3 Ivory Cue Balls

• 1.875 in. diameter
  Ivory
• On display in Making Modernity
• Purchased for Collections
• 2007.078

Description

These cue balls are made of ivory and are the predecessors of newer versions made from Celluloid and Bakelite. In the mid-1880s the billiard industry, worried about the decline of the ivory supply, offered $10,000 to the individual(s) who could make a better billiard ball. In 1869 John Wesley Hyatt submitted a patent for a billiard ball made from nitrocellulose, a compound he would later call celluloid. Celluloid balls would later be replaced by Bakelite and other phenolic-resin balls. Ivory comes from the tusks of animals like walruses, hippopotami, and elephants, which are now endangered owing to over-hunting for ivory harvesting, and therefore is extremely difficult and often illegal to acquire.