Ralfe Whistler (1930-2023) was a British naturalist whose father Hugh (1889-1943) was an ornithologist and collected 70,000 specimens of Indian birds. Ralfe was brought up surrounded by an extensive collection of stuffed birds, which were later donated to the Natural History Museum. Hugh had been given the first bones of a Dodo by the founder of the Hastings Museum, Thomas Parkin, to encourage his interest in natural history. The Dodo bones were passed on to Ralfe after his father's death and sparked an interest in the "funny looking" bird and resulted in a fascinating collection of all things Dodo! The collection is now coming up for auction at Summers Place Auctions on Tuesday, 24th September.
The Dodo Collection is accompanied by beautiful contemporary bronzes by Simon Gudgeon and Hamish Mackie as well as intriguing modernist pieces, three lots of incredible torcheres and an array of stunning stone items.
