Research guide
$386,300 Tombstone
The story of a rare early 10th-century English limestone relief of St. Peter, rediscovered in a garden where it served as a pet's gravestone and later sold at Sotheby's for £201,600.
A medieval limestone slab which for years was used as a gravestone for a dead cat called named Winkle has sold for £201,600 ($386,300) at auction. The English limestone relief of St. Peter dating from the early 10th century, was recently discovered in a garden being used as a pet's gravestone. It was found in a salvage yard by a British man who took it to his home in Somerset, southwest England, and put it at the bottom of his garden to mark the spot where Winkle was buried. It was only when the stone was spotted by local potter and historian Chris Brewchorne that its value became apparent. It was offered in a sale of European Sculpture and Works of Art 900-1900, at Sotheby's in London.
The relief made from Oolitic limestone is incredibly rare, as few reliefs of this period have survived, time normally having worn the surface detail away. On this carving, which is believed to have originally been a section of a cross shaft, or part of a larger panel, the figure of St. Peter is clearly visible.