Minerals are a perfect start when you want to include some nature into your home. They work extremely well with contemporary or modern art and make great focal points in a minimalist interior. Gogottes are the ultimate in that respect. They can be easily mistaken as contemporary sculptures, but are in fact millions-of-years old. They are naturally shaped mineral rarities consisting of tiny quartz crystals held together by calcium carbonate. This auction includes a fine, and at 44 cm high and 41 cm wide, a large example which is estimated at £4,000 - £6,000.

Famous since antiquity, Lapis Lazuli has been connected with some of the most important works of art and paintings of the likes like Titian. The best quality Lapis comes from about 140 cave-like mines in Badakhshan, which have been mined for 6000 years. Lapis is almost as rare as diamonds, but has the advantage that it looks great polished or as freeforms and it can be displayed outside as it is exceptionally durable and can resist both extreme heat or cold. This sale includes several fine examples including a freeform that is 56 cm high and weighs 46.9 kg, estimated at £5,000 - £7,000.

The auction also includes a rare Citrine cluster from Namibia (estimate £2,500 - £4,000), a large Mangano Calcite freeform (£4,500 - £5,500) and a Zebra onyx bowl from Mexico (£2,000 - £4,000). But minerals don't have to cost thousands - a King Cobra Jasper pyramid is estimated at £400 - £600, an Amethyst and Chalcedony sphere from Brazil £350 - £450, and a Tiger Iron freeform from Australia, which is about 3 billion years old, carries an estimate of £650 - £750.

Fossils are the next step up and there are some fantastic examples included in this auction. Highlight of this Evolution sale is a rare and impressive Tylosaur skeleton from Kansas. It is from the late Cretaceous, so approximately 100-66 million years old and an impressive 620cm long. A type of mosasaurs were a group of gigantic marine reptiles that ruled the seas in the Cretaceous period while the dinosaurs reigned supreme on the land. Although both groups became extinct at around the same time. One of the largest species of mosasaur lived in the ancient sea that once covered the land we now know as Kansas. It was a huge and ferocious creature and is scientifically named a Tylosaur. This particular example is one of only very few specimens that have ever left the USA and is estimated at £70,000 - £120,000.

An Eurhinosaurus skull, found in France during the construction of a high speed railway, is from the Lower Jurassic. The Eurhinosaurs was a type of Ichthyosaur with a very long and slender upper jaw similar in many respects to today's Swordfish. Such well preserved examples are extremely rare as the slender upper jaw is usually missing and at 130 cm long, it carries an estimate of £30,000 - £50,000.

A large Phareodus fish plaque from the Green River formation, Colorado, is expected to fetch £3,000 - £5,000. The fossils that come from the Green River Formation are approximately 60 million years old and come from the era known as the Eocene. They are celebrated for the outstanding detail they show.

Giving it more of an arty touch is a fossil bone assemblage of Edmontosaurs and Triceratops estimated at £4,000 - £6,000 and a larger one at £12,000-£15,000. A large Septarian egg on stand with removable front (£400 - £600) will be offered next to fossil Shark tooth displays from Morocco, beautifully mounted in a wall frames (£300 - £500).

Ammonites are undoubtedly one of the favourites among fossils and the perfect example of how nature can create some of the most vibrant colours. An ammonite matrix from Canada is 84cm long and shows all the colours of the rainbow. It is carrying an estimate of £30,000 - £50,000 and another similarly colourful, stand-alone ammonite is expected to fetch the same. The Bear Paw geological formation of Alberta, Canada is famous for a substance called ammolite, a most attractive mineral that is often used in jewelry and for other decorative purposes. Ammolite is actually the crushed up remains of a fossil ammonite, sometimes, however, whole ammonites are found and these are far too rare and wonderful to be broken up into fragments. They are fantastically coloured in shades of iridescent reds and greens and have to be seen to be believed. Because of their great beauty, rarity and exquisite appearance they are highly sought after and the examples offered here are particularly large. Due to their intrinsic value their export from Canada is now subject to serious restrictions and only those that were exported legally can be offered for sale. The ammonites lived over 70 million years ago during the late Cretaceous period and the extraordinary colours were formed due to the intense pressure and heat to which the fossils have been subjected over the course. A large Moroccan ammonite, 80 cm high, carries an estimate of £2,500 - £4,000 and the bidding for a pair of framed Cleoniceras ammonites from Madagascar starts at £300.

Taxidermy is of course the third category of 'Nature is Art'. This auction includes a fabulous, rare Blue Bird of Paradise from the late 19th century and is displayed under a glass dome. The Birds of Paradise are without doubt the most exotic and extravagant of all tropical birds. The various species in this group sport different coloured plumes and the rarest of all has blue plumes. The Blue Bird of paradise – more correctly known as Paradisea rudolphi (or Prince Rudolph's Bird of Paradise) was named in the late 19th century after a prince who was at one time destined to become Emperor of Austria, but forbidden by his father to marry the woman he loved, the love-lorn pair committed suicide in a pact that rocked Europe. This bird is particularly famous for its strange upside-down dance in which it displays its wonderful blue plumes, a dance which was featured in one of Sir David Attenborough's programmes about birds of paradise. It is expected to fetch £12,000-£18,000. An Indian firescreen from circa 1880 including a Paradise Fly Catcher, Spangled Starling and a Bee Eater is estimated at £3,000 - £4,000 and a full mounted Kea with outstretched wings is expected to sell for £1,000-£1,500.

There are some outstanding taxidermists who specialised in fish and this sale includes an Impressive Mallock barrel Salmon, which is 133 cm long, and by the celebrated Scottish taxidermist P.D. Malloch from Perth. During the last decades of the 19th century he realised that he could get a better result by casting fish (particularly salmon which are very oily and take months to degrease) rather than stuffing them. His productions are much sought-after and, like the present example, are usually placed in unusual barrel-shaped display cases (£4,000 - £6,000). Another fine example, this time by the famous Cooper family of taxidermists, is an exceptional and famous Pike in a bow fronted case, 138 cm long it is expected to sell for up to £12,000. This enormous pike equaled the size of the largest that was ever stuffed by any of the family and it is featured in Fred Buller's almost legendary book 'The Domesday Book of Mammoth Pike (1979). In the book Buller named the fish 'John Bourne's Pike' and records its weight as 42lb with a length of 48 and a half inches and a girth of 25 and a half inches. It was caught in 1908 in Ireland and its catch so remarkable that soon after articles were written on it in the Angler's News and the Fishing Gazette. Curiously, John Bourne, the man who caught the pike had no interest in having it stuffed and he gave the fish to a man fishing nearby, a Mr. Thomas Phillips, who immediately dispatched the specimen to Coopers in London. After the fish had been preserved it stood for many years in his bar of the Crown pub in Ladywood, Birmingham.

A rare Japanese Giant Spider Crab, mounted on stand, had been trawled at 450 m, off Mihama Point, Suruga Bay, Japan in 2019. It's about 1 metre wide and mankind’s fascination for the largest of all crabs in the world started when Philipp Franz von Siebold shipped the first specimen from Japan back to Europe in 1836. Very little is known about these aquatic giants and this one is estimated at £5,000 - £8,000, while a pair of beautiful, green sea urchin displays carry an estimate of £4,000 - £6,000. In recent years, more quirky, modern taxidermy has found many admirers and the auction includes a baby Giraffe, mounted so it can hang from the ceiling, which is expected to sell for £6,000-£10,000, while a “Unicorn” carries an estimate of £6,500-£8,500. An impressively large full mounted Polar Bear is also included and estimated to fetch £30,000 - £50,000.

A few years back Summers Place Auctions sold a real Dodo skeleton, if you missed it, you can now buy a replica in a glass case at less than 1% of the price for an original at £1,800 - £2,500.