Monumental bronze lions could fetch up £100,000 at auction

The near four metre long works of art will be the highlight of the sale at Summers Place Auctions in March.The pieces were made in the late 20th Century for Camden Lock Market and are expected to sell for between £60,000 and £100,000.Sir Edwin Henry Landseer (1802-1873) was famous for his paintings and sculptures of animals, particularly horses, dogs and stags. But his best known work are the four bronze lions on the base of Nelson’s column, which he was commissioned to make by the Government in 1858 and were installed in 1867.The second “Conversation Pieces” auction will take place on Tuesday, 20th March and Wednesday, 21st March. After a successful first themed auction of this kind, this year’s sale promises to include even more unusual and top quality pieces.The sale will also include some of the fantastic horse sculptures from Camden Market. They are expected to sell in the region of £20,000.If rockets are more your thing, this auction includes a variety of objects which very much qualify as ultimate boys’ toys. A rare SA-4 ‘Ganef’ missile from circa 1968 is almost nine metres long and three metres wide. The 2K11 Krug (NATO code SA-4 Ganef) is a Soviet-made medium-range air defence missile. The development of the system started in 1958 and was first unveiled during a military parade in Moscow in May 1965. It reached speeds of up to Mach 4 and had an effective range of 50-55 km (31-34 miles) depending upon the version. It carried a 135 kg (300 lb) fragmentation warhead and is expected to sell for £15,000-25,000.A CIAM/NASA wind tunnel test platform rocket from around 1980 is more than three metres long and now mounted vertically on a granite base. Made in Russia’s Central Institute of Aviation Motors (C.I.A.M), the largest aerospace engine testing facility in Europe, the model weighs approximately 110 pounds. An apparently identical model has been used in tests conducted at NASA’s Langley Research Center Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel. It has been part of the Air and Space Collection of the scramjet rocket engineer Professor Alexander Roudakov and is estimated at £5,000-8,000.An aluminium and upholstered seat created from the cowling of an RB211 jet engine is also for sale. Originally fitted to a Boeing 747, it is 147cm high by 185cm wide by 104cm deep. The Rolls-Royce RB211 is a British family of high-bypass turbofan engines made by Rolls-Royce PLC. Entering service in 1972, it was the first production three-spool engine. For more information about the auction visit www.summersplaceauctions.com