The koalas, a ceramic group by the NSW potter John Castle Harris, frolicked to one of the best prices in the sale, $25,095 including buyers’ premium - but highlighted the recent trend towards highly selective buying. Auctioneer Paul Sumner describes the interest as polarised. “Even in this collection [of Australian ceramics], a lot of it didn’t sell. The market is very focused on the top end.”
The typically well modelled piece, (Lot 414 ) in the sale, depicts a mother koala and her two cubs, subtly coloured and their fur finely textured, tumbling amid branches. Dating from around 1935, it is 20cm high and inscribed by its maker on the base.
A rare Grace Seccombe group of two green budgerigars on a stump, (Lot 412 ), 17cm high, and also circa 1935, fetched a far less spectacular $5377.50, while another Seccombe study of blue budgies went unsold, as did a selection of Remued and McHugh wares.
Among the Australiana woodwork, a rosewood and cedar three door wardrobe (Lot 419 ) by Andrew Lenehan, circa 1870 brought $8365, while a carved panel of a woman smoking a pipe by Robert Prenzel went unsold, on a $10,000 to $15,000 estimate.
Bidding on a finely made Australian cedar and rosewood secretaire chest circa 1850 (Lot 430 ) for which the vendor had hopes of $15,000 to $25,000, fell short of the reserve, but the auctioneer was still hoping to negotiate a sale later. The piece had been catalogued as of English origin, and mahogany, in the Owston sale in June this year, where it fetched $7200.
A very compact walnut and cross banded William and Mary English kneehole desk circa 1700, (Lot 247 ) fetched $14,340 - but there were numerous unsolds among the English furniture, despite the presence of several good pieces from private collections.
A disappointed Sumner partly blames the somewhat unfortunate timing of the sale, with the Federal government in limbo after the election.
But looking on the bright side, he points out that “the market was never better to buy good quality antique furniture at auction”.
Asian art was a little more buoyant. A lustrously glazed imperial yellow saucer dish, Tongzhi mark and period, (Lot 695 ) brought $8066.25, while a blue-and-white brush pot circa 1700 (Lot 169 ) sold for $$7767.50 and, an 18th century blue and white censor on stand (Lot 171 ), ex the Jane Carnegie collection brought $2151.
Top scorer overall in the sale – an offering that ranged from art to glass, silver, clocks, textiles and curios - was, Arthur Boyd’s Bathers on Rocks and Water Tower, (lot 612) which brought $29,875.
Towards the end of the massive sale, comprising more than 800 lots, numbers in the room had dwindled to less than a dozen. Overall clearance was a relatively depressed 60 per cent.