Daily Mail, Thursday, June 21, 1900
A RECORD EGG.
OVER 300 GUINEAS PAID FOR
ONE OF THE GREAT AUK.
  The first bid for the hitherto unrecorded
egg of the great auk at Mr. Steven's auction
rooms yesterday was 150 guineas. The suc-
cessful offer was [Pounds] 330 15s., [shillings], and established a
record.
  Even the smaller, and, in comparison, poor
specimen which was also offered yesterday
fetched 150 guineas - five guineas more than
in 1894, when it brought its lucky owner 175
guineas.
  The history of this particular egg is inter-
esting. A young fellow attended a furniture
sale in Kent, riding to the place on his
bicycle. Among some odd fossils he caught
sight of two large eggs. Under ordinary cir-
cumstances he would have got the lot for
about eight shillings, but a man who wanted
the fossils started bidding, and ran him up
to thirty-six shillings.
  In the end the eggs, which travelled home
in a pocket handkerchief on the back
of the bicycle, turned out to be those of the
great auk, and one of them proving a hand-
some specimen fetched, though cracked, 260
guineas in 1894.
  The increase in prices for these eggs has
of late years been very remarkable. In 1856
an egg was sold at Steven's for twenty
guineas. Four duplicates belonging to the
Royal College of Surgeons averaged [pounds] 30
apiece in 1865. One of these in 1887 brought
[pounds] 168. A year later another specimen, bought
privately for [pounds] 18 in 1851, was knocked down
at King-street, Covent-garden, for [pounds] 225.
  In 1892 Sir Vauncey Crewe had to give 300
guineas for an historical specimen, and twice
that sum in the same year purchased a
stuffed great auk and its egg. Since then a
cracked specimen cost Mr. Middlebrook 300
guineas.
  Mr. Stevens expressed a hope yesterday
that the larger egg would remain in this
country and find its way into the British
Museum. Its destination is at present un-
certain. Mr. Gardner, the natural history
agent, bought both it and its fellow, presume-
ably a commission.