What came first…the chicken or the egg? 8 Apr 2023 News Norfolk News Suffolk News

This is a question that has been asked over and over again for hundreds if not thousands of years, whether asked as a serious scientific question or a joke question.

However, for us in our auction world, the egg definitely came first in the form of a dinosaur egg, followed closely by the elephant bird egg, and we have also seen decorated ostrich eggs.

You wouldn’t think it but in our auctions we actually see a range of different eggs, not quite the bakers dozen but every so often we have an excellent lot come up in one of our specialist auctions. In one of our past specialist auctions I was so excited to see a dinosaur egg. Of course it was every small child’s dream of seeing and holding a dinosaur egg. Never thinking it was possible to see one let alone hold one in my hands, I raced back to my 7 year old self and was instantly excited. I was even more thrilled to learn that it was one from the Suffolk coastline. For me that was an exciting object to auction as it was rare and local and raced me straight back to my childhood!

Another egg that we have seen on more than one occasion was an egg from the elephant bird. Of course, this bird is now extinct, originally from the island of Madagascar, fragments of the eggs were a very common scene and have been known to be found since the 19^th century. In our auctions we have seen three of these magnificent eggs, firstly back in 2015 and more recently in our Collector auction earlier this year. These eggs are usually reconstructed from fragments of egg as it is documented that there are only known to be fewer than 40 whole and complete elephant birds eggs across the world which are more than likely in private collections or museums. All our eggs we have seen have been reconstructed eggs, still nevertheless, they are a really cool thing to own and sell very well at auction. Our last one sold for £1,375 (including buyers premium)

Then of course there is the luxury item of the world-famous Faberge Egg. I couldn’t not mention this fine quality object, world renowned jewel covered egg that was made by the Peter Carl Faberge. Now I would love to say that we have seen through our doors one of the only 50 Imperial Eggs that were made, unfortunately they are mostly in museums across the world or as part of private collections. However, closely linked to this we have seen a beautiful 18 carat gold and enamel egg pendent from Victor Mayer Faberge. For two decades (1989 to 2009) the renowned German jewellery firm Victor Mayer was authorised to create exquisite Fabergé jewels and objects of art under worldwide exclusive licence. This example of an egg pendent we saw had an eagle crest applied to the red enamel egg body, attached to a 9 carat gold chain, housed within the original box. A lovely example that sold for £740 (including buyers premium).

We have also seen a Faberge late 19th Century gold egg pendant charm. This lovely charm had marks for St Petersburg and it had a blue enamel Crown above AM for Alfred Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. This delightful Faberge egg was attached to a bracelet with other silver charms and sold for an impressive £1,000 (including buyers premium)

So we have looked at eggs, now lets talk chickens. Of course there are objects that come into our saleroom that relate to chickens such as paintings of farmyard scenes with chickens in, or even portraits with people holding chickens. Then of course there is the more collectible objects that have a chicken theme, such as a Beswick pottery model of a Sussex Cockerel which is expected to attract auction interest of £150 – £250. Beswick Pottery has always been very collectible, founded in 1894 the company soon became a popular English producer of fine pottery and these chickens are still very popular to this day. We have a number of lots of the Beswick cockerels coming up for auction including a model of a leghorn chicken.

I couldn’t talk chickens and not speak of the more random object that relates to a chicken we have seen in our auctions, this one was owned by a local, very famous pop star and the object in question was a presentation taxidermy chicken, by Damien Sanders. The hen stood above the plaque ‘Chicken in a Box’ By Damien Sanders, 2015. Damien Sanders was the Fusion Festival Director and gifted this unique object to our local pop star!

So, if this has ruffled your feathers and made you think about what came first the chicken or the egg, well in our world they sometimes come through our doors together! So if you have something you would like valued for auction, why not email us images via our contact page.

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