"I think the public imagination plays a major part in the collecting genre, " notes Bonhams' Lindgren.
Bonhams says the house had been purchased from a tea planter who had lived in Sri Lanka.
BBC: UK garden step 'is ancient Sri Lankan moonstone' artefact
Bonhams said the line, "breathes there the man", was taken from a work by Scottish poet Walter Scott.
"It has become a cherished memory for millions of fans worldwide, " said Jon Baddeley of Bonhams auction house.
The sum, which includes a 12% buyer's premium, was around twice what had been predicted by auction house Bonhams.
Dietrich said prospective buyers could purchase the sculpture through Bonhams, which will negotiate a price on the seller's behalf.
Bonhams later sold the amber, he said, for more than seven thousand dollars.
Then on May 16, Bonhams holds its annual collectible car auction in Monaco.
Auction house Bonhams said the instrument was used on several Beatles' songs, including Tomorrow Never Knows and Paperback Writer.
The stone will be put up for auction in Bonhams' Indian and Islamic sale in London on 23 April.
BBC: UK garden step 'is ancient Sri Lankan moonstone' artefact
Bonhams said it believed the "provenance to be accurate and fulsome and correct and the object is as described".
BBC: UK garden step 'is ancient Sri Lankan moonstone' artefact
"We're a little disappointed with what happened with the sculpture, " Bonhams Maritime Art Department sales specialist Gregg K. Dietrich said.
Since then, Christie's, RM Auctions in Ontario and Bonhams have been the dominant auction players, along with Barrett-Jackson in Scottsdale, Ariz.
In the meantime, here are the top 10 sellers for the auctions run by Gooding, RM, Mecum, Bonhams, Russo and Steele.
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Two months later Ebay unloaded Butterfields on Bonhams, a London-based auction house.
This watch is among personal items of several astronauts will be sold at Bonhams New York Space History Sale on May 5.
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Part of the same corporate collection, the paintings haven't been seen on the market for 78 years, says Bonhams Russian specialist Sophie Law.
Bonhams sells in the British style as well, though on a smaller scale than its competitors and with a smaller range of cars.
Bonhams say that the car's eight-litre, six-cylinder engine with a low gearing ratio allowed "it to creep powerfully through the roughshod jungles of Rajasthan".
Very few timepieces from the lunar surface have been offered in auction, and no other stopwatch is likely to come to the market, Bonhams said.
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For Sotheby's, the Ferrari auction is an intriguing move, given that the house's entire auto department jumped ship a decade ago and defected to Bonhams.
It will be brought out of storage for display in a sculpture garden adjacent to Bonhams auction house in Manhattan before the Feb. 22 sale.
Bonhams said the instrument was also believed to have been used on Pink Floyd's albums Wish You Were Here and Dark Side of the Moon.
An aspiring collector could hit the ground running at the Bonhams sale, which will offer 37 lots of Wisden running consecutively from 1879 to 2007.
Scott also had a standard-issue Omega Speedmaster on hand with a stopwatch function, but its dial was dark, and the markings and buttons small, Bonhams said.
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Bonhams' Montgomery recently visited a client whose living room wall was hung with six empty 16th-and 17th-century Spanish and Italian "tabernacle" frames, which are particularly complex and architectural.
Stephen Maycock, the consultant specialist for Beatles memorabilia at Bonhams, said he thought it was the first instrument from Abbey Road to be sold on the open market.
Giles Peppiatt, director of contemporary African art at Bonhams, a British auction house that hosted the New York sale, says prices will still rise in this niche market.
The auctioneer Bonhams says the carved granite step is a Sandakada Pahana - or moonstone - similar to those found in temples dating from Sri Lanka's Anuradhapura period (c400BC-1000AD).
BBC: UK garden step 'is ancient Sri Lankan moonstone' artefact
"Until recently these frames were not seen as a valuable or interesting part of art history, " explains Alan Montgomery, head of the Frames Department at Bonhams, the London auction house.
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