Antique knitting needles

[N0obKnitter]

My mother and I found *loads* of antique knitting needles at a 2nd hand store a few years back. They're all manner of colours, yellow, red, green etc. They're similar to plastic, but not plastic. Kind of the precursor to plastic. Some of them are a bit bent from use and being 60+ years old. I was wondering if they could be used to knit with? They were pretty inexpensive to buy, we must have dozens (!) of pairs. They look pretty set in a vase/jar as a decoration, too. I can't remember what the material was called, sorry, I emailed my mother to ask her.