FEATURES ARCHIVE

What is it that you find so special about working in the Travel, Science and Natural History department?
It’s being privileged to look at work depicted by artists, which for Europeans at the time was the first glimpse into the strange and exotic world which lay beyond our shores, and to handle those objects which enabled us to get to those lands. From a scientific perspective, many of these objects are responsible for the improvements of the lives we now live.

Your April 22 sale has a huge array of unusual and interesting pieces, what is it that really stands out among them?
A group of three beautifully executed watercolours by the artist Frederick Catherwood, (lots 181-183). Catherwood travelled to Mexico and Guatemala in 1839 to explore the little known Mayan civilisation. He systematically recorded the first accurate drawings of Mayan buildings and their inscriptions as well as producing many images of the everyday lives of the local people.

What in this sale would you most like to take home with you?
There is never just one thing. There is this beautiful English pocket globe, (lot 72) which I’m holding here, which enables you to literally hold the world in you hand. You can trace Captain Cook’s final voyage of 1776 to 1780 and note the point where he was killed which is marked for us to see. Actually, what I would really love is this beautiful set of privately published lithographs of 1844 by The Honourable Emily Eden (lot 138) which are here on the table beside me and are entitled Portraits of the Princes and Peoples of India. Eden was a highly gifted amateur artist and took full advantage of the privileged position she held as the sister of the then Governor-General of India in order to sketch and paint the Indian rulers and their families.

What is the most exciting thing to have come through your doors at Christie’s?
Last year we were fortunate enough to have been able to offer an incredibly rare silver microscope made in the 1690s by Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, one of the founding-fathers of biology. Leeuwenhoek was responsible for the discovery of bacteria, muscle fibres and many other microscopic wonders using exactly this type of instrument. It made a world record price of £313,250.

Do you think that the departure from the ‘physical’ into the ‘digital’, in today’s world, will destroy the future of scientific memorabilia and prevent contemporary pieces of science, travel and natural history evolving into aesthetically marketable antiques for the future?
It is difficult to look at modern instrumentation and see it as anything other than just a practical item rather than one of aesthetic value. Having said that if you had told someone 150 years ago that by popping down to the local book shop and spending fifteen shillings on a green cloth bound book by Charles Darwin that it might in the future have realised their descendants £100,000 I doubt they’d have believed you.

And finally, you are marooned on a desert island with a treasure map. What three pieces of equipment dated pre-1950 would you use to find the treasure?
A compass, a telescope, and a pistol. Captain Fitzroy of the Beagle recommended Darwin never go on shore without one.