. Starting with page 67 the next 151 pages are devoted to ivories.

A few comments. The chips you describe as Mother-of-pearl are exactly that. Again Dale has many pages outlining the history of these unique chips. They were for the most part made by hand in Asia for the British carriage trade. Some are very common and should be cheap--but I have seen antique dealers asking up to $60 for a single nacre chip. I got most of mine for a few pence while in England, often times fighting off little old ladies who used the counters with serrated edges for their thread.

American Ivory chips can run from a few dollars each (plain or with circles) to hundreds of dollars depending on the design. I just paid $165 each for two double star w/shield chips. I have two Scale of Justice chips that I have seen offered at $350 and more. Even though I paid $25 each for them in 1981, I wouldn't take less than $500 for either. I have about 600 different ivories including two known "frauds"--which, however, I prize.

Kenny Craig, Dale Seymour, Tom French, John Benedict, Robert Eisenstadt, among others, are the masters of the Ivory trade. You can and should contact each of them.

I would be very interested to learn what you find next weekend.