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Bizarre Auctions

Sorry to be really annoying, but I was thread-mining and I found this old thing!

Nothing to add I'm afraid, I just love this stuff :oops:
 
LINK

This is an eerie portrait that was found in an old house in southern Ohio. According to the locals, it's the self portrait of a person that committed suicide shortly after painting it. That's what they told us. Your call!
 
Celtic skull on ebay:
Real Genuine Human Skull Articulated medical use only

Skull comes with certificate of authenticity signed by the artist with his guarantee and can be used for insurance purposes.

Skull comes with certificate of authenticity, signed by the artist an can be used for insurance purposes.
Skull Details:

Origin: European
Age: Approximately 150 years old

Front: Celtic Dragons, Norse Runes and Celtic Trinity on either side of the jaw.

Top: Traditional Celtic Knots in cross formation
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NO-RES-Real-Gen ... 1219387816?
 
Nothing spooky here, just a unique auction - eat your heart out, Bargain Hunt! ;)

RAF Harrier and Tornado jets auctioned with no reserve

Two ex-RAF jets put up for auction in Northamptonshire with no reserve price have gone to private buyers.
A 1976 Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR3 jump-jet has been bought by a man from Essex for £105,800.
A woman pilot who flew this type of aircraft bought the 1988 Panavia Tornado F3 for £36,800.

Silverstone Auctions, which sold the aircraft, did not name the buyers but described the sale as a "unique opportunity" to acquire "RAF history".

Nick Whale. the managing director of Silverstone Auctions, said: "We're very pleased that we've been able to secure such good prices for these historic fighter planes.
"There was a fantastic atmosphere in the room and a great sense of anticipation ahead of the sale.
"The Harrier certainly proved popular with the crowds and after some strong bidding the hammer went down to the sound of rapturous applause."

The Harrier, which served during the Cold War and in the Falklands, is in almost flight-worthy condition and comes complete with ejector seat.
The auction house said the Harrier was preserved in "almost time-capsule conditions" and had "serious potential for a future return to flight".

It said this was likely to be the only time a Tornado F3 was offered for auction as the entire fleet had either been scrapped or was in museums.

No guide prices was offered for the jets as their rarity made cost "nearly impossible to gauge", Mr Whale said
"We've never offered anything like this before and it's a privilege to be able to offer one of, if not the finest, Harriers in the world.
"We've sold an eclectic range of historic vehicles in the past but these really are some of the most exciting yet."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-no ... e-28509563
 
A woman pilot who flew this type of aircraft bought the 1988 Panavia Tornado F3 for £36,800.

:shock:

That's amazing value for a piece of history - and a beautiful piece at that.
 
Right, you've snapped up your aircraft at auction, now you need a control tower... ;)

[video]
Auction for RAF Wainfleet control tower
14 November 2014 Last updated at 16:35 GMT

The control tower at the former RAF Wainfleet in Lincolnshire is being sold at auction.
The tower, together with five ancillary buildings, is expected to fetch at least £300,000.

Simon Spark spoke to the current owners, Will Roughton and Wendy Pitcher, and estate agent Chris Steinbeck.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-li ... e-30052748

More here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-li ... e-30035596
 
A good reminder about climate change and rising sea levels...

Sussex Evolution sale: Woolly mammoth skeleton auction

A near-complete skeleton of an Ice Age woolly mammoth fetched £150,000 at an auction in West Sussex.
The skeleton was expected to fetch between £150,000 and £250,000 at the second Evolution sale in Billingshurst.
At last year's first Evolution sale, Summers Place Auctions sold a Diplodocus skeleton for £400,000.

The woolly mammoth skeleton, which was found in eastern Europe and is between 30,000 and 50,000 years old, was bought by a UK-based private buyer.
It was sold in a telephone bid, which, with the buyer's premium, amounted to £189,000.

The auction house said the skeleton -18ft (5.5m) high and 11ft 6in (3.5m) long and weighing up to six tonnes - was found decades ago but had only recently been prepared and mounted.
Experts believe the mammal could have been male because of its size and weight and have nicknamed it Monty.
Curator Errol Fuller said it took four people to lift the mammoth's skull and fix it to the body.

Woolly mammoths, which were covered in fur and had long, curved tusks, died out about 10,000 years ago.
The auction house said complete skeletons were rare but isolated teeth, bones and tusk fragments were occasionally found - sometimes dredged up from the sea.
The specimen which was sold on Wednesday by a private collector is 90% complete.
A few small bones are missing but those have been replaced with replicas, according to the auction catalogue.

Another item in the auction included a 30cm (11in) elephant bird egg which went for £69,960 to a Chinese museum.

Mr Fuller said: "I am really pleased that this sale includes so many rare and extinct species.
"We have managed to assemble some of the best examples in this field and it's a great opportunity to see them all together."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-30205488
 
2,500 year old Egyptian bronze cat’s head that was nearly binned to go under hammer

First published Wednesday 18 February 2015

A 2,500 year old ancient Egyptian bronze cat’s head tat was nearly thrown in the bin will go under the hammer at auction in Penzance this week.
Auctioneer David Lay found the cat, complete with gold earrings, during a house clearance near Penzance, with the "perfectly proportioned" piece expected to sell for as much as £10,000.

The bronze managed to make its way to Cornwall in the belongings of a one-time managing director of Spink & Son, one of London's oldest and greatest art dealing institutions, who had retired to Cornwall.
Mr Lay said: "Once in a while, quite unexpectedly, you come across something really special. It’s like Fate’s tapped you on the shoulder, gestured to a dusty box and said ‘chin up’, with an encouraging smile.
In this case, our ‘something really special’ was an unassuming looking Ancient Egyptian bronze cat’s head, discovered in a little old house near Penzance.

etc...

http://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/new..._was_nearly_binned_to_go_under_hammer/?ref=mr
 
7 March 2015 Last updated at 10:58
One millionth Morris Minor auctioned in Surrey
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The one millionth Morris Minor ever built will go on sale at an auction later.
The classic British-built car will be sold at the Surrey auction house, Historics at Brooklands.

It was one of 349 "millionth" Morris Minor's built in 1960, however, this car was the actual one millionth built.
Stewart Banks, from Historics, said there had been an "awful lot of interest" in the car, which has been estimated at £22,000 to £26,000.
He said: "There were 349 made but this is the only one with the million mark on its chassis.
"The Morris Minor has a very loyal fan base - people have them for years. This particular car has been owned by the vendor for 19 years.
"It is just the quintessential British motor car."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-31769707
 
Knobs to be auctioned...

Builder snaps up stash of doorknobs for scrap... then finds they're worth £2m
The wolf will no longer be at the door for builder Brian Cairns, 55, who bought a 12 tonne load of brass knobs and was then told they were worth a fortune
By Victoria Ward, and agencies
10:50AM GMT 27 Mar 2015

A former builder is poised to become a multi-millionaire after a hoard of brass doorknobs he bought for scrap were valued at £2 million.
Brian Cairns, 55, purchased the 12 tonne load of fittings, including light switches, hat stands and letter boxes, for £20,000, believing he could get three times that if he sold it as scrap.
But he realised that many of the ornate knobs could be vintage and decided to have the entire stash valued.
He was told that the antique door knobs were made by Valli and Columbo, an Italian company that closed 55 years ago, and worth £150 each. Other brass handles were worth up to £200 each.

The father-of-four, from South Shields, Tyne and Wear, now plans to sell the collection in a series of auctions and has been told he should make at least £2million.

etc...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/new...-for-scrap...-then-finds-theyre-worth-2m.html
 
Little fact I found out t'other day....

Some doorknobs are made of brass for a very good reason – it has antimicrobial properties and will disinfect itself, destroying 99% of germs and viruses within eight hours.

This is due to the fantastically-named oligodynamic effect.
 
This mixes Hollywood celebs and local unknowns:
150-year-old photograph of Falmouth girl, once owned by Hollywood film star Charlton Heston, to go to auction
07:00 Saturday 12 March 2016

A 150-year-old photograph of a girl, who later found love and happiness in Falmouth is set to fetch more than £10,000 at an auction in America later this month.
The fourteen inches by eleven inches picture of Kate Keown is particularly valuable because it was taken – in or around 1867-1868 when Plymouth soldier’s daughter Miss Keown was ten or eleven - by trail-blazing Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron, now acknowledged as one of Britain’s greatest female photographers,possibly the greatest.

The picture was owned and treasured until his death by Oscar-winning Hollywood superstar, Charlton Heston, and it is among more than three hundred of Mr Heston’s possessions ,which are expected to sell for between £350,000 and £500,000 at Bonhams in Los Angeles on March 22.

Kate Keown’s links with Falmouth are not mentioned in the auction catalogue, but they are confirmed in the 1891,1901 and 1911 Censuses when she was living in Falmouth.
In 1884, Kate Keown married Penryn-born Falmouth-based granite dealer, Bernard Augustin Freeman,who was three years younger than Kate .
Mr Freeman was born in 1860. Kate was born in 1857.

In 1891, Kate and Bernard Freeman were living at Woodhouse Terrace, Falmouth,where they employed two live-in servants : Stithians-born cook, Mary Penalna and Falmouth-born servant, Mary Johns.

Sometime between 1891 and 1901, the Freemans moved to Spotfield House, Melville Road, Falmouth, before they moved again, sometime between 1901 and 1911, to Beach View, Gyllyngvase, Falmouth.

Kate was sixty five when she died at Rosemary, Falmouth,on August 23,1922. In her will she left £460 eighteen shillings and eightpence (or £460.93 in modern money). That might not sound a lot now,but in the early 1920s it was possible to buy a decent house for around £500.

Kate’s husband,Bernard Freeman,was 75 when he died at Tresilian, Wood Lane, Falmouth, on January 21, 1936. In his will, he left £2,615 fourteen shillings and tuppence, or £2,615.71p in modern money. In 1936, the average British house cost £550.

In her book,Julia Margaret Cameron’s Women, author Sylvia Wolf,says : “Kate Keown appears frequently in Cameron’s photographs.Cameron called upon numerous children to pose for her camera, In some instances,Cameron posed the children as themselves,but she more often used them to embody childhood innocence.The Keown sisters were among the children, who donned gowns or angel wings to play the part of Cupid or the infant Christ in Cameron’s photographs.”

This is not the first time an 1860s photograph of Kate Keown by Julia Margaret Cameron has come up for sale.
At Sotheby’s in London on May 10, 2001, another Cameron photograph of Kate Keown was expected to sell for between £40,000 and £60,000, but, in the end it sold for........£174,000 and set a new world auction record for a Cameron photograph.

Charlton Heston – real name : John Charles Carter- was a Hollywood superstar in the 1950s and 1960s and appeared in 100 films, including the 1956 epic,The Ten Commandments.in which he portrayed Moses; and the 1959 movie,Ben-Hur for which he won an Academy Award as Best Actor.

Mr Heston was eighty four when he died in 2008.

http://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/new..._film_star_Charlton_Heston__to_go_to_auction/
 
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This mixes Hollywood celebs and local unknowns:
150-year-old photograph of Falmouth girl, once owned by Hollywood film star Charlton Heston, to go to auction
07:00 Saturday 12 March 2016

A 150-year-old photograph of a girl, who later found love and happiness in Falmouth is set to fetch more than £10,000 at an auction in America later this month.
The fourteen inches by eleven inches picture of Kate Keown is particularly valuable because it was taken – in or around 1867-1868 when Plymouth soldier’s daughter Miss Keown was ten or eleven - by trail-blazing Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron, now acknowledged as one of Britain’s greatest female photographers,possibly the greatest.

The picture was owned and treasured until his death by Oscar-winning Hollywood superstar, Charlton Heston, and it is among more than three hundred of Mr Heston’s possessions ,which are expected to sell for between £350,000 and £500,000 at Bonhams in Los Angeles on March 22.

Kate Keown’s links with Falmouth are not mentioned in the auction catalogue, but they are confirmed in the 1891,1901 and 1911 Censuses when she was living in Falmouth.
In 1884, Kate Keown married Penryn-born Falmouth-based granite dealer, Bernard Augustin Freeman,who was three years younger than Kate .
Mr Freeman was born in 1860. Kate was born in 1857.

In 1891, Kate and Bernard Freeman were living at Woodhouse Terrace, Falmouth,where they employed two live-in servants : Stithians-born cook, Mary Penalna and Falmouth-born servant, Mary Johns.

Sometime between 1891 and 1901, the Freemans moved to Spotfield House, Melville Road, Falmouth, before they moved again, sometime between 1901 and 1911, to Beach View, Gyllyngvase, Falmouth.

Kate was sixty five when she died at Rosemary, Falmouth,on August 23,1922. In her will she left £460 eighteen shillings and eightpence (or £460.93 in modern money). That might not sound a lot now,but in the early 1920s it was possible to buy a decent house for around £500.

Kate’s husband,Bernard Freeman,was 75 when he died at Tresilian, Wood Lane, Falmouth, on January 21, 1936. In his will, he left £2,615 fourteen shillings and tuppence, or £2,615.71p in modern money. In 1936, the average British house cost £550.

In her book,Julia Margaret Cameron’s Women, author Sylvia Wolf,says : “Kate Keown appears frequently in Cameron’s photographs.Cameron called upon numerous children to pose for her camera, In some instances,Cameron posed the children as themselves,but she more often used them to embody childhood innocence.The Keown sisters were among the children, who donned gowns or angel wings to play the part of Cupid or the infant Christ in Cameron’s photographs.”

This is not the first time an 1860s photograph of Kate Keown by Julia Margaret Cameron has come up for sale.
At Sotheby’s in London on May 10, 2001, another Cameron photograph of Kate Keown was expected to sell for between £40,000 and £60,000, but, in the end it sold for........£174,000 and set a new world auction record for a Cameron photograph.

Charlton Heston – real name : John Charles Carter- was a Hollywood superstar in the 1950s and 1960s and appeared in 100 films, including the 1956 epic,The Ten Commandments.in which he portrayed Moses; and the 1959 movie,Ben-Hur for which he won an Academy Award as Best Actor.

Mr Heston was eighty four when he died in 2008.

http://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/fpfalmouth/14335149.150_year_old_photograph_of_Falmouth_girl__once_owned_by_Hollywood_film_star_Charlton_Heston__to_go_to_auction/[URL='http://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/fpfalmouth/14335149.150_year_old_photograph_of_Falmouth_girl__once_owned_by_Hollywood_film_star_Charlton_Heston__to_go_to_auction/[/QUOTE'][/QUOTE[/URL]]

Charlton was also ace as the hero in Planet Of The Apes and also did a cameo thaat most people are unaware of as a an old dying ape in the Tim Burton remake .... I'm not happy about his influence over the NRA of America second amendment stuff though ....
 
Hitler's wife's knickers sold at auction
9 hours ago
From the section Hereford & Worcester

pair of lilac knickers once owned by Hitler's wife Eva Braun have sold at auction for nearly £3,000.
The briefs, part of a collection that went under the hammer at the Philip Serrell auction house in Malvern, were expected to fetch around £400, but sold for £2,900.
A gold ring, a silver mirrored box and a silver holder still containing Eva Braun's bright red lipstick were also sold.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-37897103
 
How do we know they belonged to her. How did they establish provenance?
..and even more importantly, why should we care ? .. it's not as if we want to extract DNA from them to make a colony of Eva Brauns.
 
..and even more importantly, why should we care ? .. it's not as if we want to extract DNA from them to make a colony of Eva Brauns.
Although I don't care, there is a HUGE market for WWII and Nazi 'memorobilia'. I wonder if the new owner will put them on display in his/her home?
 
How do we know they belonged to her. How did they establish provenance?
Auctioneer Philip Serrell normally specialises in Royal Worcester porcelain and things made of wood. But knickers are not unknown in auction rooms - some of Queen Victoria's have been sold that way!
 
Auctioneer Philip Serrell normally specialises in Royal Worcester porcelain and things made of wood. But knickers are not unknown in auction rooms - some of Queen Victoria's have been sold that way!
Ah, yes and I recall they were rather voluminous.
 
Although I don't care, there is a HUGE market for WWII and Nazi 'memorobilia'. I wonder if the new owner will put them on display in his/her home?
You're not wrong, I even remember reading (I think it was) in an old issue of Bizzare magazine that there is/was a sub fetish of Jewish S&M enthusiasts who enjoy the people dominating them sexually to be dressed as nazis .. collecting any WWII memorabilia, especially nazi stuff seems also to be a fetish for old punk rockers. I know one .. it's weird to me.
 
How do we know they belonged to her. How did they establish provenance?

The auction house man was interviewed on R4 yesterday & asked about this.

He didn't go into details but said there was enough provenance from the previous owner to satisfy bidders they were what was claimed. You couldn't just turn up with a pair of vintage knickers & a story & sell for 3 grand without some sort of fairly convincing checkable provenance behind it.
 
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Hitler's phone to be auctioned in US

A telephone used by Adolf Hitler during World War Two is to be auctioned in the US this weekend.
The red phone, which has the Nazi leader's name engraved on it, was found in his Berlin bunker in 1945.
Soviet soldiers gave it to British officer Sir Ralph Rayner as a souvenir shortly after Germany surrendered.

Auction house Alexander Historical Auctions says bidding in Chesapeake City, Maryland, will start at $100,000 (£80,567).
It hopes that the phone, which is being sold by Sir Ralph's son, can fetch as much as $300,000.

Auction house official Bill Panagopulos said the phone was a "weapon of mass destruction", as it was used by Hitler to give orders that took many lives during the war, the Associated Press reports.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39012572
 
Neigh interest in King Billy's stirrups. I guess the Orangemen spend all of their money on Buckfast.

A pair of riding stirrups once worn by King William of Orange have failed to kick up a storm at auction in London.

They were worn by King William III - King Billy - at the Battle of the Boyne of 1690.

As Orangemen prepare for their annual Twelfth of July celebration of that victory over Catholic King James II, the sale looked to have perfect timing.

However, the lot - auctioned at Christie's on Thursday - failed to meet the reserve price of £40,000-£60,000.

Speaking ahead of the auction, historian Dr David Hume said the stirrups are "a very significant artefact", and that a potential buyer approached him for his opinion ahead of the auction.

"It's not often items like this come on the market," he said.

But he added that the success of the auction depended on who was interested, as the estimated price seemed "quite high for a pair of stirrups". ...

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-40506579
 
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