LOT 161 Louis Thomas Jerome Auzoux Male Anatomical Model on Stand with Wood Display Cabinet
“CAUTION! The Oddities Auction contains artwork and objects that may be unsettling or offensive to children and other viewers. Discretion is advised.”
This type of notice doesn’t typically open an auction catalog, but then, most people aren’t used to seeing a cyclopic piglet, a two-headed calf, an electric chair marble slab, and a human leg ashtray for sale.
For Mike Zohn, co-curator of the auction, the warning is a badge of honor.
Oddities Lot 189 – Two-Headed Calf, Full Mount Taxidermy; Together with Articulated Skeleton. Photo Courtesy of Doyle.
Zohn, who starred in the TV show Oddities and has co-owned Obscura Antiques & Oddities with Evan Michelson on Manhattan’s Lower East Side for more than 24 years, partnered with high-end auction house Doyle New York for a first-time auction of oddities.
The event is the culmination of a long-time friendship between Zohn and Doyle’s Director of Paintings, Angelo Madrigale.
It will be a clear departure from the more typical Doyle auctions, which in the past have featured fine art, antique jewelry, and estate sales from Hollywood legends like Bette Davis, Joan Crawford and Rock Hudson. Oddball items had previously only been offered as one-offs in larger sales.
“I wanted to give these disparate areas of collecting its own venue to present them correctly instead of shoehorning something, like a piece of outsider art, into a larger painting sale where it’s out of context,” Madrigale explained. “My hope is to showcase these things together not only for our existing clientele but for also people out there who maybe don’t know Doyle but are seeking things out like this.”
Oddities Lot 246 – Auburn Prison Electric Chair Marble Slab. Photo Courtesy of Doyle.
The oddities genre has grown considerably in recent years. In addition to his store, Zohn is also coordinating oddities markets around the country. An event last month in Philadelphia drew 4,000 people who stood in lines wrapped around the block to get in.
“It’s incredibly popular right now,” Zohn told Weird Historian. “So now’s a good time to have the auction. I’ve been collecting for about 30-plus years now and you get to a point where you can’t keep it all.”
One of the most interesting items up for grabs are his two rare, full-body anatomical models designed by French anatomist, Dr. Louis Auzoux, in the mid 19th-century. One male, one female.
“Such a big part of this is the history,” Madrigale noted. “Who was this person? Why did he need to make these things? And how they were used? Just to look at them is striking. They’re aesthetically beautiful. But knowing the history of how these objects came to be and how they were employed in their daily use—there’s a story behind the object itself, which is really the idea of the sale itself. They’re real works of art.”
Of course, oddities don’t have to be freaky, creepy or morbid. The auction is filled with items that are simply quirky and strange, like a metal top hat haberdasher trade sign and a ceramic poppyseed bagel made by artist David Gilhooly in 1975.
“I really wanted to expand as much as I could under that umbrella of oddities,” Madrigale said. “At the end of the day only so many people will have the desire to own a two-headed calf.”
Oddities Lot 188 – Walter Potter’s Museum of Curiosities Sign. Photo Courtesy of Doyle.
So how do you determine an estimate for something like a two-headed calf or a ceramic bagel? Comparable sales from previous auctions help. Of course, that’s not always possible. Take Lot 188, which offers a sign that used to hang outside of Walter Potter’s Museum of Curiosity. The famed Victorian taxidermist was known for his anthropomorphic taxidermy displays, like The Kittens’ Wedding, featuring kittens as a bride and groom, a minister and guests. Several years ago it sold for $100,000. But one of Potter’s signs has never been sold.
“Is it a thousand-dollar sign? Is it a ten thousand dollar sign? A hundred? Who knows?” Zohn wondered. “That’s the nice thing about auctions—you get two strong bidders, you get yourself a bidding war.”
Ready for battle? The Oddities auction will have 343 weird, quirky, and wonderfully strange lots to add to your collection.
The Oddities exhibition opens Friday, May 3, 2019 and runs through the 5th. The auction takes place Tuesday, May 7, at 10:00 am EDT. Doyle is at 175 East 87th Street, New York, NY 10128.
