Auction Highlights
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Egyptian Granite Head of a Dignitary
Sold for (Inc. bp): £28,600
Carved with soft facial features and carefully executed cosmetic lines around the eye, earring, and carefully detailed duplex wig with gently wavy curls; likely from the Ramesside Period; mounted on a custom-made stand. -
Etruscan Bronze Statuette of Herakles
Sold for (Inc. bp): £18,200
Modelled in the round with a muscular nude body, his club resting on his shoulder and the hair dressed in rows of tight, close-set curls underneath the Nemean lionskin hood with cloak billowing over his left arm, the paws tied across his chest; mounted on a custom-made display stand. -
Roman Marble Portrait of a Boy as Worshipper of Isis
Sold for (Inc. bp): £17,550
Carved head of a prepubescent worshipper of Isis, with soft facial features, long nose, small downturned mouth, heavy-lidded eyes, the whole giving the face a sombre or mournful appearance; the hair textured to indicate a short cut and combed forward across the scalp, sidelock above the right ear; mounted on a 16th century carved breccia upper body with leather cuirass and pteruges to right shoulder, cloak draped across the shoulders and fastened at the clavicle on the right side with a disc-brooch; socle base; some restoration. -
Larger Than Life-Size Roman Bronze Sandaled Foot
Sold for (Inc. bp): £39,000
Modelled in the round and originally part of a monumental statue, the naturalistic right foot encased in a trochades leather sandal with median reversed tongue secured with side straps and thick looped laces; the thick platform sole slightly curved, toes and nails well defined; mounted on a substantial custom-made display stand. -
Life-Size Roman Marble Sleeping Girl from a Sarcophagus Lid
Sold for (Inc. bp): £20,800
Modelled in the half-round, nude with eyelids half-closed in sleep; a drapery partly covering the head and wrapping around the lower body under the hips; the hairstyle similar to those of the Antonine Dynasty, the peaceful face supported by the hands and the ear pierced to accept an earring; iron reinforcing rod to the feet and the right arm's armilla a later replacement; upper head restored in Parian marble. -
Byzantine Porphyry Relief with Cross Surrounded by Two Birds
Sold for (Inc. bp): £28,600
An imposing panel divided to four sections by a central cross on a stepped pedestal, the lower and upper arm with branch-like extensions; the upper quadrants with a circlet surrounding a palm tree-shaped motif; each lower quadrant with a bird in profile facing back; mounted on a custom-made display stand. -
Carved Marble Memento Mori Skull
Sold for (Inc. bp): £16,900
Carved skull on a short neck with musculature and blood vessels; mandible in place with some teeth in sockets, wisps of hair adhering to the dome of the skull; one zygomatic bone partly absent; square-section socle base. -
'The Kelton' Gandharan Head of a Bodhisattva
Sold for (Inc. bp): £24,700
Carved in the half-round head of a Bodhisattva (probably Maitreya) with fine detailing to the arched brow, aquiline nose, neat moustache and full lips; the eyes heavily lidded, urna to the forehead, long open lobes to the ears; the hair in multi-stranded curling locks gathered into an ushnisha with brow-band below; heavily cleaned, conserved, and mounted on a custom-made stand; supplied with original old wooden base with collector's label: 'Head of Bodhisattva / Fine grain schist / Gandhara, Northwest Pakistan / 4th century'.
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Natural History - Historic 'Tsumeb, South West Africa' Dioptase on Calcite Crystal Specimen
Sold for (Inc. bp): £39
Displaying emerald-green dioptase crystals on a matrix of rhombohedral calcite with some hematite present, collection number 569, with an old Gregory, Bottley & Lloyd label. 76 grams, 50 mm
Acquired on the UK mineral and fossil market, since 1970. From the historic mineral collection of Richard Valentine Cain, London, UK, thence by descent. Accompanied by an original historic index file card. -
Natural History - Historic Mineral Specimen Collection
Sold for (Inc. bp): £33
Comprising: granite from Horsenden Lane, Ealing, Middlesex, England, collection number 429; stained calcite from Ghajn Tuffer, Malta, collection number 41; a cut and polished agate geode slice, collection number 165; fluorite from Mexico, collection number 325, with an old James Walker label and invoice dated 1978;ferruginous limestone with epidote, collection number 171; sandstone, collection number 90; mudstone, collection number 242; banded pebble from Iraq; scolecite from Peru, collection number 437. 2.06 kg total, 4.4-17.5 cm
Acquired on the UK mineral and fossil market, since 1970. From the historic mineral collection of Richard Valentine Cain, London, UK, thence by descent. Five specimens accompanied by an original historic index file card. -
Natural History - Historic Mineral Specimen Collection
Sold for (Inc. bp): £26
Comprising: rhodochrosite from Argentina, collection number 11; an attractive quartz rosette, collection number 282; a cut and polished agate slice from Brazil, collection number 350; vanadinite on calcite, collection number 146; lepidolite from Brazil, collection number 268; spodumene from Nuristan, collection number 630; sand crystals from Canterbury Sand Pit, Canterbury, England, collection number 173; pyrite from England, collection number 82. 111 grams total, 16-70 mm
Acquired on the UK mineral and fossil market, since 1970. From the historic mineral collection of Richard Valentine Cain, London, UK, thence by descent. Each specimen accompanied by an original historic index file card. -
Natural History - Woolly Mammoth Bone Bead Necklace String
Devensian Period, 110,000-12,000 years B.P.Sold for (Inc. bp): £124
Restrung using recently polished Mammuthus primigenius bone beads. 167 grams, 61 cm
Ex London collection, 2000s. -
Natural History - Historic 'Mexico' Adamite Crystal Specimen
Sold for (Inc. bp): £33
With pale greenish yellow and white crystals, collection number 593. 57.8 grams, 53 mm
Acquired on the UK mineral and fossil market, since 1970. From the historic mineral collection of Richard Valentine Cain, London, UK, thence by descent. Accompanied by an original historic index file card. -
Natural History - Chalcopyrite 'Peacock Ore' Specimen Group [100]
Sold for (Inc. bp): £26
Displaying rich purple, red, orange and brown colours. 896 grams total, 15-30 mm
From Mexico. Ex Mineral Imports, London, UK. Gregory, Bottley & Lloyd (Gregory's). -
Natural History - Historic 'Brazil' Conichalcite with Cuprite Crystal Specimen
Sold for (Inc. bp): £39
Displaying lime green conichalcite on a matrix containing some cuprite, calcite and patches of darker green malachite, collection number 120. 234 grams, 68 mm
Acquired on the UK mineral and fossil market, since 1970. From the historic mineral collection of Richard Valentine Cain, London, UK, thence by descent. Accompanied by an original historic index file card. -
Natural History - Group of Polished Copal with Insects
Carboniferous Period, circa 3 million years B.P.Sold for (Inc. bp): £39
Comprising four pieces, each with a number of insect inclusions. 12 grams total, 28-61 mm
From a Lincolnshire, UK, collection. -
Natural History - Fossil Knightia Fish
Eocene Period, circa 58-33 million years B.P.Sold for (Inc. bp): £39
Knightia alta fish showing good detail to the body and fins. 65 grams, 85 mm
From a Lincolnshire, UK, collection. -
Natural History - Historic Mineral Specimen Collection
Sold for (Inc. bp): £33
Comprising: a cut and polished agate slice from Brazil, collection number 35; brown calcite from Brazil, collection number 109; septarian nodule section from Horsenden Hill, Ealing, Middlesex, England, collection number 216; aurichalcite, collection number 365; lepidolite, collection number 544; phantom calcite from Mexico, collection number 209; calcite from Riesengebirge, collection number 481; rutilated quartz from South Africa, collection number 291; baryte from Winster, Derbyshire, England, collection number 174. 989 grams total, 56-78 mm
Acquired on the UK mineral and fossil market, since 1970. From the historic mineral collection of Richard Valentine Cain, London, UK, thence by descent. Seven specimens accompanied by an original historic index file card. -
Natural History - Knightia Fossil Fish Plate
Eocene Period, 56-33 million years B.P.Sold for (Inc. bp): £78
The rectangular matrix containing four Knightia alta sp. fish. 955 grams, 24.2 cm
From the Green River Formation, Wyoming, USA. Ex Lincolnshire, UK, collection.
In southwest Wyoming (and parts of Colorado and Utah) in the Green River Formation are found some of the world's most outstanding specimens of fossil fish. The Green River system was composed of three lakes: Lake Ulinta, Lake Gosiute and Fossil Lake. These Eocene lakes lay in a series of intermountain basins formed by geological events that uplifted the Rocky Mountains during the early Tertiary time. The climate was much different from the desert-like climate of this area today. Both the fauna (crocodiles, alligators, boa constrictors and some subtropical fish families) and the flora (such as large palm trees) indicate a climate much like that found along the Gulf Coast today. Large amounts of ash found in the sediments indicate that volcanoes were particularly active at this time. -
Natural History - Quartz Rock Crystal Specimen Group [100]
Sold for (Inc. bp): £33
Comprising a large quantity of white to clear prismatic crystals, some in matrix. 1.36 kg total, 25-41 mm
From Brazil. Ex Mineral Imports, London, UK. Gregory, Bottley & Lloyd (Gregory's).