Los Angeles, CA - Collectors expressed tremendous interest in the December 3, 2006 Natural History sale at Bonhams & Butterfields’ Los Angeles salesrooms, breaking auction records and setting a precedent for sales in this category.  The Bonhams & Butterfields auction brought $1,991,587 for fine fossils, minerals, gold nuggets, lapidary works of art, meteorites, amber, jewelry, gemstones and archeological artifacts.  News stories across the globe inspired interest in a spectacular 65-million year old Raptorid dinosaur egg nest.

The standing room only saleroom was filled with bidders and buyers from around the globe.  “We were pleased to offer such a strong selection of unique and rare items,” said Tom Lindgren, Bonhams & Butterfields consulting director of Natural History.  He added, “The sale featured rare and unusual examples of the newest and the oldest collecting categories on Earth -- stemming from noted institutional and private collections.”

“International interest was sparked by the eclectic and spectacular array of items along with one-of-a-kind collections including a famous group of gold nuggets dubbed – ‘The Gold Nugget Collection’ from the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada and the Levi Smith Mineral Collection, which featured rare 1880s azurite and malachite specimens from Bisbee and Morenci, Arizona.” said consulting gemologist Claudia Florian, G.J.G.

The December 3 sale opened with lots from the Levi Smith Mineral Collection – one of the most significant institutional de-accessions of a mineral collection to be offered at auction for many decades.  The collection, which sold for more than $256,000, had been donated to a Pennsylvania school district by Smith, a major player in the oil business in the late 19^th century.  Bidding exceeded estimates on many lots catalogued by the auctioneers as “superb” examples of their type.

News stories across the globe inspired interest in a spectacular 65-million year old Raptorid dinosaur egg nest – displaying the greatest number of extent raptor egg embryos ever offered at auction. The nest sold for $419,750, far above the pre-sale estimate of $180,000 to $220,000, and setting an at-auction world record price for a dino nest.  Other fossils brought strong prices: a lower Jurassic sea lily, found in Germany, features three distinct intertwined individuals – which appear to be a plant, but are in fact an animal -- a distant relative of today’s starfish and sea urchin (sold for $44,813); a spectacular Jurassic fish fossil, Lepidotus elvensis, measures 38-inches in length and displays beautifully preserved scales and skull bones (sold for $26,888); and an ancient fossil turtle from Wyoming’s Green River formation is forever trapped in limestone with two other fish fossils (sold for $56,763).

One of the most famous and recognizable collections of gold in the United States – dubbed the “Golden Nugget Collection,” brought $227,250. The 32-piece collection included several nuggets with quartz inclusions as well as several “named nuggets” acquired from noted prospectors who’d worked the creeks and rivers of Alaska during the mid-20^th century.  A collector paid $117,250 for an 84 ozt highly three-dimensional gold nugget from Western Australia and several other gold nuggets sold after competitive bidding.  Unmounted stones and jewelry were offered late in the sale with multiple lots selling to strong bidding.  A suite of emerald nugget jewelry brought $32, 863, comprising a necklace, bracelet and ear pendants -- altogether 850 carats of emeralds mined from Columbia.

A beautiful butterfly brooch expertly crafted of 18k yellow gold and featuring 49 carats of gem-quality spinels and 1.5 carats of brilliant-cut white diamonds and natural yellow diamonds attracted interest from multiple bidders to sell for $31,668.

As long-time pioneers of these sales, the Natural History Department at Bonhams & Butterfields has celebrated the extraordinary while expanding the spectrum of offerings beyond the strict association with million-year old remnants of plant and animal life or rough mineral specimens, to consign rare and unique objects d’art, exquisite jewelry and wearable gemstones as well as exceptional décor within the department’s sales.

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