And I would have to agree that nobody would carve a cracked chip, so it must have been done some time ago

I bet the carving was added very, very soon after they were bought.

Each set of ivory chips are custom carved. Let's assume that back in 1880 or so, a man of means had a set of chips carved for his personal use. Upon acceptance of the order, he decided to embellish each chip. He then sent them out to have the words carved on them.

To me, they are still custonm carved chips. Only difference is they were carved twice.

Walt Gonski has been putting up ivory chips that have have had color added to them, also at a later date. I have many ivory chips in which the rims have been redyed. I would guess, that Allan would consider all these chips as near worthless. I don't