Miscellaneous

Lot 543    SESSION 3 (2.30PM TUESDAY 23RD MARCH)    Miscellaneous

Estimate $50,000
Bid at live.noble.com.au

AFRICA, late 19th - early 20th century, Rhinoceros horn, a full size natural horn with no carving or decoration, (360mm high), weight 2.00kg. Mild drying at the base, otherwise very fine and rare.

The above rhinoceros horn was brought to Australia by David Lennox Croshier in about 1916-20. Mr Croshier, also recorded as Crozier, prospected for gold and was lucky enough to discover a large deposit at Mount David, NSW in the late 1800s. He established the Mount David Gold Mining Company that employed over 300 men and he operated the mine from 1906 until 1916. In that year he sold the company to another nearby mining operation.

After selling his company he travelled to America, then Europe and finally East Africa. It was in Africa that he engaged in the legal hunting of exotic animals and one of his trophies was a rhinoceros. There were no laws or hunting restrictions in place at the time and when he returned to Australia he legally brought with him the rhino's large black horn that is 36cm long and weighs two kilograms. The horn has remained in his family ever since and ownership has now passed on to his great grandson.

Under current Australian law the horn of a rhinoceros can only be exported if it pre-dates the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) of 1975, an international agreement between governments aimed at ensuring that international trade in wild animals and plants does not threaten the species survival. A Pre-Convention certificate can be issued but only after the item has been sold to an overseas buyer. A certificate is not required if the item is sold to a domestic buyer.

If the horn is to be exported then a radio-carbon report of the horn has to be obtained which must show that the rhinoceros was deceased prior to 1957. The great grandson, the current owner, has recently arranged for this radio-carbon report and documentation has been received from the government organisation, ANSTO (Australia's Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation), confirming that 'the horn was determined to have come from an animal that died before - 1957'.

If the horn is to be exported then an application has to be made by the new owner to the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment who will already have a copy of the results of the testing of the horn conducted by ANSTO.

With copies of owner's correspondence with the government; the ANSTO report; baptism certificate for David Lennox Croshier dated 1843; renewal of Miner's Right certificate issued to David Crozier in 1904; and an image of the early gold mine at Mt David.