This tiger skin achieved £4,200
Tigers proved they were the real kings of the jungle at a Cotswolds antiques auction.
Knocking the spots off the leopards and leaving lions lying well down the league table, three tiger skins appeared in the top ten of prices achieved at Moore Allen & Innocent’s Sporting Sale on Friday, February 4.
The top price of the day was achieved by an antique tiger skin prepared by the renowned taxidermists Van Ingen & Van Ingen of Mysore, India and measuring just over three metres nose to tail, which made £4,200 against an estimate of £1,000 to £1,500.
Two further Van Ingen & Van Ingen tiger skins made £1,900 and £1,250. Elsewhere in the taxidermy section a rhino foot box with turned mahogany cover made £780 and two bearskin rugs – one from the pelt of a black bear, the other from a grizzly – made £680 and £520 respectively.
Over in the sporting pictures section, a watercolour gouache of the Hawkstone Otterhounds at Hoddam Bridge, painted by the famed artist Tom Carr in 1973 made £2,300 – well in excess of its £1,000 to £1,500 estimate – while a racing scene in oils after J F Herring, entitled Flying Dutchman and Voltigeur in the great match at York on the 13th May 1851, made £1,400.
The Top Gun accolade went to a Cogswell & Harrison double-barrelled shotgun from 1914, which sold for £650 against a £400 to £600 estimate.
In the fishing section, an Allcock Aerial 3½” fly reel, in Allcocks box landed a winning bid of £300 while in the sporting memorabilia section an Orient Line S.S. Osterley signed picture entitled Visit of M.C.C. Team to Australia, 1920-21, depicting picture of the ship to centre surrounded by signatures of the team members was caught out for £170.
The coveted animal skins, which attracted international interest, led to auctioneers doing a roaring trade. With £51,000 of antiques sold over 587 lots it was the most successful February Sporting Sale since 2006.
The next auction at Moore Allen & Innocent is the Antique and General Sale on Friday, February 18. For more information about buying and selling at auction, log on to www.mooreallen.co.uk/furniturefinearts