Supplementary note on the great auk or garefowl (Alca impennis Linn) / by Symington Grieve.

  • Grieve, Symington.
Date:
[between 1890 and 1899?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Supplementary note on the great auk or garefowl (Alca impennis Linn) / by Symington Grieve. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    1896-97-] Bond at £21 ; and by him it was sold to Baron d’Hamonville, Manonville, Meurthe-et-Moselle, who offered it for sale at Stevens’ Booms, London, 22nd February 1894, lot 112. Ihe following account of the sale is from the ‘ Standard, 23rd February 1894:— It [the egg] is not quite perfect, but is beautifully marked. Mr Stevens started the lot by bidding 100 guineas. The next bid was 110 guineas, and by tens 200 guineas was rapidly reached. There was a pause, but Mr Stevens, with a little coaxing, and saying that he hoped to obtain 300 guineas at least, when he should be happy, started the bidding again at 210 guineas. Another pause was followed by Mr Stevens informing the company that there was no reserve, and that when the egg had been sold any desiring purchaser would lose all chances of obtaining it. Then came a bid of 220 guineas, followed by others of 240, 250, 260, 270, and 280. Mr Stevens (to a gentleman in the middle of the room), “ Surely you will not let it stop at this price ! Are you quite sure you have made up your mind ? ” Another bid of 290 guineas was the result, amidst cheers, and then Mr Stevens pathetically appealed to his audience to go as far as 300 guineas. A gentleman who stood near to him raised his pencil, and the figure was secured. Then came the formal announcement of 300 guineas once, twice, and the third and last time, and the hammer fell to the agent of Sir Y. H. Crewe. Mr Stevens afterwards informed a reporter that the sum realised was the largest one for any Auk’s egg that had as yet been under the hammer. This egg is now in the collection of Sir Vauncey H. Crewe at Calke Abbey, Derbyshire. A writer in the ‘ Daily News,’ 23rcl February 1894, mentions that it is figured in Hewitson’s ‘ British Oology.’ A rough figure of it also appeared in ‘ The Sketch ’ of 7 th March 1894. Cambridge: Natural History Museum.—The following cor- respondence explains itself. On 8th October 1888, the late Lord Lilford wrote me: “ I have not transferred my collection of eggs to the Cambridge Museum, but some time ago pre- sented four of the five eggs of Garefowl in my possession to Professor Alfred Newton. These were the two Edinburgh eggs> which you refer to from Lausanne, and the Dorset specimen. I retain the egg purchased from my sister, with the stuffed Garefowl, after the death of her husband, Arthur Crichton. I distinctly wish to repudiate any claim to the gratitude of the Cambridge Museum, which is the sole and just due of Professor Alfred Newton in this matter.” Writing me on 16th March 1897, Professor Alfred Newton
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