The world’s most expensive feather is a glossy black, white-tipped tail feather in excellent condition that originated from a now-extinct species of New Zealand wattlebird known as the huia (Heteralocha acutirostris). On 20 May 2024, it sold at Webb’s Auction House for NZ$46,522 (£22,409; US$28,417), including buyer’s premium. It had initially been expected to fetch c. NZ$3,000 but went on to break the previous record (also a huia feather, sold at Webb’s in 2010) by some 450%.
Restricted to New Zealand’s North Island, the huia was last definitively observed in 1907, though a few unconfirmed sightings were reported for at least two decades beyond that (and possibly even as recently as the early 1960s). This species was sacred to the Māori people, whose chiefs and their families often wore its tail feathers in their head-dresses. Its extinction is poorly understood, but habitat destruction and over-hunting, coupled with predation by introduced rats and infection by those non-native mammals’ parasites, all likely played a part.
A feature that distinguished the huia was the unparalleled degree of sexual dimorphism exhibited in the beak between males and females. Whereas that of the male was short, stout, straight and sharply pointed at its tip, that of the female was long, slender, and downward-curved, the two shapes having evolved to fulfil two very different functions. The male’s was used to chisel out grubs (especially those of Prionoplus reticularis, a longhorn beetle commonly called the huhu) from decaying wood like a woodpecker does, and the female’s was used to secure grubs from deep woody crevices that her mate’s shorter beak could not reach. Until recently, it was thought that the possession of a sexually dimorphic beak was unique to the huia, but it is now known that a second, unrelated species of vanished bird, the Réunion crested starling (Fregilupus varius), extinct since 1837, also sported such a beak, but not to so pronounced a degree as in the huia.
Country:
Year:
Date:
Source:
History of Auctioneering
Country:
Year:
Date:
Source:
The most expensive page of comic art sold at auction is page 25 of Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars #8, which was sold for $3,360,000 (£2,458,880 / €2,948,010) by Heritage Auctions, on 13 January 2022.
The 1984 comic book was illustrated by Mike Zeck (USA). Page 25 tells the origin story of Spiderman’s iconic black symbiote costume. Page 24 of the same comic was also sold as part of the action, fetching $288,000!
The sale greatly surpasses the previous record of $657,250 paid for a page of The Incredible Hulk (1974) which featured the rise of Wolverine.
Country:
Year:
Date:
Source:
The most expensive cricket shirt sold at online auction is Jos Buttler’s 2019 World Cup Final match-worn No.63 shirt, selling on eBay for £65,100 ($80,157) on 8 April 2020.
Jos Buttler put his 2019 World Cup Final match-worn shirt on eBay to raise money for the Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals after the outbreak of COVID-19. The shirt was worn during the super over that saw England win the World Cup and is still stained from the run out of Martin Guptill which won England the match. The auction attracted 82 bids with an eventual winning claim of £65,100.
Country:
Year:
Date:
Source:
The largest guitar collection sold at a charity auction is the “David Gilmour Guitar Collection”, which sold 123 guitars and was collected by David Gilmour (UK) and auctioned by Christie’s in New York, USA, on 20 June 2019.
Renowned Pink Floyd guitarist, David Gilmour, sold his impressive guitar collection for $21,198,250 (£16,624,700; €18,642,100), with proceeds being donated to ClientEarth. “The Black Strat” guitar was on the listing, which was fundamental in creating the music for several Pink Floyd albums:The Dark Side Of The Moon(1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977) and The Wall (1979).
Country:
Year:
Date:
Source:
The most expensive guitar collection sold at a charity auction is the “David Gilmour Guitar Collection”, which sold for $21,198,250 (£16,624,700; €18,642,100), including premium, collected by David Gilmour (UK) and auctioned by Christie’s in New York, USA, on 20 June 2019.
Renowned Pink Floyd guitarist, David Gilmour, sold his impressive collection of 123 guitars, with proceeds being donated to ClientEarth. The collection included the legendary “The Black Strat” guitar, which was fundamental in creating the music for several Pink Floyd albums:The Dark Side Of The Moon(1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977) and The Wall (1979).
Country:
Year:
Date:
Source:
A Batmobile used in the 1960s Batman TV show sold at the Barrett-Jackson car auction in Scottdale, Arizona, USA, on 19 January 2013 for a record $4,620,000 (£2,897,770), inclusive of the seller’s premium. To give this Batmobile it its distinctive look, George Barris, designer of custom cars, transformed an original 1955 Lincoln Futura by re-forming fins, changing the grille and by giving a gothic style to the headlights. The rocket boosters, machine guns, Bat Radar and Bat Phone were then added. George Barris himself presented the car at the Barrett-Jackson auction.
Country:
Year:
Date:
Source:
The most valuable toy soldier in the world is the first handcrafted 1963 G.I. Joe prototype which was sold on 7 August 2003 by its creator Don Levine to Baltimore businessman Stephen A. Geppi for $200,000 (£124,309) during an auction conducted by Heritage Comics Auctions of Dallas, Texas, USA. Don Levine made the nearly one-foot high figure on his ping pong table 40 years ago. The prototype wears a hand-stitched Sargeant’s uniform and an apparently battle-weary expression.
2004 marks the 40th anniversary of when the first G.I. Joe went on sale.
Country:
Year:
Date:
Source:
Country:
Year:
Date:
Source:
The most valuable hair clippings sold at auction are a mass of dark black cuttings from the head of Elvis Presley which were sold by his personal barber, Homer ‘Gill’ Gilleland, for $115,120 (£72,791, buyer’s premium included) to an anonymous buyer during an online auction held by MastroNet Inc, Oak Brook, Illinois, USA on 15 November 2002.
The mass of hair is approximately 3 in (8 cm) in diameter and is accompanied by letters of authenticity from Tom Morgan Jr. (detailing their history), John W. Heath (the world’s foremost Elvis memorabilia expert) and John Reznikoff of University Archives (the world’s most respected authority in the field of hair collecting).
Country:
Year:
Date:
Source:
A set of dentures that once belonged to wartime British prime minister Winston Churchill sold for £15,200 ($23,700) to an anonymous bidder on 29 July 2010. The auction was organized by Keys fine-art auctioneers in Aylsham, Norfolk, UK. The sale price was three times the estimated price.
Country:
Year:
Date:
Source: