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 - Whitby Dac Fossil Ammonite Pair
Jurassic Period, Toarcian Stage, circa 180 million years B.P.Sold for (Inc. bp): £33
Containing two Dactylioceras tenuicostatum sp. specimens. 947 grams, 13.9 cm
Found Whitby Dac, UK. From a Lincolnshire, UK, collection. -
Natural History - Fossil Knightia Fish
Eocene Period, circa 58-33 million years B.P.Sold for (Inc. bp): £33
An oval matrix with a Knightia alta specimen. 83 grams, 11.6 cm
From a Lincolnshire, UK, collection. -
Natural History - Pyrite 'Fools Gold' Specimen Group [100]
Sold for (Inc. bp): £13
Comprising small nuggets, some with cut edges. 645 grams total, 14-29 mm
From Peru. Ex Mineral Imports, London, UK. Gregory, Bottley & Lloyd (Gregory's). -
Natural History - Historic 'Switzerland' Hematite on Actinolite Mineral Specimen
Sold for (Inc. bp): £20
Displaying a hematite rose on a matrix of brittle actinolite, collection number 541, with an old Gregory, Bottley & Lloyd label. 84 grams, 47 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 - Mixed Mineral Specimen Group
Sold for (Inc. bp): £7
Comprising: agate from North Transvaal, South Africa, collection number 198; galena from England, collection number 234; chalcopyrite from North Transvaal, South Africa, collection number 193; granite from Horsenden Hill, Ealing, England; amethyst from Brazil, collection number 360; actinolite, collection number 463; unidentified prismatic mineral specimen, collection number 599; baryte from Cumbria, England, collection number 13; sand crystals from Canterbury Sand Pit, Kent, collection number 173; crazy laced agate slice, collection number 397; two selenite slices from the Sahara Desert, Libya, collection number 349; and a number of other mineral specimens without collection numbers. 835 grams total, 15-87 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. -
Natural History - Two Glass Display Bases
Sold for (Inc. bp): £20
Formed of thick glass with rounded corners, one labelled as 'Sample 1', the other as 'Sample 2'. 3.36 kg total, 14.8 cm each
Ex Mineral Imports, London, UK. Gregory, Bottley & Lloyd (Gregory's). -
Natural History - Historic Mineral Specimen Collection
Sold for (Inc. bp): £13
Comprising: a cut and polished malachite nodule half from Katanga, Zaire, collection number 557; rhodochrosite, collection number 305; sodalite from Dumfries and Galloway, collection number 23; a cut and polished agate geode half, collection number 419; quartz on muscovite from Brazil, collection number 63; wolframite from Cornwall, England, collection number 161; baryte from Cumbria, England, collection number 13; quartz on bornite from Messini Mine, North Transvaal, South Africa, collection number 199; chalcopyrite on quartz from North Transvaal, South Africa, collection number 304. 152 grams total, 16-67 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 - Historic 'Spencer Opal Mine, Idaho, U.S.A.' Opal Mineral Specimen
Sold for (Inc. bp): £390
A milk-opal variety displaying iridescent white colour; purchased for £65.00 from Gregory, Bottley & Lloyd, in the 1980s, with an old label. 163 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. -
Natural History - Fossil Sand Shark Teeth Group
Eocene Period, 56-33 million years B.P.Sold for (Inc. bp): £20
Comprising twenty-two Otodus obliquus teeth. 35 grams total, 18-36 mm
From a Norfolk, UK, collection. -
Natural History - Fossil Brittle Star
Ordovician Period, 485-444 million years B.P.Sold for (Inc. bp): £59
A polygonal matrix displaying a fossilised Ophiura sp. 242 grams, 13.2 cm
From a Cambridgeshire, UK, collection. -
Natural History - Historic Mineral Specimen Collection
Sold for (Inc. bp): £13
Comprising: limonite from Spain, collection number 525, with an old Gregory, Bottley & Lloyd label; a cut half agate geode from Mexico, collection number 51; turritella agate slice from Australia, collection number 257, with an old invoice from James Walker invoice dated 1977; quartz, collection number 137; bornite from North Transvaal, South Africa, collection number 201; botryoidal hematite, collection number 263; chalcopyrite from North Transvaal, South Africa, collection number 193; copper in quartz, collection number 378; quartz on hematite from England, collection number 60. 1.42 kg total, 4.6-12.5 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. Each specimen accompanied by an original historic index file card. -
Natural History - Historic Mineral Specimen Collection
Sold for (Inc. bp): £13
Comprising: erythrite from Mount Cobalt, Queensland, Australia, collection number 473; azurite from Nchanga Mine, Chingola, Zambia, collection number 443, with an old Gregory, Bottley & Lloyd label; a cut and polished onyx agate slice from Brazil, collection number 270; turquoise from Turquoise Mountain, Arizona, USA, collection number 487, with an old Gregory, Bottley & Lloyd label; natrolite from Ireland, collection number 496; a cut and polished agate slice from Mexico, collection number 327; quartz, collection number 312; quartz from North Transvaal, South Africa, collection number 206; quartz from Cumbria, England, collection number 19. 353 grams total, 32-67 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.