Over a period of centuries, Cape York meteorites provided the sole source of iron from which local Inuit made knives, tools and weapons - similar to lot 30. The existence of this Inuit outpost was unknown to Europeans until 1818 when explorer Captain John Ross, in search of the Northwest Passage, became icebound. His ship was visited by natives with whom the British officers traded for tusks — as well as knives & harpoons fashioned from meteoritic iron. Much later, expeditions were launched to discover the source of this iron, and it was a member of this same Inuit group who lead Admiral Peary to their “iron mountain” in 1894. While Peary wrote he reached the North Pole — but never did so — he did succeed in depriving an indigenous community of much of their sole source of iron by taking several massive Cape York meteorites to New York City — including what is still today the largest meteorite in captivity. Weighing 31 tons, the meteorite named Ahnighito or “The Tent” is the centerpiece of Ross Meteorite Hall at the American Museum of Natural History. This meteorite is so heavy that before construction commenced on the museum extension which houses it, the armature that supports it had to extend through the floor, beneath the building and be anchored directly into Manhattan’s bedrock.

This is a superb aesthetic representation of this historic meteorite. This partial slice has two edges of the meteorite’s exterior surface and two cut perpendicular edges with a beautiful etch and a single well-placed armored troilite inclusion. In the words of meteorite expert Dr. Vagn Buchwald, “Probably no other meteorite has been so intimately connected with the life and fate of so many people as Cape York.” An image of this exact specimen was used to illustrate an article on the History of Meteoritics which appeared in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia. This is a select specimen of a historic meteorite with a distinguished provenance.

Christie's would like to thank Dr. Alan E. Rubin at the Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles for his assistance in preparing this catalogue.

135 x 159 x 3mm (5.33 x 6.25 x 0.1 in.) and 537.8 grams (1.2 lbs)