News and Opinion — Year 2010

The late Dorothy Sheey matched a lifelong love of antiques and collectibles with an old fashioned caring attitude to nursing the sick that would have done Florence Nightingale proud.  Born in 1895, Dorothy was orphaned early in life and raised by the Cottrell family in Hay, New South Wales. It was here she first fell in love with antiquities – the family (who dealt in furniture) constantly bringing beautiful pieces to the home.

Art+Object Auckland will auction on Saturday the estate of one of New Zealand’s most intriguing collectors. Pat Newman (1918-2009) clearly had a wide range of interests. Ross Millar from A+O said “Newman’s collection is extraordinary in its breadth, unusual, to say the least, but with a strong mechanical and manufacturing theme. The essence of the man is that he would rather build it than buy it. We have less and less characters like him around today.”

If Lawsons managing director Martin Farrah was feeling the pressure when he greeted guests at a cocktail party to launch the firm's upmarket 'Kensington Fine Interiors'  auctions in Sydney yesterday, it wasn't showing.

More animals on the loose over at John Williams' antique and collectable auction in Alexandria scheduled for the weekend, where there were stuffed creatures including a crocodile, turtles and goanna.

Two unusual paintings by Polish migrant the late Joseph Ostoja-Kotkowski should grab centre of attention at Philips Auctions first sale of the year from noon Sunday at 47 Glenferrie Road, Malvern.

After a five year association with Sydney-based auctioneer Tim Goodman, the venerable Adelaide firm of Theodore Bruce is going it alone. And it is kicking off its first year of independence with a cut to 15 per cent in the buyer’s premium it charges (compared with the 20 per cent common at big city auctions), plus the sale on March 14 of works from the legendary Strehlow collection - including a number of works by Albert Namatjira and other artists from the historic Hermannsburg Mission in Central Australia, where Carl Strehlow ministered in the 1890s.

Adelaide auction house Theodore Bruce, newly independent of its former shareholder Tim Goodman, who now operates Sotheby’s Australia, has plenty in the pipeline. A return to providing South Australians with a full auction service, rather than cherry picking material to send to the eastern states, should bolster the firm’s regular fine art and antiques offerings.

E. J. Ainger of Melbourne are hoping to repeat the success of their last house sale with the auction of the effects of Jill Holst, and several other estates on Sunday February 28. On September 6, 2009 Ainger's very successfully sold the Estate of Marjorie May Kingston in South Yarra.

Since 1969 the Antique Collector's Club (ACC) in the UK has been calculating the ACC Antique Furniture Price Index, with the results released in February of the following year.

Rare Wedgwood and Moorcroft tops the bill at Watsons Auctions in Christchurch, New Zealand, on February 18 when the firm offers part one of the collection of well known local figure Bromley Cocks.

Sydney's Lawsons Auctions is to sell the collection of the prominent Queensland carver and craftsman Elvin Beverley Harvey. Harvey, who was active from the 1930s and died last year, was a connoisseur and collector of handcrafted objects, as well as a master craftsman in his own right, continuing the woodworking and sculpting skills of his British-born father, the renowned Louis Jarvis Harvey.

About 60 people braved the continuous torrential rain to attend the Australiana auction held by Davidson Auctions in its rooms at Annandale on February 6, our Sydney correspondent writes. The crowd was only a tad under the numbers that the company usually associated with a print sale, Colin Chestnut of Davidson said.

Amanda Addams Auctions first sale of the year from 11am Sunday February 14 at 196 Bulleen Road, Bulleen contains 700 items from seven deceased estates.

Seems that as well as taking her usual well earned end-of-season break in the Harbour City, Hollywood's Nicole Kidman has been tripping the light fantastic at Sydney's Lawsons.

Bay East Auctions in Sydney's Waterloo has a lot of front - it's rounded up a stack of Australian chests of drawers for its antiques and interiors sale on Sunday Jan 31. Thing is, these are of especially desirable dimensions of around 90cm wide - just the thing for the socks and jocks.

Sydney auctioneer John Williams has a couple of interesting mugs and jugs with an Australiana theme at his sale on Saturday Jan 30, along with the usual suspects.

There were plenty of muffs to . . . er . . . get your teeth into at Vickers & Hoad's antiques and collectables auction in Sydney on Jan 24.

The award for most unlikely venue for an antiques and collectables fair must surely go to the Fryerstown Antique Fair,  held in and within the surrounds of the modest Fryerstown 'Burke and Wills Mechanics Institute' hall.