Strange items for sale at unusual auction

Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Riva aged 6, poses for photographs beside a pair of large-scale Victorian leather "Ivy Brand" Exhibition Balmoral boots, circa 1880, during a photocall at Christie's auction house in London, Monday. The boots, are estimated to fetch between 10,000 and 12,000 pounds ($15,352 to $18,423 and 11,564 to 13,876 euro) in an "Out of the Ordinary" sale on September 5. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

Art lovers who can't afford a painting by Francis Bacon can bid on the late artist's paintbrushes at an auction of unusual items.

The eight brushes, given by Bacon to fellow artist Clive Barker in 1978, are in a paint-splattered butter bean tin inside a clear box. They have an estimated price of 20,000 pounds to 25,000 pounds ($31,000 to $46,000).

Bacon's paintings have sold for as much as $86 million at auction.

Also among the 150 lots in Christie's Out of the Ordinary sale: a rocking horse as tall as a house; a flying machine from Steven Spielberg's "Young Sherlock Holmes"; a stuffed ostrich; and a Triceratops skull valued at between 150,000 pounds and 250,000 pounds.

The sale will be held Sept. 5 in London.