CRYSTAL PALACE: Bonhams sells dinosaur caricature from 1855 Punch magazine (From News Shopper)

CRYSTAL PALACE: Bonhams sells dinosaur caricature from 1855 Punch magazine

8:50am Thursday 29th October 2009

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AUCTIONEERS got their teeth into a rare caricature of the Crystal Palace dinosaurs when the sketch went under the hammer.

The Victorian cartoon appeared in the satirical Punch magazine in 1855 and is by John Leech - a well known Victorian illustrator.

A sentence scrawled beneath the picture of a father and son visiting Crystal Palace Park and its model dinosaurs reads: “A visit to the antediluvian reptiles at Sydenham - Master Tommy strongly objects to having his mind improved”.

The drawing sold for £780 - above its £500 to £700 estimate - during Bonhams auctioneers’ picture sale in Knightsbridge on Tuesday (October 27).

A spokesman for Bonhams, one of the world’s oldest and largest auctioneers, said: “John Leech regularly worked for Punch and many other magazines, wittily observing day-to-day Victorian life and gently poking fun at its inhabitants.”

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