Hampton Court Flower Show!

[mikeconstable]

Saw some large lumps of African rock there today. Impressive fossil ammonites polished up, even more impressive prices (£240 for bird-baths with a couple of polished fossils, £1000+ for the best ones!).
Think the stand number was about B39, outside the Plant Heritage Marquee.

 

[tonmo]

Cool -- did you make any purchases yourself? 8)

 

[Phil]

Wow, Mike!

I had no idea that there were fossils on for sale at the flower show. Perhaps next year I could even be tempted to go. It's quite amazing the prices some fossils go for, though here in the UK it is rare that we get really spectacular specimens for sale.

I went to a Rock and Gem Show myself in Kent last year and was disappointed to see that of 30 or so tables only 4 were selling fossils. Most were selling beautiful crystals and rocks, lovely yes, but beyond aesthetics not that interesting to me. There were a few nice Cambrian trilobites for sale from Morocco for about £120 and quite a few ammonites. Pretty much all of the specimens were invertebrate.

When one sees fossil shows in the USA the contrast is amazing. Casting aside for a moment the legality and ethics of selling scientifically-interesting material, the sheer diversity of stuff on sale seems astounding. I once saw a photo of a stall that was selling a Triceratops skull. Goodness, it probably cost more than my house!

 

[mikeconstable]

Fossils @ Hampton Court

I managed to resist the temptation to buy (and also forgot to photograph them!), but some were marked as sold. The only vertebrate I saw was a large fish slab from the US.