LINDA MOTTRAM: Australia's love affair with Ned Kelly is expected to bring in top dollar when an engraving of the bushranger on a cow horn is auctioned in Melbourne today. It's expected that it might fetch $200,000. The engraving dates from the late nineteenth century, and depicts Ned Kelly, his sister Kate and Kelly's arresting officer, Constable Fitzpatrick.

Kate Kelly gave the piece to a friend, who kept it until she died in New Zealand 30 years ago. It's now being sold for only the second time. The managing director of Noble Numismatics , Jim Noble, who's auctioning the piece, has told David Mark that the cow horn is a fine example of the art form known as scrimshaw.

JIM NOBLE: Well, scrimshaw is hand engraving on things like ivory, whales teeth, are the most commonly used things. And it was an art form, particularly in the nineteenth century, early nineteenth century, depicting, you know, what historical things took place at the time, particularly relating to whaling, you know. There was quite a lot of scrimshaw relating to whaling. The scrimshaw relating to the Kelly gang was sort of typical of something that might have been done to record something very important in history at that time.

DAVID MARK: How good is the likeness of Ned, his sister and Constable Fitzpatrick on the cow horn?

JIM NOBLE: Oh, very good, a very good likeness. It's actually a fine piece of engraving. Very good scrimshaw.

DAVID MARK: Do you know who the artist is?

JIM NOBLE: No we haven't been able to identify who it is.

I would say that it's something that's certainly closely connected with the Kellys.

DAVID MARK: When does the piece date from?

JIM NOBLE: Ah, probably it dates from the late nineteenth century probably I would say. It's been certainly in the possession of this lady who died in New Zealand aged 106. And it was in her estate. It came on the market then back in 1970. And a couple of years later it was obtained by the person that's put it into our auction. And that person paid quite a lot of money for it, buying it as a unique relic of Ned Kelly and his gang. And that's why we're expecting a large sum this time. It sort of fits in with the kind of prices that are being asked for parts of Ned Kelly's armour plate.

DAVID MARK: What sort of price are you expecting?

JIM NOBLE: Well, we've got an estimate of $200,000. But, you know, it's up for sale. We'll see what happens.

DAVID MARK: What's the market like for these sort of items?

JIM NOBLE: Ah, well, it's very good, you know, museums are interested, and there are certain patriotic Australian collectors who love to own unique pieces of Australiana. And, you know, it's very hard to get anything actually directly linked with Kelly.

LINDA MOTTRAM: Jim Noble, auctioning the Ned Kelly cow horn today in Melbourne.