Jackson Hole News&Guide, Wednesday, September 5, 2012 - 9D
PRICE CHAMBERS / NEWS&GUIDE
A real triceratops fossil, shown at By Nature Gallery with a $450,000 price tag, is about 60 million years old. It dates from the late Cretaceous Period.
Nature as artist
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By Kelsey Dayton
he centerpiece at By Nature Gallery has been 10 years in the making ... or 60 million years. A decade ago, diggers unearthed — from deep beneath the clay and sandstone of the fossil-rich Hell Creek Formation in Montana — a triceratops fossilized skull. It arrived in Jackson weighing about 1,500 pounds and will sell for about $700,000, said Doug Bradstreet, one of the principal owners of By Nature Gallery. After its discovery, the skull spent years in a lab, where its pieces were removed from rock, cleaned and put together like a large three-dimensional puzzle and then mounted. It was so heavy the gallery needed to build a special mount on wheels. By Nature Gallery decided about a year ago to showcase the skull, Bradstreet said. With partners all over the world, the gallery often has opportunities to show items like dinosaur skulls, he said. Bradstreet once had a tyrannosaurus skull in the gallery. The triceratops skull is the perfect piece for By Nature Gallery, embodying its mission of exhibiting nature’s art. The frill, or neck collar, makes it instantly recognizable. It’s also large and impressive — about 7 1/2 feet long from the back to the tip of the nose and 4 1/2 feet wide across the frill. “It’s about as big as I can go without it being cumbersome,” Bradstreet said. The skull joins other natural art ranging from woolly mammoth tusks to velociraptor claws and the skull of a mosasaurus, a crocodile-like animal that made prehistoric swimming a thrill. “This though,” Bradstreet said of the triceratops skull, “is the Mona Lisa of the group.” Since opening the Jackson gallery four years ago, Bradstreet has seen a trend: more people investing in prized pieces of art from nature. “What we’re finding is people are kind of tired of putting big money into canvas and paint,” he said. “This is the new art. It’s natural history. It’s something very rare. You get to touch history. You get to be around stuff that most people don’t even know exists.” Items like the skull appeal to people from all walks of life. Big pieces, such as the triceratops skull, are only for collectors with a big budget, Bradstreet said. But those people come from a variety of backgrounds. And most people do a double-take when they walk by the gallery and see a dinosaur skull in the window. To appeal to all, the gallery features
items for as little as $3, such as a fossilized ammonite from Madagascar. “People are so intrigued with this kind of history,” Bradstreet said. The gallery encourages children to come and check out the merchandise. “We’re all about giving them an experience they’ll never get to have,” he said. “If you go to any other museum, try to touch a triceratops skull and see what happens. Here, I encourage it.” But that doesn’t mean they can give the dinosaur a name, Bradstreet said. “We let the folks who buy it name it,”
TABLE TOP TO LIFE-SIZE BRONZE SCULPTURE
Visit the working Studio and Sculpture Garden along Fish Creek in Wilson of artist John B. Mortensen
www.mortensenstudios.com Please call to visit the Studio during the Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival (307) 733-1519
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Please proof and call Viki at 739-9539 or return via Fax at 733-2138. Thanks!
authentic american indian jewelry by noted award-winning artists
Robert Dean Collection
PHOTO BY GARTH DOWLING
By Nature Gallery 86 E. Broadway 200-6060 ByNatureGallery.com ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
MORTENSEN STUDIOS
marco begaye naVajo artist
160 West Broadway Jackson, Wyoming Phone (307) 733-9290 Mon-Sat 10am – 6pm Sunday 11am – 5pm www.robertdeancollection.com
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