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Home, Garden & Natural History (Live) featuring the Ralfe Whistler Dodo collection

Closed for Absentee bids.

Auction date Tuesday 24 September 2024 13:00 - 16:00 BST

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.

Click here for a pdf of the 24th Sept Home and Garden Auction (with comprehensive photos)

Important Notice
Online Live bidding through 'Summers Place Live' is available for this sale
(No surcharge - normal BP and VAT apply).
To register for this facility, or to leave absentee bids, visit the home screen and click on Register (top right hand corner) or click on the green 'Register to Bid' button below a lot -

Artist Resale Right applies to all Lots with a ▲ symbol --
VAT on the hammer price applies to all Lots with a † symbol

Page:

of 2

Lots per page:

Total lots: 41

Lot 25 Sold
A bronze figure
second half 20th century
112cm high
Sculpture, Interior design, Female form, Decorative
Hammer price: £2,000
Estimate: £2,500 - £4,000
24 September 2024
24 September 2024
Lot 26 Unsold
A bronze figure of a mother and child
mid 20th century
79cm high overall
Sculpture, Interior design, Female form, Decorative
Estimate: £3,000 - £5,000
24 September 2024
24 September 2024
Lot 27 Sold
An historically important reinforced concrete portion of the Berlin Wall
comprising four sections, with stencilled graffiti by Ben Wagin
PARLAMENT DER BAUME, DENK-STATTE SICH ZU VEREINEN, HEISST TEILEN LERNEN
(Parliament of Trees, To Unite Means to Learn to Share)
Richard Weizsacker
The reverse reads "Berliner"
360cm high, 240cm deep, 468cm wide overall
This originally formed part of the infamous Berlin Wall. The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete…
Hammer price: £13,000
Estimate: £4,000 - £6,000
24 September 2024
24 September 2024
Lot 28 Sold
A Dodo (Raphus cucullatus) Scapular Coracoid, together with a letter from Edith Clark
This bone is of great interest, as it is, apparently, the first bone that George Clark found. In her letter to Parkin his daughter Edith writes that he found it by the edge of the marsh and that it was this bone that inspired him to search the Mare aux Songes and look for more. It is therefore of enormous historical significance
 During 1865 and 1866 dodo bones were found in the Mare aux Songes, a swamp in Mauritius; before…
Hammer price: £23,000
Estimate: £8,000 - £10,000
24 September 2024
24 September 2024
Lot 29 Sold
A pair of Dodo (Raphus cucullatus) tibiotarsus, left and right
Further lots from the Ralfe Whistler Dodo collection include -Lots 28-41 (24th September auction…
Hammer price: £9,000
Estimate: £4,000 - £6,000
24 September 2024
24 September 2024
Lot 30 Sold
A pair of Dodo (Raphus cucullatus) tarsometatarsus, left and right from the Ralfe Whistler Dodo collection
Further lots from the Ralfe Whistler Dodo collection include -Lots 28-41 (24th September auction…
Hammer price: £4,000
Estimate: £4,000 - £6,000
24 September 2024
24 September 2024
Lot 31 Sold
A single Dodo (Raphus cucullatus) tarsometatarsus
Further lots from the Ralfe Whistler Dodo collection include -Lots 28-41 (24th September auction…
Hammer price: £2,000
Estimate: £1,500 - £2,500
24 September 2024
24 September 2024
Lot 32 Sold
Two boxes of fragments of egg shells
These fragments came from George Clark’s original find of dodo bones at the Mare aux Songes. They passed from Clark’s daughters to Thomas Parkin and thence to the Whistlers. They have always been believed to be fragments of dodo eggs but in all the years since their discovery, they have never been scientifically tested. If they are from dodos they are unique, but they could be tortoise egg fragments. The bones of an extinct tortoise were also found at the Mare aux Songes
Further lots from the Ralfe Whistler Dodo collection include -Lots 28-41 (24th September auction…
Hammer price: £950
Estimate: £200 - £400
24 September 2024
24 September 2024
Lot 33 Sold
A letter from Bessie Clark, dated April 1921, concerning the discovery of Dodo (Raphus cucullatus) bones by her father
Further lots from the Ralfe Whistler Dodo collection include -Lots 28-41 (24th September auction…
Hammer price: £300
Estimate: £400 - £600
24 September 2024
24 September 2024
Lot 34 Sold
Strickland H. E and Melville A. G. (1848). The Dodo and its Kindred
This legendary and very rare book was the first published on the subject of the dodo and the accuracy of the information contained has never been surpassed. The wonderful lithographic illustrations remain the best ever published and there is a hand-coloured frontispiece
Further lots from the Ralfe Whistler Dodo collection include -Lots 28-41 (24th September auction…
Hammer price: £1,500
Estimate: £1,400 - £1,600
24 September 2024
24 September 2024
Lot 35 Sold
Hachisuka. M. (1953) The Dodo and Kindred Birds
Published in an edition limited to 485 copies, and illustrated with 22 plates (many in colour), this celebrated book was the culmination of the Japanese authors many years of research and interest in the subject.

Many years earlier, when Ralfe Whistler was just a child, Whistler had watched Hachisuka land his plane in his (Whistler’s) father’s garden. In the 1920’s not only was this the first plane that Ralfe had ever seen, Hachisuka was also the first Japanese person he had ever met.
So the book (pubished many years later) had a personal connection to the celebrated…
Hammer price: £400
Estimate: £400 - £600
24 September 2024
24 September 2024
Lot 36 Unsold
Freeman Sithole
Stone
33cm high (Ref 203)
Further lots from the Ralfe Whistler Dodo collection include -Lots 28-41 (24th September auction…
Estimate: £150 - £250
24 September 2024
24 September 2024
Lot 37 Sold
J Kried
Bronze
27cm high (Ref 142)
Further lots from the Ralfe Whistler Dodo collection include -Lots 28-41 (24th September auction…
Hammer price: £240
Estimate: £240 - £350
24 September 2024
24 September 2024
Lot 38 Sold
A bronze Sculpture of a Dodo
Signed M.
12cm high (Ref 146)
Further lots from the Ralfe Whistler Dodo collection include -Lots 28-41 (24th September auction…
Hammer price: £200
Estimate: £300 - £500
24 September 2024
24 September 2024
Lot 39 Sold
A carved limestone sculpture of a Dodo
26cm high (Ref 140)
Further lots from the Ralfe Whistler Dodo collection include -Lots 28-41 (24th September auction…
Hammer price: £150
Estimate: £150 - £250
24 September 2024
24 September 2024
Lot 40 Sold
A ceramic sculpture of a Dodo
22cm high (Ref 143)
Further lots from the Ralfe Whistler Dodo collection include -Lots 28-41 (24th September auction…
Hammer price: £50
Estimate: £50 - £80
24 September 2024
24 September 2024
Lot 41 Sold
▲ David Burnham Smith (ARR)
2005
Ceramic
27cm high (Ref 193)
Further lots from the Ralfe Whistler Dodo collection include -Lots 28-41 (24th September auction…
Hammer price: £4,200
Estimate: £30 - £50
24 September 2024
24 September 2024

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