{"id":638910,"date":"2026-08-15T16:25:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T16:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/638910\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T16:25:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T16:25:28","slug":"thylacine-head-find-at-uk-auction-a-holy-grail-for-collector-james-cranfield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/638910\/","title":{"rendered":"Thylacine head find at UK auction a ‘holy grail’ for collector James Cranfield"},"content":{"rendered":"

A collector says a suspected thylacine head he bought at an auction in the United Kingdom is the “holy grail” of taxidermy specimens.<\/p>\n

James Cranfield, who runs an oddities shop in Southend-on-Sea, England, said he bought the mounted head for about 60,000 British pounds ($114,000).<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

James Cranfield, pictured with his partner Francesca Hatcher, purchased the suspected thylacine head for more than 60,000 British pounds at an auction. (Supplied: James Cranfield)<\/p>\n

Mr Cranfield said the head was incorrectly listed as belonging to a fox and had an estimated price of about 40 British pounds ($76), but he and another dealer “worked out” that it was a Tasmanian tiger.<\/p>\n

“Because it has plastic googly eyes, everyone overlooked it as a tatty fox head, but I spotted the teeth and spent days and sleepless nights comparing and contrasting,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Just as bidding commenced in the room in the small auction house here in the UK, another dealer turned up, and we had quite the battle.<\/p>\n

“I’m not a wealthy man, and this is an eye-watering sum, but it’s a holy grail and has already been said to be ‘priceless’ as there is no benchmark to go against.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Auctioneer Andrew Stowe told the BBC the owner had purchased the head for just 50 British pounds at an antiques market.<\/p>\n

He said they were in “complete shock” when they were told it was actually a thylacine.<\/p>\n

“The vendor had purchased it simply because the novelty googly eyes attached to it made them laugh,” Mr Stowe said.<\/p>\n

“Even replicas or bones sell for thousands of pounds [so] to find a complete item like this, is almost unheard of, especially in the UK.”<\/p>\n

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The head was sold at an auction in England, where it was initially listed as a fox’s head. (Facebook: Auctioneum Bristol & Bath)<\/p>\n

Mr Cranfield said it was a “truly special” specimen for a natural history collector, as thylacine material rarely comes up for sale and there was only one other known taxidermy head mount.<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

He said the size of the head suggested it could have been a poorly mounted large fox or domestic dog, but its teeth revealed what it truly was.<\/p>\n

“Fox and dogs have six upper incisors between the canines, whereas the thylacine, being a marsupial, has eight incisors,” he said.<\/p>\n

“There is no other creature of similar size or appearance that has that.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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James Cranfield says an inspection of the specimen’s teeth revealed that it was actually a thylacine. (Supplied: James Cranfield)<\/p>\n

Thylacine material ‘quite rare’, curator says<\/p>\n

Senior zoology curator at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Kathryn Medlock, said specimens from thylacines were uncommon, although they did occasionally pop up.<\/p>\n

“Any thylacine material is quite rare, but specimens do turn up from time to time having been kept in a family home or on a farm for many years,” Dr Medlock said.<\/p>\n

She was aware of “several specimens” in private hands, including some flat skins, a taxidermy head and some skulls.<\/p>\n

“I discovered a thylacine skin nailed to the wall of a large shearing shed some years ago,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It would not surprise me if there is more out there.”<\/p>\n

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Kathryn Medlock says thylacine material is “quite rare”, though she is not surprised to see the head pop up in England. (ABC News: Maren Preuss)<\/p>\n

Mr Cranfield said no provenance was provided with the purchase, meaning it was not clear where the head came from or how it arrived in England.<\/p>\n

His hypothesis was that it originated from when hunters in Tasmania were offered bounties for killing thylacines and presenting the skulls as evidence, between 1888 and 1909, before it was brought to the UK.<\/p>\n

Dr Medlock said she was “not too surprised” that it turned up, as many specimens were sent to museums in the UK during the 19th and early 20th centuries.<\/p>\n

“Private animal dealers also traded in thylacines, and often listed thylacine material as being available \u2014 the prices asked were high,” she said.<\/p>\n

Scans lined up to confirm identity\"Many<\/p>\n

James Cranfield runs an oddities shop in the English town of Southend-on-Sea, east of London. (Supplied: James Cranfield)<\/p>\n

Last thylacine remains kept in a cupboard<\/a><\/p>\n

The remains of the last-known thylacine \u2014 thought lost for more than 85 years \u2014 were in a cupboard at a Tasmanian museum, researchers say, with their significance only now being realised.<\/p>\n

Mr Cranfield said his plan was to simply enjoy the purchase; however, he was open to making it available to any scientific institutions that wished to study it.<\/p>\n

“As this is a significant discovery, I hope that some museums will be interested in having it on loan so more people can see this incredible specimen,” he said.<\/p>\n

The taxidermist said he would get X-rays and computerised tomography (CT) scans of the head, which he hoped would prove that it did in fact belong to a thylacine.<\/p>\n

“As with most exciting discoveries, there are currently some sceptics out there,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Cranfield said it was hoped these scans would take place next week, after which he would send them off for validation.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Thylacines went extinct after the last known captive individual died in 1936 at Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart, Tasmania. (Credit: David Fleay)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A collector says a suspected thylacine head he bought at an auction in the United Kingdom is the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[273],"tags":[10085,18,19,17,270226,133,270224,270225,40244,461],"class_list":["post-638910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-auction","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-james-cranfield","tag-science","tag-tasmanian-tiger","tag-taxidermy","tag-thylacine","tag-wildlife"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117100461618008104","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=638910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}