About this piece
back to topA varied Set of English Oligocene & Upper Cretaceous fossil specimens collected around Beachy Head in Sussex, the Isle of Wight, and Dorset.
Ex. private collection of Raymond Henry Wells (1921-1993).
This fascinating collection of over one hundred British found fossils have been meticulously hunted along the British coastline. Fixed to a wooden board, each fossil has been cleaned and identified by the collector.
This collection includes Ammonites, Sponges, Sea Urchins, Brachiopods, Bivalves, Gastropods and shark teeth (11)!
The wider collection includes ammonites, micrasters, crinoids, various shells, belemnites and plants, all mounted to numbered wooden boards and fully annotated.
Provenance
This group is just one of various fossil collections we have for sale previously part of a wider collection collated by Raymond Henry Wells. Born in Brighton & Hove, Ray became a plumber by trade, later serving in the 72 Squadron working on Spitfires as a mechanic during the liberation of Italy. After the war, Ray married Mary Friend in 1951, with a son and daughter arriving in the late 50’s.
Ray’s passions involved gardening, palaeontology, geology and archaeology. He travelled the UK on numerous expeditions hunting fossils with the whole family. After his retirement in 1976, the hunt continued nationwide. The couple were involved with the Brighton & Hove Geological society which honoured their contributions in 1991 by naming a fossil dragonfly named after them – Valdicordulia wellsorum.
These meticulously catalogued and archived specimens are a testament to a passionate collector.
