Taxidermy & Natural History

The eggs of the extinct Aepyornis maximus or elephant bird are the largest of any known species.

A Victorian cased pair of the extinct New Zealand huia sold for £220,000 (plus 24% buyer’s premium) in Tennants’ Natural History and Taxidermy sale.

Over the past decade the buyer profile has widened as fossils and minerals become decorative objects

Carolina Valdés Vignoli of Carol Tresor concentrates on collectors’ pieces of mineralogical interest and shipwreck pottery. She is preparing an exhibition of minerals in September at the LAPADA fair in Mayfair.

This mahogany 12-drawer cabinet of minerals, rocks and fossils carries the printed trade label reading Arranged and Sold by J Tennant, Mineralogist by Appointment to Her Majesty, 149 Strand London.

Many animals stuffed by taxidermists stand out as fiercesome beasts that could easily have turned on the hunters themselves.

A very fine Victorian butterfly collection formed between c.1880-1920 was offered by Minster Auctions (20% buyer’s premium) in Leominster on November 24.

Giquello et Associés is selling this fossilised skeleton of Zephyr from the Iduanodon family of dinosaurs which is more than 150 million years old.

Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr is holding a sale in Paris on September 21 of a cabinet of curiosities given over to natural history, entomology and minerals.

Couple move upstairs in their 17th century Cotswolds townhouse to open an antiques shop below

Captured on video camera and shared by the auction house on Twitter, this was the fistpumping moment of joy when historian Tom Holland bought a Psittacosaurus skeleton at Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury on June 30.

This impressive carved and painted wooden half-block model of a salmon measures an impressive 4ft 10in (1.48m) across.

This Victorian cased diorama of birds of paradise native to New Guinea sold for £18,000 to lead Tennants’ (22% buyer’s premium) Natural History and Taxidermy sale in Leyburn on April 20.

Leering 4ft 7in (1.4m) out from the saleroom wall and with a 4ft 2in (50cm) antlers spread, a massive taxidermy moose head and shoulders was the major trophy at the best-yet biannual Country and Sporting sale at Mitchells (22% buyer’s premium).