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 Fossil Specimen Collection
Mainly Jurassic Period, circa 201-145 million years B.P.Sold for (Inc. bp): £7
An interesting group of mixed fossils and other specimens including ammonites, leaf fossils, and others. 1.37 kg total, 2.8-13.2 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. -
Natural History - Historic Cut and Polished Agate Geode Half
Sold for (Inc. bp): £13
Large specimen with light blue, white, colourless and pale blue crystals, collection number 246. 2 kg total, 16 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 - Lapis Lazuli Bead Necklace String
20th century A.D. or earlierSold for (Inc. bp): £20
Restrung; composed of lapis lazuli beads of graduated size. 6.39 grams, 45 cm long
UK gallery, early 2000s. -
Natural History - Amethyst Crystal Display
Sold for (Inc. bp): £52
A freestanding cut geode section with lilac-coloured amethyst crystals. 960 grams, 11.1 cm
From a Lincolnshire, UK, collection. -
Natural History - Historic Fossil Fern Leaves in Matrix
Carboniferous Period, 358-298 million years B.P.Sold for (Inc. bp): £52
An amorphous matrix containing several Alethopteris sp. specimens. 656 grams, 26 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 identification card. -
Natural History - Historic 'Boia Sprie, Romania' Stibnite Mineral Specimen
Sold for (Inc. bp): £46
In the form of a cluster of prismatic radiating crystals, collection number 560, with an old ISIS Minerals label. 79 grams, 72 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 - Mastodon Bone Face Carving
Pliocene Period, 5.2-2.5 million years B.P.Sold for (Inc. bp): £39
Displaying a later carved stylised face with exaggerated facial detailing. 106 grams, 72 mm
Private UK collection formed in the 1980s. Property of an East Sussex, UK, teacher. -
Natural History - Historic 'Chokotka Peninsula, U.S.S.R.' Demantoid Mineral Specimen
Sold for (Inc. bp): £52
With apple-green and greenish white crystals, the calcium has been replaced by traces of chromic acid, collection number 461. 75 grams, 87 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 and an old Gregory, Bottley & Lloyd label. -
Natural History - Knightia Fossil Fish Group
Eocene Period, circa 56-33 million years B.P.Sold for (Inc. bp): £52
Comprising three rounded sandstone matrices, each with a Knightia alta specimen. 159 grams total, 75 mm each
From a 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 - Composite Fossil Mosasaur 'Marine Dinosaur' Jaw Pair
Cretaceous Period, circa 145-65 million years B.P.Sold for (Inc. bp): £130
Comprising a pair of Mosasaur prognathodon jaw section, each with three teeth. 1.16 kg, 19 cm
From a Cambridgeshire, UK, collection.
The Mosasaur is an extinct, large marine reptile dinosaur with a snake-like body, long snout and paddle-like limbs. found worldwide, they competed with other well-known sea predators of the Late Cretaceous, such as plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs, for food, existing primarily on a diet of ammonoids, cuttlefish and fish. -
Natural History - Grade A Cut and Polished Agate Slice Collection [3]
Sold for (Inc. bp): £13
Each displaying quartz crystal filled internal cavity, in enhanced blue colour. 358 grams total, 12-14.5 cm
Ex Mineral Imports, London, UK. Gregory, Bottley & Lloyd (Gregory's). -
Natural History - Historic 'Mexico' Rosasite Mineral Specimen
Sold for (Inc. bp): £13
Well-formed crystals on a matrix of brownish black limonite, the crystals coated, in certain areas, by very small, translucent light brown crystals, possibly calcite, collection number 492, with an old Gregor, Bottley & Lloyd label. 56 grams, 74 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.