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Bizarre Auctions

A lock of Abraham Lincoln's hair, wrapped in a telegram notification of his assassination - stained with his blood - is up for auction.
Abraham Lincoln's hair, bloody telegram up for auction

A lock of Abraham Lincoln's hair wrapped in a telegram stained with the 16th president's blood is up for auction online.

RR Auction, based in Boston, said the lock of hair and telegram, which provides details of Lincoln's assassination in 1865, are expected to fetch up to $75,000. ...

The 2 inches of Lincoln's hair was removed during his postmortem examination after the president was fatally shot by John Wilkes Booth.

The hair ended up in the custody of Dr. Lyman Beecher Todd, a cousin of Lincoln's widow, Mary Todd Lincoln. The doctor was present at the postmortem examination and is believed to have wrapped the lock of hair in the telegram, which had been sent to him the previous day by his assistant, George Kinnear.

The telegram is stained with what is believed to be the slain president's blood.

SOURCE: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2020/0...bloody-telegram-up-for-auction/6041598633893/

See Also:

Lock of Lincoln’s hair and bloodied telegram up for auction
https://apnews.com/6352385e4127423a2572a09746a90471

This second online article adds the following interesting tidbit ...

Historians say the telegram itself is significant because it disproved a conspiracy theory that then-Secretary of War Edwin Stanton plotted to kill Lincoln because of their personal and political differences.

At the time, some claimed that Stanton ordered military communications to be disrupted, allowing Booth to briefly elude his captors. The time stamp on the dispatch shows that military telegraph lines were, in fact, functioning on the night Lincoln was assassinated.

The telegram “is evidence to disprove the misinformation and conspiracy theories in the Lincoln assassination” ...
 
A lock of Abraham Lincoln's hair, wrapped in a telegram notification of his assassination - stained with his blood - is up for auction.


SOURCE: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2020/0...bloody-telegram-up-for-auction/6041598633893/

See Also:

Lock of Lincoln’s hair and bloodied telegram up for auction
https://apnews.com/6352385e4127423a2572a09746a90471

This second online article adds the following interesting tidbit ...
The stains on the telegram look circular and similar to if someone had once put a wet tea cup on it to me instead of blood stains? ..

aAbraham-Lincolns-hair-bloody-telegram-up-for-auction.jpg
 
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The stains on the telegram look circular and similar to if someone had once put a wet tea cup on it to me instead of blood stains ...

Good point, but ...

The stains aren't complete circles - they're extended arcs. They all display long linear marks. None of these arcs appear to be longer than the lock of hair.

My point ... I suspect those stain-arcs may represent fluids that transferred to the paper from the lock of hair itself.
 
Get in quick, there's only another week to go to make your bids...

Deep Impact: Martian, Lunar and Other Rare Meteorites

https://onlineonly.christies.com/s/deep-impact-martian-lunar-other-rare-meteorites/lots/2006

I'm quite liking this piece:

meteorite.png


MUONIONALUSTA METEORITE CRYSTAL BALL — CRYSTALLINE STRUCTURE OF AN IRON METEORITE DRAMATIZED IN THREE DIMENSIONS Iron, fine octahedrite Kiruna, Sweden (67°48’ N, 23°6’ E)
Current Bid (63 Bids) USD 42,000
Estimate
USD 14,000 - USD 18,000
Closing: 8 days
 
Get in quick, there's only another week to go to make your bids...

Deep Impact: Martian, Lunar and Other Rare Meteorites

https://onlineonly.christies.com/s/deep-impact-martian-lunar-other-rare-meteorites/lots/2006

I'm quite liking this piece:

View attachment 35393

MUONIONALUSTA METEORITE CRYSTAL BALL — CRYSTALLINE STRUCTURE OF AN IRON METEORITE DRAMATIZED IN THREE DIMENSIONS Iron, fine octahedrite Kiruna, Sweden (67°48’ N, 23°6’ E)
Current Bid (63 Bids) USD 42,000
Estimate
USD 14,000 - USD 18,000
Closing: 8 days
Wow, that is amazing.
Looks like the Death Star in miniature.
 
Get in quick, there's only another week to go to make your bids...

Deep Impact: Martian, Lunar and Other Rare Meteorites

https://onlineonly.christies.com/s/deep-impact-martian-lunar-other-rare-meteorites/lots/2006

I'm quite liking this piece:

View attachment 35393

MUONIONALUSTA METEORITE CRYSTAL BALL — CRYSTALLINE STRUCTURE OF AN IRON METEORITE DRAMATIZED IN THREE DIMENSIONS Iron, fine octahedrite Kiruna, Sweden (67°48’ N, 23°6’ E)
Current Bid (63 Bids) USD 42,000
Estimate
USD 14,000 - USD 18,000
Closing: 8 days
Looks like the deathstar
 
CRYSTALLINE STRUCTURE OF AN IRON METEORITE DRAMATIZED IN THREE DIMENSIONS

Is that DRAMATIZED as in, the real thing genuinely looks really dramatic, or DRAMATIZED as in this is an exaggerated facsimile of something that is real, but you'll never know what the real thing is like because we over-DRAMATIZED it?
 
A rare collectible at my local auction house this month. A 19th century sextoy. Estimate is two to three thousand!View attachment 36755
The pedantic part of me immediately spotted that "For your enjoyment" is the wrong way up to read it when you're using it.

The practical part of me nodded sagely at the knob on the back end, clearly so that you can tie a lanyard around it in case of difficulty in retrieval.

Another part of me thinks "For your enjoyment" could have been in Braille: a missed opportunity for the lady or gentleman with a particularly sensitive orifice.

I'm still wondering about the two drilled holes. Perhaps it's so you can whistle your butler to bring you a cup of tea when you've finished?
 
I'm still wondering about the two drilled holes. Perhaps it's so you can whistle your butler to bring you a cup of tea when you've finished?

My guess? To prevent buildup of a vacuum, and potential loss of the artefact up the foofoo.

maximus otter
 
I'd love to have read your wee police notebook! Do officers still have a paper notebook?

Oh yes.

I flatter myself that some of my verbatim stuff - on paper or tape - caused a few muffled sniggers in courts, etc. One example I remember fondly:

(Transcription of taped interview, in presence of thieving bastard defendant's solicitor):

"Is that your whole story? I could eat a can of Alphabetti Spaghetti and shit a better excuse that that."

maximus otter
 
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This is the actual auction description. I can’t think of why it is hollow and has a lid. Maybe you could fill it with something to warm it up.

A 19TH CENTURY ENGLISH IVORY PHALLUS 'FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT'

A 19TH CENTURY ENGLISH IVORY PHALLUS 'FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT', naturalistically carved, hollow and with an oval lid at the end with turned bun handle, inscribed within a scroll 'FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT',

27cm long

This lot is subject to CITES due to the ivory.

Estimate
£2,000 - £3,000
 
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I can’t think of why it is hollow and has a lid.

That reinforces my opinion re the vacuum issue: Hollow to allow an air passage in order to equalise pressure, avoiding loss of expensive dildo up vajayjay. I'm assuming that it's not so much a lid as a neat way of sealing off the required drilled/carved air tube within the ivory Steely Dan.

maximus otter
 
... avoiding loss of expensive dildo up vajayjay. I'm assuming that it's not so much a lid as a neat way of sealing off the required drilled/carved air tube within the ivory Steely Dan.
maximus otter

Because when that happens, the cost of the dildo is your biggest problem?

I hadn't spotted it has a lid. If it has a lid, the holes may simply be to allow air flow to stop the lid jamming on.

I suspect this may not have been primarily for sexual pleasure, if at all.

It has more of the air of a novelty item such as a powder horn, drinking vessel, tobacco pouch etc. Much depends on whether the "naturalistic" little hole in the end goes all the way through the ivory to the hollow cavity.
 
That reinforces my opinion re the vacuum issue: Hollow to allow an air passage in order to equalise pressure, avoiding loss of expensive dildo up vajayjay. I'm assuming that it's not so much a lid as a neat way of sealing off the required drilled/carved air tube within the ivory Steely Dan.

maximus otter
Because when that happens, the cost of the dildo is your biggest problem?

I hadn't spotted it has a lid. If it has a lid, the holes may simply be to allow air flow to stop the lid jamming on.

I suspect this may not have been primarily for sexual pleasure, if at all.

It has more of the air of a novelty item such as a powder horn, drinking vessel, tobacco pouch etc. Much depends on whether the "naturalistic" little hole in the end goes all the way through the ivory to the hollow cavity.
If you look closely they arent holes but copper pins holding the cap on, being ivory it will be hollow so a cap would be needed and pinned on in a traditional way with copper pins.
 
This is the actual auction description. I can’t think of why it is hollow and has a lid. Maybe you could fill it with something to warm it up.

A 19TH CENTURY ENGLISH IVORY PHALLUS 'FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT'

A 19TH CENTURY ENGLISH IVORY PHALLUS 'FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT', naturalistically carved, hollow and with an oval lid at the end with turned bun handle, inscribed within a scroll 'FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT',

27cm long

This lot is subject to CITES due to the ivory.

Estimate
£2,000 - £3,000
Ifit is 19th century CITES wont be an issue

The CITES Convention is implemented in the UK and other EU Member States through the EU Wildlife Trade Regulations. ... An exemption exists under the regulations which allows commercial activities in 'worked' ivory items made prior to 1947 to take place without any certificate.
 
Just saw this, almost topical, story

Torquay museum buys uneaten 1924 Easter egg

A museum has paid £1,040 for an Easter egg which has remained uneaten since 1924.

Bygones in Torquay bought the egg which contains a doll inside at an auction in Derbyshire.

The egg was given to a two-year-old girl who could not bear to eat it because she loved the doll so much.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-devon-56419025
 
Just saw this, almost topical, story

Torquay museum buys uneaten 1924 Easter egg

A museum has paid £1,040 for an Easter egg which has remained uneaten since 1924.

Bygones in Torquay bought the egg which contains a doll inside at an auction in Derbyshire.

The egg was given to a two-year-old girl who could not bear to eat it because she loved the doll so much.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-devon-56419025
Doesn't "has remained uneaten" make it sound like someone is surprised no one ate it in the intervening years?
 
Doesn't "has remained uneaten" make it sound like someone is surprised no one ate it in the intervening years?
Doesn't look very edible now.
 
A McDonald's Chicken McNugget with a shape similar to a video game character has sold for almost $100,000.
'Among Us'-shaped McNugget sells for nearly $100,000

A McDonald's Chicken McNugget that bears a resemblance to the player characters in popular video game Among Us sold on eBay for just short of $100,000.

The McNugget, listed by eBay user polizna, started at only 99 cents, but after 184 bids the item sold for $99,997. ...
FULL STORY (With Video): https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2021/06/04/Among-Us-Chicken-McNugget-ebay/1801622826593/
 
A nice windfall for the seller, Polizna. :)
 
Barabra Windsors bikini from the film 'Carry-On Camping' has sold at auction for more than ten times its estimate.

_118943669_hi067818003.jpg


"The bikini worn by Dame Barbara Windsor in the 1969 film Carry On Camping has sold at auction for £9,500.

The late actress wore the swimwear in a famous scene where her bikini top flew off in the middle of an exercise class.

The proceeds from sale of the item, which had been rescued from a bin decades ago, will be donated by the vendor to the Alzheimer's Society.

The actress, who also starred in EastEnders, died in December from Alzheimer's at the age of 83."

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-57492872
 
The original "Poohsticks Bridge" (where A. A. Milne reputedly invented Poohsticks) is going up for auction.
Original Winnie-the-Pooh bridge from Ashdown Forest up for auction

The iconic bridge that became famous as "Poohsticks Bridge" thanks to A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh books is now being auctioned off to find it a new home.

Summers Place Auctions said the bridge, originally known as Posingford Bridge when it was built in Suffolk's Ashdown Forest in 1907, became an iconic setting when Christopher Robin and Winnie-the-Pooh used it to invent the game "Poohsticks" in Milne's 1928 book The House at Pooh Corner. ...

Christopher Robin Milne had the bridge officially renamed Poohsticks Bridge in 1979.

The bridge became a popular tourist destination and was removed in 1999 to make way for a sturdier recreation funded in part by Disney.

The original bridge has now been "fully restored and reconstructed using local oak for any missing elements," Summers Place Auctions said in the listing.

Bidding on the bridge opens Oct. 6 ...
FULL STORY: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2021/10/01/Winnie-the-Pooh-bridge-Summers-Place-Auctions/9851633117250/
 
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