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The consensus on the Sydney Antiques Show held by the Australian Antique and Art Dealers Association in the Pavilion at the Royal Randwick Racecourse in Sydney last week appeared to be "lots of lookers but few buyers."
The carved and painted figurehead of a country girl thst once adorned the bow of The Coonatto, an English ship that served the Australian wool and tea trade has been sold in the United States to an Australian buyer..
THE ABC'S decision to axe programs including the Tasmanian-produced series Collectors is an act of destruction, say Friends of the ABC. Arts shows including Collectors, The New Inventors and Art Nation will not be renewed after they complete their present runs.
John Albrecht, its managing director, has purchased the two thirds interest in Leonard Joel that he did not previously own, for a sum believed to value the business at around $6 million.
Aingers second special auction for 2011 includes a collection from retired butcher, Ben Bradbury, 15 items from the estate of former Balwyn antique dealer Norma Lech and a desk that once belonged to World War II hero, Edward 'Weary' Dunlop
What a difference a year makes. After the controversy of last year's London International Fine Art Fair, this year the 38th Olympia International Fine Art and Antiques Fair (June 9-19) made a concerted attempt to go back to its roots, reverting to the old name and notably without the involvement of David Lester.
The third generation of the Joel family of auctioneers, Warren Joel, has departed the family business. Warren Joel, his wife and three daughters live in house number 13, which is why he has an old "Bay 13" sign next to his front door. OK, Joel comes from three generations of auctioneers so it is easy to deduce that the sign came from a Melbourne Cricket Ground wrecker's sale, a souvenir of that once-infamous section of the outer. However, you would be wrong.
A fine gold chronometer watch retailed by the Adelaide silversmith firm J. M. Wendt and inscribed to a local mayor sold for $4800 including buyer’s premium at a Theodore Bruce auction in Adelaide on Monday.
They were raising their hats in Mossgreen’s South Yarra salerooms earlier this month when an 1100-year-old Chinese imperial hair comb in gold and ivory brought a stunning price of $48,800 including buyer’s premium, more than double the estimate.
A presentation gold snuff box was the star of the auction of Fine Furniture and Decorative Arts held by Bonhams Australia when it made $108,000 including buyers' premium at the Byron Kennedy Hall in Sydney on June 26.
One of the lots in a sale held by Leonard Joel at its rooms in Melbourne's South Yarra on Sunday June 19 emerged as challenger for the title of sleeper of the year when it sold for $120,000 against estimates of $2,000 to $2,500.
Leski Auctions will offer Don Bradman's 1934 Australian baggy green test cap for sale on Wednesday June 29, with an estimate of $200,000 - $300,000
Heirlooms or hairlooms? Whatever, it’s billed as an important private collection of ancient Chinese hair combs and it’s a fascinating component of a Mossgreen mid-year sale in Melbourne on June 14 which includes Asian and Western art and furniture.
The future of the ABC-TV's popular Tasmanian-produced show Collectors is up in the air. While filming for the rest of series seven of the program is continuing, Collectors will be "rested" after the last of the programs airs in September.
The sleeper in the coming Bonhams Australia auction of an estimated $1.3 million to $1.8 million of decorative arts in Sydney on June 29 leaps out of the catalogue right into the reader's lap.
Any auctioneer will tell you that there's nothing like the contents of a deceased estate to encourage bidders, especially if the estimates are reasonable, and so it proved at Leonard Joel's Decorative Arts & Fine Furniture sale in Melbourne on 5 June.
Two interesting estates are amongst Leonard Joel’s latest decorative arts and fine furniture auction from noon Sunday at 333 Malvern Road, South Yarra.
Australian auction houses are relying on the advice, help and in some cases their own experience in the global auction industry to shield them from the new much discussed problem of Asian defaulters.
It’s been 11 years since the Australian Antique & Art Dealers Association last held an antiques fair in Melbourne, the last fair in 2000 also being held in this years venue, the Historic Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton.
Roy Francis Ryan was a giant of a man, 6 foot 4 in the old currency, and a prominent figure around Tamworth, NSW – which was reflected in big local interest in the sale of his collection at Tamworth Town Hall on May 8 and 9.