News and Opinion — Year 2017

A fragment of Australia’s infamous Eureka flag will be auctioned as part of Mossgreen’s Australian History sale on 11 December in Melbourne.

The flag flew at Eureka Stockade, also known as the Eureka Rebellion, which took place on December 3, 1854 at the Eureka Diggings in Ballarat, Victoria when disgruntled goldminers fed up at being ill-treated by authorities and forced to pay high mining licence fees decided to rebel.

A 6.49 carat diamond ring with a $120,000-$140,000 estimate could be the ideal Christmas gift for the woman who appreciates classic beauty at Mossgreen’s forthcoming Jewels & Watches auction on Monday November 27 in Armadale.

Scammell Auctions will offer an important Australian Colonial breakfront bookcase in their sale in Adelaide on 27 November, 2017.

This bookcase is possibly a rare example of the use of River Red Gum timber, “Eucalyptus Camaldulensis”, in the manufacture of Australian Colonial furniture.

Born in Holland in the Late 1940's Anneke Borren arrived in New Zealand in the early 1960's. Already a fledgling potter she quickly became well established in the strong ceramic scene in Wellington in particular but also New Zealand in general.

That she has decided to release her own significant holdings of her own journey through clay and that of her contemporaries is no mean feat.

From my own observations and experience it appears that the vast majority of artists have embedded in amongst the creative gene pool a number of those ''collector genes'' as part of their essential makeup.

To this end Cordy's auction house in Auckland held a 425 lot sale that was creatively divided into two parts: Anneke Borren The Maker and Anneke Borren The Collector.

An outstanding collection of rare and valuable books belonging to one of Australia’s leading conservationists and founder of the Australian Wildlife Conservancy Fund, the late Martin Copley (1940-2014), will be auctioned on October 22 by Mossgreen in Armadale.

By buying and managing land throughout Australia, the fund has played a vital role in preserving the habitats of endangered mammal and bird species. 

At a packed, standing room only Philips Fine & Decorative Arts auction on 10 September in Melbourne  auction, the standout lot was a vibrant green circular Faberge tray with silver gilt and ruby guilloche enamel rococo handles set with cut diamonds; formerly from the John Traina collection.

Many of the 35 lots of cocktail jewellery comes from a regular client – who over the years has amassed a wonderful and eclectic collection of this type of piece – consigning several items to the sale.

Of the 35 items (lots 340-375) the collector has consigned to the auction, in Melbourne on 4 September 4 a gold, ruby and diamond brooch (lot 365) with stylised floral design featuring round cut rubies to the stamen and diamond detail to the leaves, is typical of his discerning eye.

A rare Victorian gilt sterling silver suite of a Warwick vase and cover and four matching bowls (lot 618) made in 1842 by London silversmith Benjamin Smith for British politician, traveller and author James Emerson (1804-1869) is the highlight of an extensive sterling silver collection – part of Mossgreen’s International Decorative Arts auction on August 29 in Melbourne.

A director of the media empire founded in 1841 by his grandfather John Fairfax, the late James Fairfax (who died in January this year aged 83) was a passionate collector, philanthropist and supporter of the arts.

Although the family publishing business played an important role, it also was his extensive business travels and visits to his United Kingdom residence, when he often stopped for extended periods in Asia, that influenced and informed Fairfax’s decorative arts collection.

The three Brownlow Medals (awarded each year to the best and fairest Australian Rules Football player) won by Essendon legend Dick Reynolds will be part of Mossgreen’s forthcoming Sporting Memorabilia auction on 15 August at their rooms in Armadale.

One of the best rovers the game has seen, Reynolds played 320 games (a Victorian Football League record that stood until 1974) for Essendon between 1933 and 1951.

He won the Brownlow Medal – the highest acknowledgement to which an Australian Rules player can aspire – in 1934, 1937 and 1938.

An internationally significant Australian-based early English porcelain collection – the result of decades of research and acquisition – should give serious collectors the opportunity of a lifetime when it is auctioned from noon Sunday July 30 by Philips Auctions at 47 Glenferrie Road, Malvern Victoria as a pre-cursor to the company’s normal decorative arts sale.

The museum quality collection belongs to Timothy Menzel, born and raised in the Victorian Western District town of Hamilton where he ran three menswear stores and through his grandfather developed an interest in collecting, particularly porcelain.

Horse racing devotees and auction goers will have the opportunity to obtain a slice of Australian thoroughbred racing history when the contents of historic Wood Nook Farm, near the Victorian town of Nagambie, go under the hammer on July 25 in Armadale.

A thoroughbred nursery for more than six decades, Wood Nook was extensively developed by former Moonee Valley Race Club chairman Bob Scarborough and his wife Rosemary.

A grand Sevres porcelain and gilt bronze centrepiece is a major highlight of the Peterson Collection, formed over a lifetime by the late husband and wife team Burton “Pete” and Melda Peterson and housed in their Brisbane family home. Mossgreen has been asked to auction the collection in two sessions on Sunday June 18 at the Brisbane City Hall.

An extravagant ivory conductor’s baton, once belonging to the great French composer Claude Debussy, will go under the auction hammer on 30 April 2017 at Aingers sale of 'The Estate Of A Gentleman together with the Richard Divall AO OBE Collection', with expectations of reaching between $10,000-20,000.

The baton (lot 329) is being sold as part of the estate of Richard Divall AO OBE, a celebrated conductor, composer and scholar who passed away in January this year.   He was given the baton by an old student and great friend of Debussy, whom Divall befriended while studying in Paris in his youth.   

Expensive fixtures once part of Melbourne’s largest late 19th century residence, Cliveden – and salvaged to reside in the dining room of the same name at the Pullman (formerly Hilton) Hotel built on the East Melbourne site – are the historic highlights of a massive E.J Ainger warehouse clearance auction from 11am Sunday March 5 at 16 Baker Street, Richmond. One of the saved fixtures is a fine 19th century Italian stained and leaded glass mural of Madonna with arms outstretched and text ‘Thou Art as Welcome as the Flowers in May’ flanked by two smaller panels of courtiers.

After 165 years, Australia’s oldest jeweller Kozminsky has closed while owner Kirsten Albrecht considers the next chapter in the company’s business development.

The forthcoming on site auction – from 11am Saturday March 4 at 421 Bourke Street, Melbourne – will be the largest single owner jewellery sale in Australia since the 1981 auction of the Claire McKinnon collection, with a conservative auction estimate of $1 million.

Mossgreen tested the market's appetite for the Trevor Kennedy Collection by selling "Part 1" in Sydney on 21 February 2017.

Subtitled "Important Moorcroft and Australian Pottery and Porcelain", the Moorcroft brand was to be found on 84 of the 226 lots, and was estimated at $160,000 - $250,000 compared with the total estimates for sale of $220,000 - $346,000 – 37% by number but 73% by value, based on the low estimates.

Have you sat in a Featherston-designed chair?

With original Grant Featherston contour chairs frequently fetching well over $5,000 most people probably think that they have never sat in a Featherston chair but they are most likely wrong. Most Australians would have experienced at least one Featherston chair, arguably making him Australia’s most successful industrial designer.

Auction habitués must have thought the boom times for Victorian furniture had returned on Sunday 12 February when Philips Auctions in Melbourne sold a Victorian mahogany extension table for $12,000 hammer, even if it was only $2,000 above the low estimate.

Admittedly it was a large table, almost 5 metres with 6 leaves and had a made-in-heaven provenance, having been purchased by the vendor from Church Guild of St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne in about 1968.

A William Moorcroft flambé Waratah exhibition vase dated 1939 adorns Mossgreen’s catalogue front cover – signifying the forthcoming auction of Australian journalist and businessman Trevor Kennedy’s massive decorative arts collection.