An Irish Timesreader in the midlands who found prehistoric giant Irish deer antlers in a coal shed, described the discovery as "like finding treasure in the attic".
The skull and antlers of a Megaloceros giganteus (also known as the Irish elk) had been lying forgotten and gathering dust for years. Now the skeletal remains – which are up to 12,000 years old – will be sold at auction next week. The trophy is valued at between €4,000 and €6,000 but could sell for much more.
Earlier this year, a larger set of antlers, measuring just over 11ft wide – which once hung in Adare Manor, Co Limerick – sold for €35,000 at a Mealy’s fine art auction in Mallow.
Auctioneer George Mealy said the newly found antlers, at 5.3ft wide, “could fit in a regular country house, so are quite saleable”. They will go under the hammer in his saleroom at Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny, on July 5th.
The owner of the “coal shed” antlers, who does not wish to be identified, said: “I came into possession of the antlers after I purchased my family home a number of years ago. The antlers were in a shed on the property where they hung largely ignored gathering the dust and detritus of time.
"It was an article published in The Irish Timesrelating to the sale of giant Irish deer antlers which drew my attention to them again; and they attracted my full undivided attention after the Natural History Museum confirmed their species of origin . . . Really it was like finding treasure in the attic."
Antlers appear at auction two or three times a decade and attract considerable interest. The highest price ever paid for giant Irish deer antlers was £52,875 at Christie’s in London in 2001.
