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Sleepers of exceptional Australian interest eluded buyers at sales around the world this month, writes Terry Ingram. Exposure on the Internet and or last minute auction house catalogue and estimate revisions meant that no-one walked away with the premium bargains these promised.
Major art and antique auctions are to be held again in the Melbourne CBD with regularity after decades of almost complete absence, writes Terry Ingram
Bonhams was unable to contain the enthusiasm of one bidder at its Sunday Sydney auction of part one of the decorative arts collection of the late Graham and Elizabeth Cocks. Auctioneer James Hendy started at $1500 for lot 65, a glass vase, and had just asked for bids of $2000 when a telephone bidder inquired whether he would take a bid of $35,000. Well, yes, of course! That was where the hammer settled, the mystery buyer paying $42,700, including buyer’s premium.
A private collector has paid $122,000 for a gun that may or may not have belonged to the Kelly gang. Bidding at Charles Leski Auctions in Hawthorn started at $75,000 with six bids made, all by phone, up to the successful bid of $100,000. Auctioneer's commission brought the price to $122,000. The catalogue for the sale described the modified East India Company Cavalry Pistol as Dan Kelly's pistol.
The overflowing crowd at auction by Mossgreen of the estate of Leslie Walford at the Tim Olsen Gallery on November 18 kissed goodbye to the minimalism which had displaced the life's work of the best known doyens of modern Sydney decorating. Some of those cold clean empty interiors decorators created in the 1990s will now be lightened by bits of the colourful tat for which Walford, who was much lauded for his curtains for Elizabeth Bay House, was celebrated.
When Dan Kelly burnt to an unrecognisable husk at the siege of Glenrowan, it is said police discovered an old muzzle-load single-shot pistol among the weapons used by the Kelly gang. ''But it disappeared, as far as I know,'' says Kelly historian Ian Jones, speaking from Beechworth. ''I've never seen records of it remaining in police hands.'' On November 22, an East Indian Company Cavalry pistol - the kind that uses powder and a lead ball instead of a cartridge - is going under the hammer at Leski Auctions in Hawthorn, and is expected to sell for up to $125,000.
There is a reason Western Australians may have been inclined not to pay high prices for their past. It is rat infested and flea ridden. Or so it is described in the journal of Mary Ann Field which came up for sale at Christie's South Kensington in London on October 10. The State Library of Western Australia, however, grasped the nettle and bought the diary for AUD$196,041.
Two Chinese antiques have been withdrawn from auction in Britain, the auctioneer said, after the proposed sale sparked fury in China amid claims they were looted from Beijing in the 19th century. Bonhams issued an apology as it confirmed the two jade carvings would not be sold after the owner withdrew them from a planned auction on Thursday to "avoid any possible offence".
The art and antiques auction industry around the world could lose much of its appeal to vendors as a result of a ruling in the New York Supreme Court. The opacity which traditionally made art an attractive trading commodity is under threat from a possible future requirement for auctioneers to reveal the names of vendors. The ruling, over a plea for the identity of the consignor of a silver box in a US auction has opened a Pandora's box. Although this promises a great boost to connoisseurship and scholarship, it would be another blow to a market which has thrived inexorably on the investment and money shuffling attractions of a commodity without title deeds, Terry Ingram writes.
Phar Lap's mounted hide is in Melbourne, his skeleton is in Wellington, New Zealand, his heart is in Canberra. And a set of his shoes could be on display in your home. These are among the highlights of this Sunday's Leonard Joel auction of Horse Racing and Other Sporting Memorabilia in Melbourne.
Long awaited and now published, is the detailed and well illustrated catalogue of the Houstone collection of early Australian Silver. More than 40 years in the making by the industrious retired solicitor, the collection is certainly the most comprehensive in existence for the pre-1850 period and certainly no less than remarkable for works from the second half of the century. More than merely a catalogue, the book is an essential reference of new and updated wisdom on the subject.
Leonard Joel advertised this auction as the "most important auction of its type in Australia since the Owston Collection". The Owston collection sold by Bonhams on June 25 and 26, 2010 at Sydney 's Overseas Passenger Terminal comprised 1300 lots sold under instructions of KordaMentha as receivers of Owston Nominees No.2 after the 42-year marriage of colourful Perth property developer Warren Anderson ended.
What is shaping up to be the final sale of Graham Geddes massive collection of important antique furniture and collectibles will take auction house Leonard Joel three days to complete. The first session will begin at 10am on Saturday September 15 and continue over the following two days from 10am and 6.30pm respectively at 333 Malvern Road, South Yarra.
A piece of antique silver with a lot of interest to Australia been withdrawn from the market and may re-emerge with a new hallmark - for 2012. The piece, a circular presentation salver, was withdrawn from an auction of silver at Bonhams in Chester in the UK on September 4.
Graham Geddes is guiding me through his labyrinthine showrooms, an Aladdin's Cave spread across four shopfronts in High Street, Armadale, packed to the rafters with some truly exquisite and amazing antiques, decorative arts and antiquities. As we saunter among his collection of almost 2000 items - most of which go under the hammer over three days, starting on Saturday week - Geddes reels off object after object with a scholarly ease, as if running through a weekly grocery list.
Three rare Australian coins have fetched almost $900,000 at auction - taking out two records in the process. Australia's first coin, known as the "Hannibal Head" Holey Dollar, sold for $410,000, while the first gold coin, an 1852 Adelaide pound, netted $370,000. Both coins fetched record prices for coins of their type sold at auction, with the pound eclipsing the previous record by $240,000.
Three rare Australian coins to be auctioned in Melbourne tonight are expected to fetch more than $1 million. One of the coins is a "Hannibal Head" holey dollar, created in New South Wales in 1813 from a silver dollar minted in Peru. Also on offer are one of Australia's first gold coins, the 1852 Adelaide Pound and an 1813 Colonial Dumps.
There may have been saturation coverage of the London Olympics during the past month but the world's greatest sporting event remains a relatively minor part of the sports-memorabilia market. Next week a significant local collection of Olympics memorabilia will go on sale through Leski Auctions in Melbourne. "It doesn't happen very often," Charles Leski says. "This is the collection of a local enthusiast who just loved the idea that he could buy these things."
It was a tale of two auctions in Sydney yesterday where Peter and Divonne Holmes a Court's collection of contemporary art and furniture recorded a 90 per cent sale rate, while fashion designer Lisa Ho's 421-lot collection of antiques and frocks sold just 70 per cent. The twin sale by Melbourne's Mossgreen auction house at Byron Kennedy Hall in Moore Park in Sydney's east began at 2.30pm and finally wrapped up at 8pm. More than 100 people crowded the auction room, internet bidding was brisk and 10 staff managed bidding by phone.