Last Friday and Saturday Bonhams held a massive antique auction in Sydney, selling what was known as "The Owston Collection".

It comprised an amazing and eclectic collection (some 1500 lots) of furniture, clocks, art, silver etc. and an incredible array of animals showcasing the taxidermists art.

The collection was owned by a high profile businessman and his wife, who are in the process of going through, what is becoming an acrimonious divorce.

The prices attained for 3 Rhino head mounts and 2 sets of ele tusks I found quite amazing, they were as follows.

Black Rhino Head (Lot 924) Ausd $100,000 Usd $88,000 (17in & 9in horns)

Black Rhino Head (Lot 923) Ausd $90,000 Usd $80,000 (17in & 12in horns)

Javan Rhino Head (Lot 922) Ausd $108,000 Usd $95,000

African Ele Tusks (Lot 966) Ausd $96000 Usd $84,500 (84in outer curve, no weight given)

African Ele tusks (Lot 960) Ausd $60,000 Usd $53000 (94in outer curve, no weight given)


Asian Ele tusk, (1 only) Ausd $21,500 Usd $18,900 (55in outer curve, no weight given)

Curiously no weights were stated for the ivory and only 1 measurement given, no doubt for the largest tusk.

If anyone wants to see photos, just google, "Bonhams Australia/Owston Collection", I have quoted the lot numbers.

John,
What the hell is wrong with you people over there? No wonder the US is broke, all the money is on your side.

Steve

quote:

Originally posted by Nganga:
John,
What the hell is wrong with you people over there? No wonder the US is broke, all the money is on your side.

Steve

I'm not so sure about that Mate.

The auction attracted massive world wide interest, with overseas bidders being extremely active.

The prices reflect the global market, rather than just Oz.

Damn Chinese eh?

I'm hard pressed to understand why one man wants to buy the trophies of another man. Just my lack of sophistication, most likely.

Those prices seem high to me; #992, a set of 2 hippo teeth went for 7,800, and #925, a Colobus monkey went for 5,040.

It is really simple regarding those rhino.
For the Chinese buyers those horns represent at least 600,000 hard-ons.
Luckily I get mine for free but they can't seem to get it up without the help of a little misguided voodoo.
Frank

If the java Rhino had some history along with the trophy, then it would be a very rare trophy indeed, irrespective of who shot it. The same goes for Sumatra Rhino as well. Both species are close to extension and very few survive in the wild. Both animals were found in the NE of India until the area was opened up in the late 1940s. Now that Burma is not protected & poaching is rife, the species' survival there is doubtful.

quote:

Originally posted by mauser93:
I'm hard pressed to understand why one man wants to buy the trophies of another man. Just my lack of sophistication, most likely.

I don't think that the fact that these used to be someones trophy's has a thing to do with it.

Unless I am sorely mistaken, I doubt these mounts will be in anything resembleing thier original condition soon after the new owners take posession.

quote:

Originally posted by Frank Martinez:
It is really simple regarding those rhino.
For the Chinese buyers those horns represent at least 600,000 hard-ons.
Luckily I get mine for free but they can't seem to get it up without the help of a little misguided voodoo.
Frank

You can take from someone who's tried it. The whole thing's an old wives tale and it doesn't work work anyway.

The damn thing's so heavy, it doesn't matter how well you tie it on, the horn just falls off!



The old ones are the best huh!

Steve,

any truth to the rumour that you have just had that new strapadictome surgical procedure??

Welcome to Africa, wear a helmet.

J

Not me mate, I can't afford that kind of thing and have to stick my old worn out one!

Going back to the auction....... do you reckon it was the most expensive Chinese take away ever?

Actually, more seriously, assuming the buyers were Chinese and buying for the obvious reason, one wonders how they got away with what adds up to commercial trade? Esp in Oz of all places.

Depending on when he shot them ,he may have just got his all his cash back. If he shot those in the 70's or early 80's .He most likely did OK.

This gives just an idea of what Rhino poaching brings in to the middle men. Now take a fresh horn, removed from a drugged Rhino and you get the picture. Top grade tuna goes to Japan for sushi. They can fetch $30,000 at market. I'd say the end result nets 50 times what they invested in those mounts. Most likely the Monkey has some sort of medicinal voodoo usage.

quote:

Originally posted by mauser93:
I'm hard pressed to understand why one man wants to buy the trophies of another man. Just my lack of sophistication, most likely.

I may be mistaken(usually am, but shooting for 50%), but I believe those mounts may have been done by Rowland Ward. Taxidermy done by RW himself are bound to bring more than those done by Joe's Stuffed Animals.

I know nothing about the value of taxidermy collections. But the Java Rhino has a very small single horn. The African black rhino horn would weight 30 or more times compared to the small single horn of the Java rhino. http://www.indonesiamatters.co...hino-ujung-kulon.jpg

The Sumatra rhino as two horns but they are often even smaller - just bumps in many cases.
http://www.conservenature.org/...a_Rhino_DSCF0080.JPG

The Great Indian one horned rhino has a big single horn but not as long as the black rhino.

quote:

Originally posted by shakari:


Actually, more seriously, assuming the buyers were Chinese and buying for the obvious reason, one wonders how they got away with what adds up to commercial trade? Esp in Oz of all places.

Pre-CITES mate - you can basically send them wherever you like..... EVEN TO/FROM BLOODY AUSTRALIA MATE!!

I think JBrown and others have got it right about the taxidermy/historical value...still it is hard to imagine that all those items had so many super keen buyers. Stuff like the Javan Rhino and Asian elephant (thats a huge one right!!) is understandable though.

Stuff like this is also popular with certain eclectic Australian buyers, if they were interested in this ... probably drove the price right up. Probably came down to who did the marketing for the auction....

Matt,

I appreciate they can be sent anywhere but they're not usually allowed to be commercially traded and Oz is usually pretty hot on those kinds of things.

The UK had a similar auction a while back and I can only assume some kind of special permit has to be granted...... I'm not very sure though.

Perhaps someone can correct me but I dont believe that you can import ivory into Australia anymore. Perhaps the reason for the high prices!

Reddy,

That's correct. Elephant and also spotted cats products are not permitted to be imported.

Matt could probably tell us why but my guess is it's mostly the influence of an ignorant and politically correct Government.

My understanding is that the Chinese were not responsible for driving the prices up.

Clearly there is a genuine demand for those items.

The market is the ultimate arbiter, things are worth what someone is willing to pay for them, pure and simple. There is no right or wrong.

There was a recent auction where someone paid $32,000,000, for a rather ugly chair made in 1919, go figure.

As mentioned in my post above, java rhino horn is 3% the weight of a black rhino's horns. So IMHO the higher price for the java rhino was not for the horn value but the collector value.

quote:

Originally posted by shakari:
Reddy,

That's correct. Elephant and also spotted cats products are not permitted to be imported.

Matt could probably tell us why but my guess is it's mostly the influence of an ignorant and politically correct Government.

Like I said before ANY pre-CITES taken animals CAN be imported and exported.

Post CITES intervention yes you are correct there is a blanket ban on all sport-hunted cites 1 and cites2 elephant. With elephant the ban goes back to a time I guess when they were regarded (right or wrong) as being less numerous. The blanket ban on cites 1 - anyones guess but it is just govt policy and the only post cites imports are for museums and scientific, etc.

I have been doing some extensive lobbying over the last few years to have this changed (at least the cites2 elephant) and the ministry involved seems quite in favour and understanding of the issues but it is going to take a major turn-around in policy (and law) and the minister who must POK this is currently an environmental campaigner... quite difficult. Hopefully with a future change of minister we will get it changed and then go to work on the Cites 1 deal. Our argument is that if the AU govt wants to follow CITES then they should follow it to the letter and not pick-and-choose.

USA of course seems heading this way itself with threat to all cites 1 imports from F&W, if I understand correctly.

The irony in australia is that you CAN import lion from any legal hunt... as they are all Cites 2 and non covered by blanket ban.

Leopard is a mystery .... why they are Cites 1 is anyones guess ...right???

This collection had been amassed over a significant period of time and the chap had travelled the world buying these magnificant specimens. Most had well documented provenance so moving them internationally would be of little problem as they are largely museum specimens. I think the auction total came to Aus$15 million. This same chap owned a massive property in the north of the country that was stocked with a combination of exotic species and game animals. He hunted there frequently and as i understand, those who were in his favoured circle had similar opportunities.
Of course there was a considerable ammount of publicity about all this. At one stage there were calls for him to be sued over allegedly not feeding all the White Rhinos he kept on the place - all this was bull dust.
However there were always escapes and a little poaching. Fairly recently a meat hunter belted what turned out to be a Pigmy Hippo that had escaped from this same reserve. I wonder what that tasted like ? Here in Australia we are getting quite a few auctions of taxidermied trophies and they largely fetch good prices although one held recently just west of Brisbane didn't make reserve prices for the bigger specimens - Bears etc.