An intact and complete elephant bird egg

The complete egg 310mm. high and 240mm. diameter, pierced on facing sides with two small holes (presumably to drain it), and filled with sand, a few small surface chips, very light surface marking, but generally in very good condition.

Hajatiana Kotoniaina, Antananarivo, Madagascar, reproduction of invoice dated 19 June 1919 for "Sept oeufs Aepyornis intactes à 500 francs" addressed to Otto Alfred Heimburger, and by descent.

The now-extinct elephant bird was a ratite (or flightless bird) of the genus Aepyornis, which comprised a number of species (possibly seven), of which the term most commonly refers to the Aepyornis maximus. Indigenous to the island of Madagascar, the elephant bird typically grew to a height of about three metres tall and usually weighed some 450kg. For reasons that remain unclear, but may include hunting by European settlers and the loss of habitat due to deforestation and/or climate change, the elephant bird became extinct possibly as early as the thirteenth century (cf. Steven M. Goodman and William L. Jungers, Extinct Madagascar (2014), p. 64) and certainly by the end of the seventeenth century (the eggs may also have been collected for food and certainly the shells were used to transport water by the Malagasy during the nineteenth century). Elephant birds’ eggs are believed to be the largest of any oviparous animal, and they became sought-after rarities and curiosities during the late nineteenth century – especially intact examples such as the first of the two lots offered below – and the interest in them continues to the present day. These two examples were part of a group of seven elephant bird eggs supplied by Hajatiana Kotoniaina of Antananarivo (the capital city of Madagascar) to the successful Swiss carriage-maker and businessman Otto Alfred Heimburger, of Carrosserie O. Heimburger, Basel, at a cost of 500 francs. Heimburger was an enthusiastic collector of natural artefacts and specimens, and these eggs have remained in his family since he acquired them.