Bones from the most famous of all extinct birds come for sale as part of our Out of the Ordinary sale on February 15 & 16.
20 January 2022
The femur and phalanx bone from the dodo, the flightless species that died out in Mauritius around 330 years ago, are expected to make £3,000-4,000.
The dodo, a member of the pigeon family had thrived on Mauritius until the Dutch colonised the island in 1638. Hunted for sport and further threatened by the arrival of alien species such as rats, dogs, cats, and pigs, it was thought to have become extinct before 1690. It is one of the first occasions that man realised that human actions alone could cause a species to die out.
THE DODO,
before 1690, Mauritius, a set of Dodo femur and phalanx bones,
leg bone 7.5cm long
toe bone 4cm long
£3,000-4,000
The dodo bones on offer - a 7.5cm leg bone and a 4cm toe bone - are from a group of dodo bones discovered in 1885 during the investigation of the Mare aux Songes swamp in Mauritius by local schoolmaster George Clarke. Hearing that a few old dodo bones had been found in this area, Clarke hired local servants to wade through the mud and feel for further bones with their feet.
A major highlight of our forthcoming Dreams – A Unique Private Collection sale on 9 July is a remarkable archive of letters and manuscripts by John Ruskin (1819–1900), the celebrated Victorian polymath. This unparalleled group – numbering in the hundreds – is believed to be the largest collection of Ruskin correspondence in private hands and spans a vast range of topics from art and architecture to politics, religion, and personal reflection.
2 July 2025
'The Scented Garden of Abdullah the Satirist of Shiraz' - also known as 'The Bagh-i-Muattar' - quickly caught the attention of our book specialists, when a copy bound in full vellum was brought in by a local client to our weekly valuation day.
2 July 2025
We are thrilled to launch The Glass Sale - a brand-new addition to our auction calendar! The inaugural sale will take place on Tuesday 28 October and will become a biannual fixture in our calendar going forward.
20 June 2025