post stuff from Bonham's Gentleman's Library Sale that you'd buy in a second if you were loaded

http://www.bonhams.com/eur/gentlemanslibrary/

http://images1.bonhams.com/erez4/erez?src=Images/live/2010-11/23/94458220-3-1.jpg.tif&tmp=Large&width=500&quality=70&format=jpeg&top=0&left=0&bottom=1&right=1

Lot No: 369W
An Orthoceras "Mass Mortality" specimen,
Devonian period (416 -359 million years ago),
of large size,
53x38in (135x97cm)

Estimate: £1,000 - 1,500, USD 1,600 - 2,400, EUR 1,200 - 1,800

http://images1.bonhams.com/erez4/erez?src=Images/live/2010-11/23/94458215-1-1.jpg.tif&tmp=Large&width=500&quality=70&format=jpeg&top=0&left=0&bottom=1&right=1

Lot No: 357W
A fossilised fish plate of large size
Eocene period (55 million years ago),
Green River Formation, Wyoming, United States of America, showing 26 fish and an insect on a limestone matrix,
46.5x45in (118x115cm)

http://images1.bonhams.com/erez4/erez?src=Images/live/2010-11/29/8201632-7-1.jpg.tif&tmp=Large&width=500&quality=70&format=jpeg&top=0&left=0&bottom=1&right=1

Lot No: 786W
A pair of 19th century carved and painted wood lion masks
each modelled with mouth open, with a flower below, 28cm high (2)

Estimate: £600 - 800, USD 950 - 1,300, EUR 710 - 940

http://images1.bonhams.com/erez4/erez?src=Images/live/2011-01/04/94458753-4-1.JPG.tif&tmp=Large&width=500&quality=70&format=jpeg&top=0&left=0&bottom=1&right=1

Lot No: 271
An R & J Beck stereoscopic viewer and two microscopes, English, late 19th century,
the brass fitted rosewood stereoscope in fitted case with mirror; together with a simple field microscope in mahogany case and a compound monocular microscope with ocular and two two objectives in mahogany case (3)

Estimate: £300 - 400, USD 480 - 630, EUR 350 - 470

http://images1.bonhams.com/erez4/erez?src=Images/live/2010-11/30/8176992-12-1.jpg.tif&tmp=Large&width=500&quality=70&format=jpeg&top=0&left=0&bottom=1&right=1

Lot No: 269
A 19th century Apothecary's cabinet.
With double doors, each containing a set of six stoppered glass bottles, a central upper rack of four large glass stoppered bottles and a pair of drawers beneath; the upper with balance, measuring glass and sealing iron, the lower with glass pestle and mortar and further bottles. With brass carrying handle and a further rear compartment with an additional four stoppered bottles. 9x7.5x10.5in (23x19x27cm)

Estimate: £1,200 - 1,800, USD 1,900 - 2,900, EUR 1,400 - 2,100

http://images1.bonhams.com/erez4/erez?src=Images/live/2010-11/17/94457752-1-1.jpg.tif&tmp=Large&width=500&quality=70&format=jpeg&top=0&left=0&bottom=1&right=1

Lot No: 272
Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965): A skeletal partial upper denture,
with gold base and clasps, with mineral teeth. Together with a signed photograph of Sir Winston Churchill, and a letter from his Personal Secretary to W Stewart Ross, dated 19 May 1959. With another photograph of W Stewart Ross showing Churchill to his car after a dental appointment at Cavendish Square, and a visiting card. (4)

Estimate: £8,000 - 12,000, USD 13,000 - 19,000, EUR 9,400 - 14,000

http://images1.bonhams.com/erez4/erez?src=Images/live/2010-07/19/8063015-54-1.jpg.tif&tmp=Large&width=500&quality=70&format=jpeg&top=0&left=0&bottom=1&right=1

Lot No: 276Y
A 19th century decorated whale's tooth,
depicting on one side a whaleboat capsized by a whale, and on the other the inscription Stove Boat 1860.
Weight 240gms. 5.5in (14cm) long

Estimate: £300 - 500, USD 480 - 790, EUR 350 - 590

(back view)
http://images1.bonhams.com/erez4/erez?src=Images/live/2010-07/19/8063015-54-2.jpg.tif&tmp=Large&quality=70&width=500

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Lot No: 327W
A double palm frond,
Eocene period (55 million years ago),
Green River Formation, Wyoming, United States of America,
59x55in (150x140cm )

Estimate: £30,000 - 40,000, USD 47,000 - 63,000, EUR 35,000 - 47,000

the butt selector, obv

http://www.bonhams.com/cgi-bin/public.sh/WService=wslive_pub/pubweb/publicSite.r?sContinent=EUR&screen=lotdetailsNoFlash&iSaleItemNo=4748379&iSaleNo=18544&iSaleSectionNo=1

http://images1.bonhams.com/erez4/erez?src=Images/live/2010-12/21/94439370-4-1.jpg.tif&tmp=Large&width=500&quality=70&format=jpeg&top=0&left=0&bottom=1&right=1

Lot No: 343W
Three pairs of cut and polished ammonites,
Jurassic period (206-144 million years ago),
Madagascar, on perspex stands,
each ammonite approximately 5.5in (14cm) wide (6)

Estimate: £200 - 300, USD 320 - 480, EUR 240 - 350

man if i were even just a little bit loaded i'd buy that whale's tooth.

http://images1.bonhams.com/erez4/erez?src=Images/live/2010-11/23/94439368-3-1.jpg.tif&tmp=Large&width=500&quality=70&format=jpeg&top=0&left=0&bottom=1&right=1

Lot No: 386AW
A collection of five mineral specimens:
Pyrite, China, 8.6x6in (22x15cm); Calcite/Pyrite 11in (28cm) wide; Quartz, Brazil, 6.3x6.6in (16x17cm); Apophylite, Poona, India, 10.6x7in (27x18cm); Florite, China, 8.2x6.3in (21x16cm)
(5)

Estimate: £3,000 - 5,000, USD 4,700 - 7,900, EUR 3,500 - 5,900

xpost there's a lot of whales tooths!

http://images1.bonhams.com/erez4/erez?src=Images/live/2010-05/05/94440736-3-1.JPG.tif&tmp=Large&width=500&quality=70&format=jpeg&top=0&left=0&bottom=1&right=1
Lot No: 300AY
A late 19th century decorated whale's tooth,
depicting on one side sailors carousing beneath a masonic symbol, dated 1871. 5in (13cm) long

Estimate: £400 - 600, USD 630 - 950, EUR 470 - 710

they have some carved into penguins!!!

http://images1.bonhams.com/erez4/erez?src=Images/live/2010-07/28/8063015-74-1.JPG.tif&tmp=Large&width=500&quality=70&format=jpeg&top=0&left=0&bottom=1&right=1

Lot No: 298Y
An early 20th century carved whale's tooth,
depicting an Emperor Penguin, polished with resin and pin eyes, and integral base.
Weight 600gms. 7in (18cm) high

Estimate: £300 - 500, USD 480 - 790, EUR 350 - 590

http://images1.bonhams.com/erez4/erez?src=Images/live/2010-12/09/8214586-2-1.jpg.tif&tmp=Large&width=500&quality=70&format=jpeg&top=0&left=0&bottom=1&right=1

Lot No: 602WY
An oak and horn hat/coat stand
The central shaft with horns issuing as hooks, the plinth inset with a tôle drip pan, 61cm wide, 31cm deep, 177cm high (24" wide, 12" deep, 69.5" high).

Estimate: £800 - 1,200, USD 1,300 - 1,900, EUR 940 - 1,400

http://images1.bonhams.com/erez4/erez?src=Images/live/2010-12/02/8188633-2-1.jpg.tif&tmp=Large&width=500&quality=70&format=jpeg&top=0&left=0&bottom=1&right=1

Lot No: 686W
A pair of St. Clement faience models of bulldogs
circa 1900
Modelled seated facing left and right, their eyes naturalistically modelled in glass, each wearing a red collar with bells and a plate inscribed 'M/rs K Comte' and 'M. le General', 30cm high, each with factory mark in underglaze-blue and retailers label 'Mortlock, 203&204 Oxford Street/31 Orchard St. W., the other with remains of a label reading 'PO/2 (some damage and restoration) (2)

Estimate: £3,000 - 5,000, USD 4,700 - 7,900, EUR 3,500 - 5,900

http://images1.bonhams.com/erez4/erez?src=Images/live/2010-12/02/8221981-2-1.jpg.tif&tmp=Large&width=500&quality=70&format=jpeg&top=0&left=0&bottom=1&right=1

Lot No: 756W
A Seychelles coco-de-mer nut mounted as a wine cooler
Lodoicea maldivica
with brass mounts, on an oval base, 32cm (12.5") high

Estimate: £400 - 600, USD 630 - 950, EUR 470 - 710

Footnote:
These palm tree nuts are unique to the Seychelles, and can still be found on the islands of Praslin and Curieuse but formerly occurred on St. Pierre, Chauve-Souris and Ile Ronde before becoming extinct. The palm grows to 25-34 metres tall and contains the largest seed in the plant kingdom. The fruit, often known as the sea coconut, was first seen floating in the sea by sailors who imagined it resembled a woman's disembodied buttocks. This fanciful association is reflected in one of the plant's archaic botanical names, Lodoicea Callipyge, deriving from the Greek word meaning 'beautiful rump'; the suffix 'Callipyge' was also used to describe the goddess Venus/Aphrodite.

Until the true source of the nut was discovered in 1768, it was believed by many to grow on a mythical tree at the bottom of the sea. European nobles in the sixteenth century would often have the shell of these nuts cleaned and decorated with valuable jewels as collectables for their private galleries.

^^^awesome footnote

Palm fronds in Wyoming. Possibly coincident with the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, which is seen by many as a preview of our brief Anthropocene.

I'd get it if I had a free wall.

http://images1.bonhams.com/erez4/erez?src=Images/live/2010-11/19/94439360-2-1.jpg.tif&tmp=Large&width=500&quality=70&format=jpeg&top=0&left=0&bottom=1&right=1

Lot No: 255
A Dudley Adams 12-inch celestial table globe, English, late 18th century,
the hand-coloured and engraved gored printed To His Most Sacred Majesty George the Third this new Celestial Globe combining all Southern Constellations lately observed at the Cape of Good Hope and all the stars in Flamsted's British catalogue, is most humbly inscribed by his Majesty's most dutifull and obliged subject and servant Dudley Adams, Made by D Adams Globe Maker to the King Optician to H R H the Price of Walesand Mathl Instr Maker to his Majesties Ordinances 1797, in brass meridian within horizon ring applied with print of calendar and zodiac scales, raised on four ebonised and turned wood legs with stretcher, 17in (44cm) high

Estimate: £2,500 - 3,500, USD 4,000 - 5,500, EUR 2,900 - 4,100

The specimen cabinets are really rather nice, and at the starting bid very reasonably priced given the mahogany construction:

http://images1.bonhams.com/erez4/cache/Images_live_2010-11_19_8171743-32-1_jpg_tif_54b60ae2b01f17f3.jpg

Lot No: 416
A pair of Victorian mahogany collectors' cabinets
the upper section with a pair of panelled doors enclosing twelve glass top and bottomed airtight drawers with sidewells to the interior and turned mahogany handles, the lower section with thirty two similar drawers, 134cm wide x 60cm deep x 201cm high, (52.5" wide x 23.5" deep x 79" high)

Estimate: £1,000 - 1,500, USD 1,600 - 2,400, EUR 1,200 - 1,800

woah there's a different auction with tons of awesome smoking paraphernalia

including:

http://images1.bonhams.com/erez4/erez?src=Images/live/2010-12/24/8197504-106-1.jpg.tif&tmp=Large&width=500&quality=70&format=jpeg&top=0&left=0&bottom=1&right=1

Lot No: 38
A late 19th century ram's head table snuff mull
The horns tipped in white metal, with various tools attached including; ivory hammer, spoon, rake and pick, having a silver mull set to the crown and the hinged lid inset with a foil backed stone, the mull marked AITCHISON, the other marks unclear, on three white ceramic castors, height 39cm.

Estimate: £600 - 800

http://images1.bonhams.com/erez4/erez?src=Images/live/2010-03/15/94458751-1-1.jpg.tif&tmp=Large&width=500&quality=70&format=jpeg&top=0&left=0&bottom=1&right=1

Lot No: 237W
A fine twenty-key barrel organ, with quadruple monkey automaton,
circa 1850,
No. 257,
with single barrel playing eight airs, wooden key frame bearing paper label of the airs in French, rear-mounted handle and crank-shaft with double worm for barrel and automaton cam-rack, the top with monkey automaton scene of a poorly fellow sitting up in bed with glass in hand, a surgeon standing with menacing enema whilst a priest sits at the foot of the bed reading last rites and the weeping wife seated and clothed in her best with a bouquet of flowers, in 18th Century style bedroom interior with draped-swag folds suspended over sleigh bed, pictures and looking glass to patterned papered walls, black and white cheque floor, actions to all from full-length cam rod, in rosewood veneered case with pointed pediment, glazed front and large diamond inlay in ebony and boxwood, on short bracket feet - 24in (61cm) wide, 36in (91.5cm) high, the barrel 18in (46cm), 4.3in (11cm) diam.

Estimate: £6,500 - 7,500, USD 10,000 - 12,000, EUR 7,700 - 8,800

I love all the globes, too. Would have a whole room full of them if I could.

http://images1.bonhams.com/erez4/erez?src=Images/live/2010-11/16/8213215-1-1.jpg.tif&tmp=Large&width=500&quality=70&format=jpeg&top=0&left=0&bottom=1&right=1

Lot No: 161 Anamorphic Portait of King Charles I

Engraving, after 1649, by an anonymous 17th Century British artist, on laid, with the inscription above the image 'King Charles ye first head drawn in optiks, place the letter A to your eye and glance it A long' and the letter 'A' below, 55 x 13.2cm (21 5/8 x 5 3/16in).

This stuff is all awesome & I think my ideal dream house would just be crammed with it.

This is kind of ridiculous but I still love it:

http://images1.bonhams.com/erez4/erez?src=Images/live/2010-12/03/8130232-5-1.jpg.tif&tmp=Large&width=500&quality=70&format=jpeg&top=0&left=0&bottom=1&right=1

Lot No: 632W
An impressive late Victorian carved mahogany library bookcase
by Gillows, in the George II taste
The reeded acanthus clasped cornice with arched projecting end sections centred by palmettes, foliate scrolls and floral swags, the central section with three astragal glazed panel doors enclosing shelves, flanked by larger astragal glazed doors to either end, enclosing further shelves, with an acanthus carved waist moulding and a Greek key frieze above three rosette and foliate scroll work panelled doors flanking similar larger oval panel doors, all enclosing a shelf, on acanthus carved moulded bracket feet, stamped GILLOWS to one lower door, 333cm wide, 43cm deep, 266cm high (131" wide, 16.5" deep, 104.5" high).

Estimate: £5,000 - 8,000, USD 7,900 - 13,000, EUR 5,900 - 9,400

I just look at this stuff and think 'that is cheaper than a lot of cars, and is much nicer than any car. What can I secure a personal loan against?'

Why don't people make stuff like this anymore!?

When I was home for the holidays, I visited my best friend's mum, who has been cleaning/cataloguing a cellar-ful of items belonging to her late husband, who was a very old English mad scientist with shitloads of truly ancient natural history texts and lots of gadgets through the ages. She produced for us a natural history index of species and plants that was so old, it depicted the dodo in with all the other flightless birds - and offered further comment on its basic fine eatin' qualities and not a word about its rarity, so the thing screams last half of 17th century. See also an 18th century artist's volume of flora and fauna in astonishingly rendered colours that appears to come from Thailand. My friend's mum is a former librarian but further information on the former book has been impossible to find.

I have a funny feeling that some of his things are going to wind up in next year's version of this sale; he made provision for the restoration of some really meaningful things but there is so much surplus worthy of passing onto others who would enjoy it.

That sounds amazing. Did she have time to have a proper go at ID-ing the book? I'd be surprised if someone at one of the big science libraries couldn't get close to placing it if it's a printed English-language taxonomic index (even if it's not in the short-title catalogue).

Why don't people make stuff like this anymore!?

ikr. I can walk into any shop in the land and buy a life-sized cardboard cut-out of David Hasselhof, but if I ask for a quadruple monkey automaton they will look at me like I am a lunatic.

http://images1.bonhams.com/erez4/erez?src=Images/live/2010-11/30/8176992-12-1.jpg.tif&tmp=Large&width=500&quality=70&format=jpeg&top=0&left=0&bottom=1&right=1

^^^ wld totally use to store tea/drugs/etc

"duuude... let's pack another bowl..."
"okay hold on lemme just open up my 19TH CENTURY APOTHECARY's CABINET and —"

Oh hell yeah. I am also coveting the library ladders, I guess because I'm assuming that in this parallel world I am rich enough to have a library that warrants fancy-schmancy ladder arrangements.

I have no idea what I could keep in the Natural History Museum collector's cabinets, but I want one. Pants, stored flat?

this auction should become the subject matter for the next decemberists album

sailors carousing beneath a masonic symbol,
drunkenly stroke their sea coconuts

reeded acanthus clasped cornice o'er the window,
and six stoppered bottles of orpiment

LOL, should send the original link to friend's mum - she can buy the collector's cabinet for the volumes and gadgets she decides to keep.

http://images1.bonhams.com/image?src=Images/live/2014-11/19/8911804-6-1.jpg&width=640&height=480&halign=l0&valign=t0&autosizefit=1

A collection of 18 mammoth ivory billiard balls, Prehistoric

whoa!

Spent a few seconds trying to reconcile the image of a prehistoric family with a billiard table in their cave.

Before the fall when they wrote it on the wall
When there wasn't even any Hollywood
They heard the call
And they made some billiard balls
For you and me and we understood

nice to know ilx shows the same lack of discrimination in relation to the cultural ephemera of the past

every thread has its naysaer

every established english family with antecedents in the colonial service has houses full of this sort of tat, every executor sale attracts people with a tendency for haemmorhaging money whose cultural debilities are roughly congruous with 'steampunk'

See the thing that I find interesting about the Victorian carved whale teeth is how not Victorian they look

james brown's couch

also
http://www.billiardsmovies.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Fred-Flintstone.png