News and Opinion — Year 2010

Neither the collapse of the stock market nor Sydney rain didn’t deter visitors to James A. Johnson & Associates Great Sydney Antiques Fair, which concluded yesterday, Sunday, May 23.

Sotheby’s Australia auctioned the extensive collection of Keith Okey of Denham Court near Campbelltown in Sydney’s west over two days on Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 May. The sale of 552 lots was notable mainly for his impressive Australian colonial furniture collection. The sale realised hammer prices of $1.869 million or over $2.2 million including premium, with 419 or 76% of the 552 lots sold by number. With some of the high ticket items such as the Oatley clock referred or unsold, the total of the hammer price against the average of the low and high estimates represented 52% of the lots sold by value.

It is a case of déjà vu for Leonard Joel this week with the offer of an outstanding Italian Carrara marble sculpture at Monday night’s (6pm start) decorative arts auction at 333 Malvern Road, South Yarra.

Several long-time collectors might recall the Adelaide zookeeper attacked by a lion in the 1960s. The lion had to be put down. Its stuffed head is in Philips latest auction as part of a comprehensive taxidermy collection of animals belonging to an Adelaide family who has declined to be named.

The third of the big art nights in New York was also a big night for Australian art and design: Mark Newson's Prototype Lockheed Lounge from 1988, with an estimate of US$1 million to US$1.5 million, sold for US$2.098 million, beating the previous record from April 2009 by US$485,000. The work sold after vigorous bidding in the room and on the phones to an unknown phone bidder.

Highlight of the Sotheby's two day decorative arts sale in Melbourne on May 4 and May 5, was the sale of rare painted English 'giraffe' grand piano by George Rogers & Sons of London, decorated in the Chinoiserie style and standing 245 cm high. Estimated at $20,000-30,000 the bidding soared to $141,000 hammer ($168,000 with premium) after being aggressively contested in $5,000 increments by two  determined and well-practiced telephone bidders.

The mahogany extension dining table (Lot 110) at which Queen Elizabeth II sat for lunch prior to opening the Sydney Opera House in 1973 was one of several significant items to sell at Leonard Joel’s May 2 auction of Boonaroo Homestead contents at Carrara on the Gold Coast.

Aingers Special Sale on May 1-2 achieved  a 90 per cent clearance and strong prices were achieved on several noteworthy items.

Joel's proved the attraction of  single vendor sales to buyers with the success of  March 21 sale of  vintage radios, and this May 2 single vendor toy sale confirmed this.

Never one to shirk a challenge,  Jamie Allpress, proprietor of Allpress Antiques in Malvern Victoria, was invited by the Trustees to be the first person outside the museum curatorial staff, to re-arrange the display of the Johnston Collection.

Recipients of the first decorative arts published by Sotheby's Australia under its new ownership, will notice little difference to those published under the original Sotheby's banner, which is exactly the seamless transition the new owners are hoping for. The layout, number of lots and market profile are all the same. And now with the departure of James Hendy, the former National Head of Fine & Decorative Arts who came over to Sotheby's Australia from Bonhams and Goodman,  Jennifer Gibson, the former Sotheby's decorative arts departmental head has resumed the role.

In what promises to be one of Australia’s most memorable antiques auctions, Sotheby’s is to sell the Dr Keith Okey collection of outstanding Australian and other furniture.

The highlight of the E. J. Ainger Special Sale to be held in their rooms in Richmond, Melbourne  on May 1 and May 2, is the Victorian double pedestal mahogany partners desk bearing a stamp of the ducal crown of His Royal Highness Prince George Duke of Cambridge (1819-1904), born at Cambridge House in Hanover Germany (Lot 630). The stamp of the cypher is on the top of each pedestal and to the underside of the top.

Leonard Joel and its collectables head Giles Moon are forging an enviable reputation for auctioning the unusual. This time it is toys – the type that are keenly sought by collectors worldwide and for which they are prepared to pay an arm and a leg.

The 19^th century mahogany pedestal extension dining table (Lot 110) is fit for a queen – and in fact Queen Elizabeth II lunched at the table prior to the opening in 1973 of the Sydney Opera House.