An intact and complete Elephant Bird Egg, Madagascar, 17th-century or earlier. Copyright Sotheby’s.
An elephant bird egg, measuring over 30 centimeters high, comes up at Sotheby’s in London on April 30. The extremely rare egg – believed to be over 400 years old – is from the largest bird ever to live on the planet.
Now extinct, the great elephant bird – a giant flightless bird indigenous to the island of Madagascar – measured over three metres tall, and weighed over half a ton.
The elephant bird became extinct at some point between the 13th and 17th centuries, so this perfectly intact example could be up to 800 years old.
Due to their colossal size and rarity the eggs became sought-after in the late 19th century. This one is from the collection of Swiss carriage-maker and businessman Otto Alfred Heimburger.
Estimated at £30,000-50,000 the egg is part of a Travel, Atlases, Maps and Natural History auction.
UPDATE: This was unsold but a reassembled sold for £2,215