NEW YORK, NY.- Christie’s announced full details of Out of the Ordinary: The Online Edit which will run from 27 August to 10 September 2014 offering collectors of all things extraordinary the chance to acquire unusual objects from around the world at any time. A leading highlight of this online sale is a group of photographs showing Yeti footprints in the Memluk Basin (estimate: £3,000 – 5,000). The photographs were taken by Eric Earle Shipton (1907-1977) during the 1951 Everest expedition. Shipton’s photographs ignited speculation about the existence of a Yeti which had been growing since N.A. Tombazi made the first European sighting during an expedition to the Sikkim Himalaya in 1925.

Out of the Ordinary: The Online Edit features items such as vintage posters, an elephant bird egg and a fossilised giant palm frond and will run alongside the pre-sale exhibition for Out of the Ordinary 2014. To view the full sale please visit the dedicated microsite: www.christies.com/outoftheordinary

Shipton’s photographs of these mysterious footprints were taken in the Memluk Basin. With no means of measuring them, after examining them, Shipton took four photographs: two of the indistinct prints with human footprints, and rucsac beside them for comparison; the other two photographs were of one of the most detailed and distinct group of prints, with an ice axe for scale, and a second one with a booted foot. The footprints measure between 12 and 13 inches long. Edmund Hillary had a further encounter in 1952 on a pass between the Ngojumba and Khumbu glaciers: 'We were climbing quite a steep pitch when Pemba stopped and picked something off the rock. Obviously greatly excited, he showed it to Angpemba. Feeling somewhat curious, I asked them what it was all about. They placed in my hand a tuft of long black hairs -- thick and coarse, they looked more like bristles than anything else. "Yeti, Sahib! Yeti!" I couldn't help being impressed by their conviction, and it did seem a strange place to find some hair. We were well over 19,000 feet and the Abominable Snowman was obviously no mean rock climber' (Hillary, High Adventure, 1955, p. 103).

Following these various incidents, Hillary mounted an expedition in 1960 to collect and evaluate evidence of the Yeti, with inconclusive results. British mountaineer Don Whillans was a fervent believer, claiming he encountered the Yeti while scaling Annapurna in 1970. He observed a few human-like footprints in the snow around his camp one morning and, that evening, claimed that through binoculars he watched a bipedal, ape-like creature for about 20 minutes as it apparently searched for food not far from his camp.

ADDITIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

• Lot 1006 An Elephant Bird Egg Madagascar, pre-17th century Starting Bid: £10,000

• Lot 1023 I Married a Monster from Outer Space Reynold Brown (1917-1991) Starting Bid: £700

• Lot 1013 A David Linley for Dunhill Architectural Walnut Jewellery Box circa 1994 Starting Bid: £7,000