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 - Polished Fossil Orthoceras Cluster Display
Devonian Period, 417-354 million years B.P.Sold for (Inc. bp): £20
With bullet-shaped Orthoceras specimens on a textured background. 1.25 kg, 22.5 cm
From a Cambridgeshire, UK, collection. -
Natural History - Woolly Mammoth Bone Bead Necklace String
Devensian Period, 110,000-12,000 years B.P.Sold for (Inc. bp): £169
Restrung using recently polished Mammuthus primigenius bone beads. 216 grams, 64 cm long
UK gallery, early 2000s. -
Natural History - Large Quantity of Rose Quartz Crystal Chips
Sold for (Inc. bp): £39
Comprising variously sized chips for decorative use. 1 kg total, 1-16 mm
Ex Mineral Imports, London, UK. Gregory, Bottley & Lloyd (Gregory's). -
Very Large Matrix with Fossil Otodus Shark Teeth
Eocene Period, circa 56-33 million years BPSold for (Inc. bp): £572
A huge montage of over fifty large fossil Otodus obliquus shark teeth, set recently in a matrix. 35.1 kg, 52 cm
From a Cambridgeshire collection; from Morocco. From the Horton collection, UK. -
Natural History - Flexicalymene Fossil Trilobite Group
Devonian Period, circa 417-354 million years B.P.Sold for (Inc. bp): £13
Three Flexicalymene sp. trilobites from nodules. 351 grams total, 71-86 mm
From Morocco, North Africa. From a Cambridgeshire, UK, collection. -
Natural History - Whitby Dac Fossil Ammonites
Jurassic Period, Toarcian Stage, circa 180 million years B.P.Sold for (Inc. bp): £13
The irregular matrix showing multiple specimens, possibly Eleganticeras sp. 810 grams, 14.8 cm
Found Whitby Dac, UK. From a Lincolnshire, UK, collection. -
Natural History - Mixed Fossil Collection
Devonian-Late Pleistocene Period, 395 million-200,000 years B.P.Sold for (Inc. bp): £20
Comprising: a Pseudopecten bivalve; two Littorina littorea gastropods from Dorset; two Goniatite sp. ammonites; four polished Orthoceras sp. specimens; a Beudanticeras sp. ammonite from Kent; a rostral spine; and other fossils specimens. 1.3 kg total, 23-92 mm
From a Cambridgeshire, UK, collection. -
Natural History - Historic Mineral Specimen Collection
Sold for (Inc. bp): £20
Comprising: granite from A40 construction works in Middlesex, collection number 505; wood opal, collection number 243; citrine from Brazil, collection number 105; goethite in quartz from England, collection number 143; a cut amethyst agate geode from Chihuahua, Mexico, collection number 545; realgar from Hungary, collection number 519 with old Gregory, Bottley and Lloyd label; granite from adjacent to Ruislip Road, Greenford, Middlesex, collection number 457; dioptase, collection number 391; pyrite from Mexico, collection number 42. 720 grams total, 29-78 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. Each specimen accompanied by an original historic index file card. -
Natural History - Hadrosaur Dinosaur Egg
Cretaceous Period, 100 million years B.P.Sold for (Inc. bp): £442
A large Charonosaurus sp. hadrosaur egg retaining evidence of the original leathery surface. 3.4 kg, 16 cm
Acquired 1983-1990. Private collection, Hove, UK.
Hadrosaurs were large dinosaurs, growing up to 10 metres in length, belonging to the ‘Duck-Billed’ group of dinosaurs. They are considered the ‘herd animal’ of the Cretaceous, having been found buried together in their thousands. Dinosaur egg fossils are known from approximately two-hundred sites around the word, particularly in Asia. This nest comes from the Xixia Formation, Henan region of China, which produces some of the best preserved eggs in the world. These eggs can yield entire embryos within them, making them an essential tool for understanding the biology of these creatures. -
Natural History - Large Historic 'England' Dog Tooth Calcite Crystal Specimen
Sold for (Inc. bp): £26
A cut section displaying orange browns, pale brown and brownish white colours, collection number 53. 2.32 kg, 15.5 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. Accompanied by an original historic index file card. -
Natural History - Amethyst Crystal Gem Tree
Sold for (Inc. bp): £13
On an amethyst geode matrix; the metal branches tipped with polished light-coloured amethyst pebbles. 517 grams, 14 cm high
Ex Mineral Imports, London, UK. Gregory, Bottley & Lloyd (Gregory's). -
Natural History - Historic 'Batopilas, Mexico' Natural Silver Formation
Sold for (Inc. bp): £39
Displaying dendritic formation, collection number 554. 1.15 grams, 30 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.