Stevens Auction Rooms and the Entomological sales.
Jul 19, 2018 9:36:46 GMT
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Stevens Auction Rooms and the Entomological Sales.
At the auction rooms at No 38 King's Street in Covent Garden in the West End of London many famous entomological collections were sold. Many of these collections contained much sought after rarities, some of them unique. Wealthy collectors might choose to leave their valuable collections to the British Museum of Natural History, the Oxford University Museum or to some other institution, while others, many of them eminent British entomologists, preferred their large collections to be sold at auction, with the proceeds going to their families.
J.C. Stevens Auction House at Kings Street, Covent Gardens, London in 1835. From the cover of a sales catalogue. A Romance of the Rostrum (1924).
The auction house was founded by Samuel Patterson in 1760 who sold rare books and manuscripts. A year before he died, the firm was taken over by Kings, Collins and Chapman. In 1796 Chapman and Collins left the company and it continued as King and Sons until it was taken over by Thomas of Foster Lane in 1824. John Crace Stevens (1809- 1859) joined the firm as a partner in 1831 and by 1834 he was the sole proprietor and the auction house was known as J.C. Stevens. There was a major change in the business with the arrival of Stevens who had been fascinated by Natural History since he was a child and soon famous collections of shells, minerals, bird's eggs and insects became the main attractions, although it is true to say that anything from ethnological to historical relics were sold there.
John's brother Samuel (1817-1899) an eminent entomologist joined the firm as a partner in 1840, and left in 1848 to set up the Natural History Agency at Bloomesbury. Samuel Stevens acted as an agent to Alfred Russell Wallace and Henry Bates who sent specimens to him from the Amazon and later served as Wallace's agent during his travels in the Far East. He became a good friend of Wallace.
After J.C. Stevens died in 1859, Samuel Stevens took over the business until John's son Henry was old enough to inherit the family firm. Henry Stevens continued the firm until the 1940s, but by then, Natural History sales had declined to such an extent that during the blitz when a bomb hit the building, it was decided to close the business. Insect collections were then sold by the firm of Glendining & Co, situated next door to the London Palladium.
Figure 1. John Crace Stevens. A Romance of the Rostrum (1924). He actually joined the firm as a partner in 1831, not 1820 as the caption mentions.
Figure 2. Henry Stevens. A Romance of the Rostrum (1924).
The sale of insect rarities at the Stevens auction gave others with money to spend a chance to own them. Many rare insects passed through a number of collections and as each collection came up for auction the insect would appear again in a sale's catalouge that is until the next owner decided to leave his collection to a museum. Unfortunately collections that should have been preserved for the nation that contained many types described by the father's of British Entomology went to auction and sadly were broken up and some of those priceless insects so important to future researches were lost. Below is a small selection of the many famous collections sold at the auction rooms. The prices the specimens sold for at auction are in £ = pounds & S = shillings. £1 today is worth 1.12 Euro and1. 30 US dollars.
Figure 3. A collection of Goliath Beetles. A Romance of the Rostrum (1924).
" There is something extraordinarily restful in wandering through the rooms before a sale and looking at the cases. It is the same feeling that one has looking at unset jewels, or flowers, or watching the sunset or the sea. They are perfect, and in perfection there is rest." E. G. Allingham, A Romance of the Rostrum. 1924.
Four Famous Entomology collections sold at 38 King Street.
John Francillion (1744–1816). June 11- 13. 15-20, 1818.
£1 in 1818 is the equivalent of approximately £82 today.
The first recorded sale of an insect collection at the auction rooms with King at the rostrum was the Francillion collection that held many types that Johan Christian Fabricius (1745-1808) based his descriptions for his classic works, Genera insectorum (1777), Mantissa Insectorum (1787) and Entomologia Systematica (1793-94). This sale lasted for nine days and attracted many famous entomologists and naturalists such as Haworth, Dr Leach, Kirby, Vigiers, Mcleay and Curtis. The following names in italics are the collectors who purchased the specimens. Among the many special insects in the Francillion collection, a specimen of Titanus giganteus made a record price for a beetle of £5. 5s (Mcleay). A male of Megasoma elephas £2. 3s (Kirby). Male of Papilio Homerus was bought by Haworth for £6. 6s, a Pharmacophagus antenor £7. 10s (Mcleay). Ten Orthoptera were bought by Mcleay for £21. The total sale realized £725. 11s 6d, about £59,450 in today's money. Mcleay is often spelt Macleay and the buyer at the Francillion sale was the naturalist William Sharp Macleay (1792-1865).
Adrian Hardy Haworth (1767-1833). June 23-28. 30 -July 4. 1834.
£1 in 1834 is the equivalent of approximately £114 today.
One of the most important sales of British and foreign insects spread over eleven days and the first entomological sale with John Crace Stevens on the rostrum. Haworth a pioneer of modern entomological study had a collection of over 40,000 specimens of virtually every insect orders, a proportion of which were described in his rare work Lepidoptera Britannica. Many of which are now held by the British Museum of Natural History. John O. Westwood who would become the first Hope Professor of Entomology at Oxford, complied the sales catalouge. Every naturalist of any note was present at the sale, including Edward Newman, John Curtis, William John Swainson, and Francis Walker. One of the most interesting items in the Haworth sale was lot 898, the first British specimen of Stylops haworthii Stephens, a small parasitic insect of the order Strepsiptera which it is said Haworth once refused an offer of £25 guineas, made only £1. 6s. Others including the foreign insects made good prices. A Titanus gigantus £3. 15s. (Tucker) A unique beetle of the genus Lamia from Africa £3. 3s (Tucker). The male specimen of Papilio homerus bought by Haworth at the Francillion sale for an impressive £6.6s now only realized £1. 14s. An Ornithoptera priamus male made a £1. (Tucker). A British Vanessa antiopa sold for £1. 3s. The Haworth sale realized £552. 12s , about £62,928 pounds in today's money.
Figure 4. Adrian Hardy Haworth. Unknown artist.
Samuel Stevens (1817–1899). March 27 & 28. 1900.
£1 in 1900 is the equivalent of approximately £123 today.
Steven's magnificent collection comprising a hundred thousand specimens of Lepidoptera was the result of 60 years collecting and breeding. The collection was sold on the rostrum by his nephew Henry Stevens. Some rare aberrations of British Lepidoptera made record prices. Two aberrations of Vanessa cardui made £8 and £6. 10s and aberration of Vanessa atalanta made £5. 10s , an eyeless Aglais io £5. A variety of the Argynnis aglaja f. charlotta made 5 guineas. A melanic Boloria euphrosyne almost entirely black sold for £4. 10s and a silvery white aberration of Argynnis adippe from Dr Harper's made £6. 6s 6d (This specimen is in the BMNH and can be seen on page 22, Data Portal of this species) Two Melanargia galathea aberrations figured in the Entomologist, 1876 (Figure 5) sold for 2 guineas together with a third, a very dark example sold with another lot made £7. Two aberrations of Lycaena phlaeas, one a white example L. phlaeas ab schmidtii £4 and a beautiful rayed example £5. An underside aberration of P. Icarus described as remarkable realized £2. 10s.
Figure 5. Melanargia galathea, Aberrations in Samuel Steven's coll. Entomologist (1876) Vol 9. The remarkable top specimen, Melanargia galathea serena ab. mosleyi Oberthür & Bryk, 1909 was caught on the South Wales coast in 1871 by Samuel Stevens is in the BMNH. It was figured by Barrett, (1893) in The Lepidoptera of the British Islands, vol 1, plate 28.
Figure 6. Samuel Stevens.
Extinct British species sold well. A fine male of Lycaena dispar made £8 and a female £6. 5s, in all fourteen specimens of L. dispar made £72. 7s 6d. A bilateral gynandromorph of Colias croceus sold for £3. 10s and a bilateral gynandromorph of Favonius quercus for £3. 15s, together with a bilateral gynandromorph of Polyommatus icarus for £3. Among the moths, perhaps the most special specimen was a Callimorpha dominula ab niger bred by Stevens in 1872 which sold for £5. 10s. Ten specimens of the extinct Laelia coenosa made between £1 10s to £2 pound a pair. A specimen of Leucodonta bicoloria caught in Killarney by Peter Bouchard made £2.10s. Ten specimens of Coenophila subrosea then thought to be an extinct fenland moth, but later rediscovered in marshes in Wales bought in a total of £39. Charles William Dale was among the many other notable collectors who attended the sale that day. Dale purchased a number of Steven's special specimens that are still in the Dalean collection today.
Sydney Webb. (1837-1919) October 21, 1919. December 9, 1919, February 10, 1920, March 9, 1920.
£1 in 1919 is the equivalent of approximately £54 today.
Considered to be the finest British Lepidoptera collection ever put up for sale. The Webb collection had a superb series of aberrations many of which had been described and figured in literature including The Lepidoptera of the British Islands (1893 -1907) by Charles Barrett. Webb bought the important collections of Frederick Bond (1811-1889) and Stuart Gregson (1817-1899) and added them to his own. Webb had attended many of the great auction sales at Stevens and added many rarities from the collections of Marshall, Harper, Vaughn, Devignes, Briggs, Gill and Stevens etc. Many of the prices achieved at the sale were considered high for the time, however, even considering inflation, many of these historic aberrations would realize even greater prices today. Only a few of the remarkable aberrations sold at the Webb sale are mentioned here.
The first part of the sale of Sydney Webb's collection held on October 21, 1919 comprised of many of his finest butterflies. Two mosaics gynandromorphs of Gonepteryx rhamni made £7. 7s and £7. 10s (One of these is a remarkable mosaic, this was captured in 1870, it was bought by Castle Russell and at the sale of his collection by Dr E.A. Cockayne and is now in the BMNH, see the Data Portal website, page 5 of that species), and a bilateral gynandromorph £9. Four mosaics gynandromorphs of Anthocharis cardamines sold for £20 in total and an extreme aberration of that species £6. Bilateral gynandromorph of Colias croceus went for £5. An albino specimen of Melanargia galathea realized £8. 10s (This unique specimen was known to have been lost when it was sold at auction again and the buyer died and his collection was left to ruin). Four Apatura iris, with the white bands almost obliterated were bought for £5. 10s, £6. 10s, £10. 10s and £16. 10s. A peculiar light coloured Aglais urticae made an impressive £18. Variations of the Argynnids made the highest prices. A pure melanic Argynnis adippe fetched £22 with a slightly less pronounced aberration £17. A melanic Boloria selene with a very dark underside commanded a price of £22. Among the extinct British butterflies, 15 specimens of Lycaena dispar made between £4. 10s to £12 10s for a perfect bright example. The first part of sale of the Webb collection realized £920 = approx £49,680 in today's money.
The second portion of the Webb collection came up for sale on December 9, 1919. Again most of the specimens were butterfly aberrations together with moths of the Geometridae family. None of the lots matched the then record prices that were achieved in the first sale, although there were still many rarities. A dark ab of Melitaea athalia set the pace at 12 guineas and a melanic Euphydryas aurinia £7. Rare aberrations of Lycaena phlaeas made very good prices, with one remarkable golden brown variety fetching £11. A black upperside male of Polyommatus coridon made £10, while three gynandromorphs of that species £21.10s in total. A spectacular gynandromorph of Polyommatus bellargus with right side male, left side streaked male & female made £12. 10s and an extreme underside ab radiata sold for £11. Among the moths two white aberrations of Abraxas grossulariata in heavy bidding sold for £16. 5s 6d and £18. 7s 6d. The entire second part of the sale bought in £700, of which £500 pounds were for butterflies.
The third part of the Webb sale was held on February 10, 1820 and although smaller than the first two parts again attracted many buyers and record prices. A female aberration of Arctia caja, a unique variety, with forewings almost entirely cream coloured that was figured by Charles Golding Barrett in The Lepidoptera of the British Islands (1896), Vol 2, pl. 72, figure 1b, bred by C.H. Longley of London made £26, being bought by B.H. Crabtree, then the highest price paid for a single British Insect (Figure 8). A remarkable and probably unique specimen of Arctia villica which was almost yellow without markings fetched £22, it was illustrated along with other aberrations of this species in Barrett (1896 )vol 2, pl 73, fig 1e, (Figure 9) another with dark hindwings, Barrett, vol 2, pl 73, figure 1f sold for £8. 10s (Figure 9). The total price realized for the series of just these two species amounted to £220. A bred specimen of the rare immigrant hawk moth Hippotion celerio sold for £9. The total of the sale was £550.
The concluding and fourth part of the Webb sale was on March 9, 1920. Adkin noted that some dubious rare migrant British species were offered but these still made good prices. A supposed British species of Leucania extranea = Mythimna unipuncta, an abundant pest species in parts of the world made £8. Dichagyris flammatra from Southern Europe, with just five British records to date made £10 10s and a Minucia lunaris made the same price. The Lycaena dispar in the Webb collection had been spread over three sales and a streaked aberration of that species sold for £16. Webb's cabinets were also sold, forty drawers fetching £44. The total of the day's sale was £830 making a total of £3000 realized for the Webb collection, in today's prices approx £152,273.
Figure 8. C. Barrett. The Lepidoptera of the British Islands (1896), vol 2, pl 72. All the Arctia caja aberrations here were from the Webb coll except fig 1 from the Dr Mason coll . Figure 1a Arctia caja ab. dealbata Schultz, 1904, Liverpool Ex Webb, Ex P.B.M. Bright, Ex Rothschild coll (BMNH) was also figured in Mosley's Illustrations of Varieties of British Lepidoptera, only twenty copies of this book were produced. Figure 1b. Arctia caja ab. flavonotata Cockayne, 1949, C.H. Longley, Ex C.A. Briggs coll, Ex S. Webb coll, Ex Crabtree coll, Ex Cockayne-Kettlwell coll is in the BMNH. It was figured in the Entomologist by Edward Newman in 1888. This aberration appears to be unique. See
data.nhm.ac.uk/dataset/collection-specimens/resource/05ff2255-c38a-40c9-b657-4ccb55ab2feb?view_id=6ba121d1-da26-4ee1-81fa-7da11e68f68e&page=99&q=Arctia+caja&filters=collectionCode%3Abmnh%28e%29
Figures 1e, 1f and 1g, the latter another unique specimen, are also in the British Museum of Natural History.
Figure 9. C. Barrett. The Lepidoptera of the British Islands (1896),vol 2, pl 73. Typical and Arctia villica aberrations from the Webb coll. Figure 1d, was bought by Robert Adkin and is now in the BMNH coll
References.
Adkin R. (1919). Notes and Observations. The Sydney Webb Sale. Entomologist, vol 52, pp 275-276.
Adkin R. (1920) Notes and Observations. The Sydney Webb Sale. Entomologist, vol 53, pp 15-16. 53. 89-90.
Allingham E.G. (1924) A Romance of the Rostrum. H.F. & G Witherby, London.
Barrett. C. G. (1895) The Lepidoptera of the British Islands, Vol 2.
Chalmers-Hunt. J.M. (1976) Natural History Auctions 1700-1972. Sotheby Parke Bernet.
Newman E. (1888) Artica caja. Entomologist, vol 21, p 73.
South R. (1900) Notes and Observations. The Stevens collection. The Entomologist, vol 33, p 155- 157. p, 178.
Stevens S. (1876) Varieties of Melanargia galathea. Entomologist, vol 9, pp 193-194.
At the auction rooms at No 38 King's Street in Covent Garden in the West End of London many famous entomological collections were sold. Many of these collections contained much sought after rarities, some of them unique. Wealthy collectors might choose to leave their valuable collections to the British Museum of Natural History, the Oxford University Museum or to some other institution, while others, many of them eminent British entomologists, preferred their large collections to be sold at auction, with the proceeds going to their families.
J.C. Stevens Auction House at Kings Street, Covent Gardens, London in 1835. From the cover of a sales catalogue. A Romance of the Rostrum (1924).
The auction house was founded by Samuel Patterson in 1760 who sold rare books and manuscripts. A year before he died, the firm was taken over by Kings, Collins and Chapman. In 1796 Chapman and Collins left the company and it continued as King and Sons until it was taken over by Thomas of Foster Lane in 1824. John Crace Stevens (1809- 1859) joined the firm as a partner in 1831 and by 1834 he was the sole proprietor and the auction house was known as J.C. Stevens. There was a major change in the business with the arrival of Stevens who had been fascinated by Natural History since he was a child and soon famous collections of shells, minerals, bird's eggs and insects became the main attractions, although it is true to say that anything from ethnological to historical relics were sold there.
John's brother Samuel (1817-1899) an eminent entomologist joined the firm as a partner in 1840, and left in 1848 to set up the Natural History Agency at Bloomesbury. Samuel Stevens acted as an agent to Alfred Russell Wallace and Henry Bates who sent specimens to him from the Amazon and later served as Wallace's agent during his travels in the Far East. He became a good friend of Wallace.
After J.C. Stevens died in 1859, Samuel Stevens took over the business until John's son Henry was old enough to inherit the family firm. Henry Stevens continued the firm until the 1940s, but by then, Natural History sales had declined to such an extent that during the blitz when a bomb hit the building, it was decided to close the business. Insect collections were then sold by the firm of Glendining & Co, situated next door to the London Palladium.
Figure 1. John Crace Stevens. A Romance of the Rostrum (1924). He actually joined the firm as a partner in 1831, not 1820 as the caption mentions.
Figure 2. Henry Stevens. A Romance of the Rostrum (1924).
The sale of insect rarities at the Stevens auction gave others with money to spend a chance to own them. Many rare insects passed through a number of collections and as each collection came up for auction the insect would appear again in a sale's catalouge that is until the next owner decided to leave his collection to a museum. Unfortunately collections that should have been preserved for the nation that contained many types described by the father's of British Entomology went to auction and sadly were broken up and some of those priceless insects so important to future researches were lost. Below is a small selection of the many famous collections sold at the auction rooms. The prices the specimens sold for at auction are in £ = pounds & S = shillings. £1 today is worth 1.12 Euro and1. 30 US dollars.
Figure 3. A collection of Goliath Beetles. A Romance of the Rostrum (1924).
" There is something extraordinarily restful in wandering through the rooms before a sale and looking at the cases. It is the same feeling that one has looking at unset jewels, or flowers, or watching the sunset or the sea. They are perfect, and in perfection there is rest." E. G. Allingham, A Romance of the Rostrum. 1924.
Four Famous Entomology collections sold at 38 King Street.
John Francillion (1744–1816). June 11- 13. 15-20, 1818.
£1 in 1818 is the equivalent of approximately £82 today.
The first recorded sale of an insect collection at the auction rooms with King at the rostrum was the Francillion collection that held many types that Johan Christian Fabricius (1745-1808) based his descriptions for his classic works, Genera insectorum (1777), Mantissa Insectorum (1787) and Entomologia Systematica (1793-94). This sale lasted for nine days and attracted many famous entomologists and naturalists such as Haworth, Dr Leach, Kirby, Vigiers, Mcleay and Curtis. The following names in italics are the collectors who purchased the specimens. Among the many special insects in the Francillion collection, a specimen of Titanus giganteus made a record price for a beetle of £5. 5s (Mcleay). A male of Megasoma elephas £2. 3s (Kirby). Male of Papilio Homerus was bought by Haworth for £6. 6s, a Pharmacophagus antenor £7. 10s (Mcleay). Ten Orthoptera were bought by Mcleay for £21. The total sale realized £725. 11s 6d, about £59,450 in today's money. Mcleay is often spelt Macleay and the buyer at the Francillion sale was the naturalist William Sharp Macleay (1792-1865).
Adrian Hardy Haworth (1767-1833). June 23-28. 30 -July 4. 1834.
£1 in 1834 is the equivalent of approximately £114 today.
One of the most important sales of British and foreign insects spread over eleven days and the first entomological sale with John Crace Stevens on the rostrum. Haworth a pioneer of modern entomological study had a collection of over 40,000 specimens of virtually every insect orders, a proportion of which were described in his rare work Lepidoptera Britannica. Many of which are now held by the British Museum of Natural History. John O. Westwood who would become the first Hope Professor of Entomology at Oxford, complied the sales catalouge. Every naturalist of any note was present at the sale, including Edward Newman, John Curtis, William John Swainson, and Francis Walker. One of the most interesting items in the Haworth sale was lot 898, the first British specimen of Stylops haworthii Stephens, a small parasitic insect of the order Strepsiptera which it is said Haworth once refused an offer of £25 guineas, made only £1. 6s. Others including the foreign insects made good prices. A Titanus gigantus £3. 15s. (Tucker) A unique beetle of the genus Lamia from Africa £3. 3s (Tucker). The male specimen of Papilio homerus bought by Haworth at the Francillion sale for an impressive £6.6s now only realized £1. 14s. An Ornithoptera priamus male made a £1. (Tucker). A British Vanessa antiopa sold for £1. 3s. The Haworth sale realized £552. 12s , about £62,928 pounds in today's money.
Figure 4. Adrian Hardy Haworth. Unknown artist.
Samuel Stevens (1817–1899). March 27 & 28. 1900.
£1 in 1900 is the equivalent of approximately £123 today.
Steven's magnificent collection comprising a hundred thousand specimens of Lepidoptera was the result of 60 years collecting and breeding. The collection was sold on the rostrum by his nephew Henry Stevens. Some rare aberrations of British Lepidoptera made record prices. Two aberrations of Vanessa cardui made £8 and £6. 10s and aberration of Vanessa atalanta made £5. 10s , an eyeless Aglais io £5. A variety of the Argynnis aglaja f. charlotta made 5 guineas. A melanic Boloria euphrosyne almost entirely black sold for £4. 10s and a silvery white aberration of Argynnis adippe from Dr Harper's made £6. 6s 6d (This specimen is in the BMNH and can be seen on page 22, Data Portal of this species) Two Melanargia galathea aberrations figured in the Entomologist, 1876 (Figure 5) sold for 2 guineas together with a third, a very dark example sold with another lot made £7. Two aberrations of Lycaena phlaeas, one a white example L. phlaeas ab schmidtii £4 and a beautiful rayed example £5. An underside aberration of P. Icarus described as remarkable realized £2. 10s.
Figure 5. Melanargia galathea, Aberrations in Samuel Steven's coll. Entomologist (1876) Vol 9. The remarkable top specimen, Melanargia galathea serena ab. mosleyi Oberthür & Bryk, 1909 was caught on the South Wales coast in 1871 by Samuel Stevens is in the BMNH. It was figured by Barrett, (1893) in The Lepidoptera of the British Islands, vol 1, plate 28.
Figure 6. Samuel Stevens.
Extinct British species sold well. A fine male of Lycaena dispar made £8 and a female £6. 5s, in all fourteen specimens of L. dispar made £72. 7s 6d. A bilateral gynandromorph of Colias croceus sold for £3. 10s and a bilateral gynandromorph of Favonius quercus for £3. 15s, together with a bilateral gynandromorph of Polyommatus icarus for £3. Among the moths, perhaps the most special specimen was a Callimorpha dominula ab niger bred by Stevens in 1872 which sold for £5. 10s. Ten specimens of the extinct Laelia coenosa made between £1 10s to £2 pound a pair. A specimen of Leucodonta bicoloria caught in Killarney by Peter Bouchard made £2.10s. Ten specimens of Coenophila subrosea then thought to be an extinct fenland moth, but later rediscovered in marshes in Wales bought in a total of £39. Charles William Dale was among the many other notable collectors who attended the sale that day. Dale purchased a number of Steven's special specimens that are still in the Dalean collection today.
Sydney Webb. (1837-1919) October 21, 1919. December 9, 1919, February 10, 1920, March 9, 1920.
£1 in 1919 is the equivalent of approximately £54 today.
Considered to be the finest British Lepidoptera collection ever put up for sale. The Webb collection had a superb series of aberrations many of which had been described and figured in literature including The Lepidoptera of the British Islands (1893 -1907) by Charles Barrett. Webb bought the important collections of Frederick Bond (1811-1889) and Stuart Gregson (1817-1899) and added them to his own. Webb had attended many of the great auction sales at Stevens and added many rarities from the collections of Marshall, Harper, Vaughn, Devignes, Briggs, Gill and Stevens etc. Many of the prices achieved at the sale were considered high for the time, however, even considering inflation, many of these historic aberrations would realize even greater prices today. Only a few of the remarkable aberrations sold at the Webb sale are mentioned here.
The first part of the sale of Sydney Webb's collection held on October 21, 1919 comprised of many of his finest butterflies. Two mosaics gynandromorphs of Gonepteryx rhamni made £7. 7s and £7. 10s (One of these is a remarkable mosaic, this was captured in 1870, it was bought by Castle Russell and at the sale of his collection by Dr E.A. Cockayne and is now in the BMNH, see the Data Portal website, page 5 of that species), and a bilateral gynandromorph £9. Four mosaics gynandromorphs of Anthocharis cardamines sold for £20 in total and an extreme aberration of that species £6. Bilateral gynandromorph of Colias croceus went for £5. An albino specimen of Melanargia galathea realized £8. 10s (This unique specimen was known to have been lost when it was sold at auction again and the buyer died and his collection was left to ruin). Four Apatura iris, with the white bands almost obliterated were bought for £5. 10s, £6. 10s, £10. 10s and £16. 10s. A peculiar light coloured Aglais urticae made an impressive £18. Variations of the Argynnids made the highest prices. A pure melanic Argynnis adippe fetched £22 with a slightly less pronounced aberration £17. A melanic Boloria selene with a very dark underside commanded a price of £22. Among the extinct British butterflies, 15 specimens of Lycaena dispar made between £4. 10s to £12 10s for a perfect bright example. The first part of sale of the Webb collection realized £920 = approx £49,680 in today's money.
The second portion of the Webb collection came up for sale on December 9, 1919. Again most of the specimens were butterfly aberrations together with moths of the Geometridae family. None of the lots matched the then record prices that were achieved in the first sale, although there were still many rarities. A dark ab of Melitaea athalia set the pace at 12 guineas and a melanic Euphydryas aurinia £7. Rare aberrations of Lycaena phlaeas made very good prices, with one remarkable golden brown variety fetching £11. A black upperside male of Polyommatus coridon made £10, while three gynandromorphs of that species £21.10s in total. A spectacular gynandromorph of Polyommatus bellargus with right side male, left side streaked male & female made £12. 10s and an extreme underside ab radiata sold for £11. Among the moths two white aberrations of Abraxas grossulariata in heavy bidding sold for £16. 5s 6d and £18. 7s 6d. The entire second part of the sale bought in £700, of which £500 pounds were for butterflies.
The third part of the Webb sale was held on February 10, 1820 and although smaller than the first two parts again attracted many buyers and record prices. A female aberration of Arctia caja, a unique variety, with forewings almost entirely cream coloured that was figured by Charles Golding Barrett in The Lepidoptera of the British Islands (1896), Vol 2, pl. 72, figure 1b, bred by C.H. Longley of London made £26, being bought by B.H. Crabtree, then the highest price paid for a single British Insect (Figure 8). A remarkable and probably unique specimen of Arctia villica which was almost yellow without markings fetched £22, it was illustrated along with other aberrations of this species in Barrett (1896 )vol 2, pl 73, fig 1e, (Figure 9) another with dark hindwings, Barrett, vol 2, pl 73, figure 1f sold for £8. 10s (Figure 9). The total price realized for the series of just these two species amounted to £220. A bred specimen of the rare immigrant hawk moth Hippotion celerio sold for £9. The total of the sale was £550.
The concluding and fourth part of the Webb sale was on March 9, 1920. Adkin noted that some dubious rare migrant British species were offered but these still made good prices. A supposed British species of Leucania extranea = Mythimna unipuncta, an abundant pest species in parts of the world made £8. Dichagyris flammatra from Southern Europe, with just five British records to date made £10 10s and a Minucia lunaris made the same price. The Lycaena dispar in the Webb collection had been spread over three sales and a streaked aberration of that species sold for £16. Webb's cabinets were also sold, forty drawers fetching £44. The total of the day's sale was £830 making a total of £3000 realized for the Webb collection, in today's prices approx £152,273.
Figure 8. C. Barrett. The Lepidoptera of the British Islands (1896), vol 2, pl 72. All the Arctia caja aberrations here were from the Webb coll except fig 1 from the Dr Mason coll . Figure 1a Arctia caja ab. dealbata Schultz, 1904, Liverpool Ex Webb, Ex P.B.M. Bright, Ex Rothschild coll (BMNH) was also figured in Mosley's Illustrations of Varieties of British Lepidoptera, only twenty copies of this book were produced. Figure 1b. Arctia caja ab. flavonotata Cockayne, 1949, C.H. Longley, Ex C.A. Briggs coll, Ex S. Webb coll, Ex Crabtree coll, Ex Cockayne-Kettlwell coll is in the BMNH. It was figured in the Entomologist by Edward Newman in 1888. This aberration appears to be unique. See
data.nhm.ac.uk/dataset/collection-specimens/resource/05ff2255-c38a-40c9-b657-4ccb55ab2feb?view_id=6ba121d1-da26-4ee1-81fa-7da11e68f68e&page=99&q=Arctia+caja&filters=collectionCode%3Abmnh%28e%29
Figures 1e, 1f and 1g, the latter another unique specimen, are also in the British Museum of Natural History.
Figure 9. C. Barrett. The Lepidoptera of the British Islands (1896),vol 2, pl 73. Typical and Arctia villica aberrations from the Webb coll. Figure 1d, was bought by Robert Adkin and is now in the BMNH coll
References.
Adkin R. (1919). Notes and Observations. The Sydney Webb Sale. Entomologist, vol 52, pp 275-276.
Adkin R. (1920) Notes and Observations. The Sydney Webb Sale. Entomologist, vol 53, pp 15-16. 53. 89-90.
Allingham E.G. (1924) A Romance of the Rostrum. H.F. & G Witherby, London.
Barrett. C. G. (1895) The Lepidoptera of the British Islands, Vol 2.
Chalmers-Hunt. J.M. (1976) Natural History Auctions 1700-1972. Sotheby Parke Bernet.
Newman E. (1888) Artica caja. Entomologist, vol 21, p 73.
South R. (1900) Notes and Observations. The Stevens collection. The Entomologist, vol 33, p 155- 157. p, 178.
Stevens S. (1876) Varieties of Melanargia galathea. Entomologist, vol 9, pp 193-194.
