News and Opinion — Year 2010

Tim Goodman has thrown in the towel at Sotheby's Australia after only one year's ownership of the franchise, acquired in a deal which shook the industry and was widely acclaimed as the art deal of the last decade.

Bonhams Australia is opening its new permanent offices in Australia in early 2011, at 76 Paddington Street, Woollahra, only a stone's throw from Lucio's, the restaurant where many of the big picture deals of the 1980s art boom were negotiated over long Friday lunches.

Pottle Auctions will offer a cricket bat signed by Don Bradman and seventeen others including the 1948 “The Invincibles” team for the Australian XI v Western Australia match that was held on March 15 1948.

Antique dealer and auctioneer David Barsby will commence trading as Barsby Auctions, with his first auction scheduled for December 4.

A “hat trick” of three little jade carvings offered at a Melbourne auction this week highlighted the big premium Chinese buyers are prepared to pay for choice artworks created in the past few hundred years

The National Gallery of Australia has acquired  a rare  circa 1920s’ Calyx Ware tea service, (lot 255) designed by the Western Australian artist, A. B. Webb at a Perth auction, for a price of $8,155.  The 21 piece set had been estimated at $5,000-7,000.

The Junius Cup, an early Australian silver racing trophy, was sold yesterday by Raffan Kelaher and Thomas in Sydney  for $161,000 (including premium).

Bonhams, seeking to extend staff expertise across all areas of decorative arts, have appointed Patti Sedgwick as Head of Jewellery for Bonhams, Australia, based in the Sydney office.

Indicative of the interest in the collection of maritime objects, being de-acquisitioned and consigned by the National Trust (Victoria), and offered at the beginning of the first day of a two day sale, there was standing room only when the sale commenced.

If November is a month for males to cultivate moustaches as part of the “Movember” men’s health initiative, then it’s also the month for monster auction catalogues.

The wise old owls of the bi-focaled variety came out for the tail end of the Owston collection sold by Bonhams Australia in the Byron Kennedy Hall at the Sydney Showground on November 14.

Historical maritime objects and fine furniture no longer required by the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) will go under the hammer from noon Sunday at Leonard Joel 333 Malvern Road, South Yarra in the first part of a two-day auction sale.

A strong horseracing theme will mark Tuesday’s Mossgreen auction from 6pm at 310 Toorak Road, South Yarra, when the Brian Clinton painting The Greatest Cup Never Run and the contents of the magnificent Toorak mansion Dunraven are offered for sale.

A silver racing prize cup almost certainly made by the renowned early colonial silversmith Alexander Dick has emerged from a property in Rylstone northwest of Sydney and is to be offered at auction, where its price could top $100,000.

Birds and beasts loom large in a bumper catalogue as Bonhams launches its second major auction in Australia, at Sydney’s Moore Park on November 13, 14 and 15.