576 Out of the Ordinary lots will be coming up for auction at Sworders in Stansted Mountfitchet on Tuesday 7^th February 2023, from 10am. Many of the items are extraordinary, macabre, bizarre, strange, unusual and one-of-a-kind.

For instance, and perhaps my favourite item in the entire sale, a little, wooden snuff box decorated on the lid with flies and a spider – all fashioned from human hair… presumably a loved one who has passed away. I have a growing fascination with antique memento mori pieces.

Amongst the subject matter available, there are death masks, taxidermy, tribal items and an assortment of circus-related items. There’s an C18^th thief’s tool – that I can just imagine being used to deftly slice a hole in a cloth money bag to steal the coins within. Another lot comprises a trio of tear catchers – little vials to pluck the tears from funeral mourners’ eyes so they can be kept for posterity. I told you there are some weird & wonderful articles!

There’s a buyer’s premium: 30% (inc. VAT, where applicable) on all lots. Sworders is happy to arrange postage on small items and recommends a number of couriers for larger items and overseas shipping.

Bid on the Sworders website or via Invaluable, Live Auctioneers or The Saleroom. Please bear in mind that further charges will be applied on each website for their service.

Lot 5: A memento mori snuffbox
Late 18^th century, an unusual French burl walnut memento mori snuffbox, the lid decorated with a fine sepia hairwork scene of flies surrounding a spider against a bone plaque, set within a brass surround, 7.5 x 5.5cm
_{Provenance: The Cabinet of Curiosities – The Gary Pyper Collection.}
Estimate: £300 – £500

Lot 9: An extraordinary George III thief’s tool
18^th century, the cut steel handheld tool consisting of a curved bladed purse-slit and a lockpick, with areas of engraved cross-hatched decoration to the base of the blade, 8cm square
_{Provenance: The Cabinet of Curiosities – The Gary Pyper Collection.}
Estimate: £400 – £600

Lot 13: A keichousaurus fossil
Triassic period (50.6 – 251.902 million years ago), preserved in a black slate slab, 16 x 10.5cm
The keichousaurus was a genus of marine reptile in the pachypleurosaur family.
_{Provenance: The Cabinet of Curiosities – The Gary Pyper Collection.}
Estimate: £300 – £500

Lot 96: Three ‘tear catchers’
19th century, a collection of three Victorian glass lachrymatory scent bottles with their original stoppers, cut glass with hand-painted gold overlay in clear, cranberry and blue glass, largest 20cm long (3). Also known as tear bottles, tear catchers, tear vials, unguentaria, or unguentarium, used to catch the tears of mourners and kept in memory of loved ones post-mortem.
Estimate: £200 – £400

Lot 150: A waxwork head
1930s, modelled as a long-haired man with a smashed egg on his right eye, decorated in polychrome, with glass eyes and with brown human hair, 31cm high
Estimate: £900 – £1,200

Lot 158: ‘Circus’
Modern, an arched sign with MDF lettering, illuminated with multicoloured cabochon lights,
112cm wide
Estimate: £500 – £600

Lot 164: A display model Wellington boot
20th century, American, a large ‘Goodyear’ advertising or display model of a wellington boot, internally with canvas lining, the treaded rubber sole with a stacked heel, 112cm high. Likely used to promote the vulcanised rubber footwear patented by Goodyear in the 1920s.

Lot 205: A tuk tuk bar
Modern, likely Thai or Cambodian, a tuk tuk front, decorated in green and yellow with Hindi script, raised on metal supports and a front rubber wheel, the driver’s window mounted with glass racks, the back with shelving and racks, 70cm wide, 180cm high.
Estimate: £200 – £300

Lot 525: A set of four porcelain rubber glove moulds
1960s, each with a textured surface around the hands, stamped to the base ‘AHG’ and impressed ‘300073’, 42cm high (4)
Estimate: £400 – £600

Lot 535: A nickel-plated café coffee bean dispenser
mid-20th century, Belgian, surmounted by a brass eagle clutching a dispensing ladle and chute, 51cm diameter, 112cm high.
Estimate: £400 – £600

Lot 554: ‘House of Simple Pleasures’
late 20th century, a large distressed mirror glass and gold leaf inlaid public house sign, inscribed in gilt lettering ‘House of Simple Pleasures’, 19 x 124cm, framed
Estimate: £200 – £400