I 
33 
Mr. Middlebrook thus became the possessor of four eggs of the 
Great Auk, all of them purchased in these rooms, and three of them 
at consecutive sales; the price paid for them was £181), £239, £168 and 
£315, in all a sum of £911. 
After the death of Mr. Middlebrook, this egg was disposed of by 
auction, by Messrs. Debenham, Storr and Sons, Ltd., of 26 King Street, 
Covent Garden, at the dispersal of the * Middlebrook Museum, 
when it failed to find a higher bid than £110, at which price it became 
the property of Rowland Ward, Ltd ,—vide p. 33 (Sales by auction 
otherwise than at Stevens’ rooms)--who disposed of it to Col. John E. 
Thayer, for the Thayer Museum, Lancaster, Massachusetts, U.S.A. 
EGGS XIX. and XIII. (Sale number eighteen.) 
Two eggs of the Great Auk, on June 20th, 1900. 
The first of' the two eggs (lot A) is described in the sale catalogue 
No. 10,204 as “ probably the finest ever offered for sale.” 
Egg XIX. - Lot A. An unrecorded egg from a French 
collection. This is the finest specimen 
known of this special type of marking.” 
Bought by Mr. James Gardner, of Oxford Street, for £330 15 O 
Mr. Bidwell tells me that he has every reason to believe that this is 
the egg referred to by M. LeonOlph-Galliard —vide “ Ibis,” 1862 p. 302— 
as the measurements and description agree exactly, and it was sent 
from Lyons, though the owner’s name was never disclosed. 
Egg XIII. - “ Lot B. Egg of the Great Auk. This egg 
formed Lot 75 at the sale in these rooms 
on April 24th, 1894. It was one of the 
two eggs purchased in a box of fossils at 
an auction in Kent.” 
Purchased by Mr. James Gardner, of Oxford Street, 
London, for £189 O O 
Both these eggs became the property of the late Sir J. H. Greville 
Smyth, Bart., of Ashton Court, Somerset. 
At the sale in these rooms on April 24tli, 1894, Mr. Henry Munt 
had given £183 15 0 for the second egg—vide p. 15. 
*The Eggs were on show for some time at Middlebrook’s Free Museum in the 
*' Edinburgh Castle/' Mornington Road, Regent’s Park, N.W. I have in my 
possession an illustrated handbook [2nd edition] to this museum, which 
contains on p. 18, a picture of the owner standing beside a table or stand with 
four shelves, the lower one having on it his four eggs of the Great Auk.—T. P. 
