A pair of German silver peppers modelled as Great Auks, early 20th century,
by Neresheimer & Söhne, Hanau,

realistically fashioned, import marks for Berthold Müller, Chester 1910, height 12.5cm. £1,000-£1,500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Menagerie of Silver, the Property of a Gentleman.

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The great auk (Pinguinus impennis) is a species of flightless alcid that became extinct during the mid-19th century.

They mated for life and inhabited remote rocky islands in the waters of the North Atlantic, from northern Spain and along the coastlines of Canada, Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Norway, Ireland and Great Britain.

With hooked black beaks and black and white bodies, the great auks were indeed visually similar to the modern day penguin. Although not closely related, the birds now known as penguins were in fact later discovered and so-named by sailors because of their physical similarities to the Pinguinus impennis.