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Remember the days when pickers scoured flea markets and rural antique stores, searching for unidentified Australian treasures, hoping to re-sell through city based auctions to cognoscenti who would recognise their true value? Well, based on recent trends they will all be signing up for lessons in spotting Chinese antiquities.
An alliance between leading auction houses, antique and art dealer associations and art consultants has lead to the formation of the Australian Antique and Art Market Federation (AAAMF). The inaugural Chairman of the AAAMF, Jolyon Warwick James of the Australian Antique & Art Dealers Association, said the purpose of the organisation was to " join together in sending in a single combined response to the press, art bodies, and Government as and when the commercial sector’s interests are under challenge."
Many Melbourne collectors are planning to travel to Tamworth for Mothers Day to participate in the largest antique auction the New South Wales New England centre has ever seen. Going under the hammer courtesy of Mossgreen Auctions will be an extraordinary collection of antiques and art owned by local identity the late Roy Francis Ryan – who was well known throughout Australia’s collecting fraternity.
The $10 billion market for Chinese antiques is about to be transformed by the unexpected fallout from an auction at a saleroom in a suburb of London. An 18th-century vase found in a house clearance, bid to an auction record for any Chinese artwork, has become the biggest example of slow payments from Chinese buyers. With no payment reported by Bainbridges for the 51.6 million pound ($83.2 million) Nov. 11 sale, other auction houses yesterday told Bloomberg that they are demanding deposits from would-be buyers.
The two day Sotheby's Australia sale grossed $1,793,805 hammer against the low to high total estimate range of $1,680,800 to $2,428,100 the success largely due to the oriental section sold on the first night.
One vendor in the Sotheby's Australia two day sale of Fine Furniture and Decorative Arts received an unexpected windfall last evening when a Chinese ‘Famille-Rose' ‘Hundred Boys' Vase estimated at $15,000-20,000 sold for $400,000 ($480,000 IBP)
Leonard Joel were trying some new ideas for their first Fine Jewellery sale of 2011.
As well as a new auction time of Sunday afternoon to make it “more convenient to buyers” according to John Albrecht, Managing Director of Leonard Joel. “Items of Luxury” were also added.
THE Museum of Old and New Art, the controversial $80 million private museum owned by maths whizz and gambler David Walsh, is losing its director, Mark Fraser, who is returning to the art auction scene.
From a record breaking Ray Crooke painting to a plethora of plush sofas there were plenty of hot sellers at Mossgreen’s sale of the contents of the Nettlefold family home in Hobart on Sunday, March 27.
A contemporary limited edition grand orrery - a clockwork model of the solar system - containing a brass plate engraved with the signs of the Zodiac, months of the year and the four seasons (lot 80) should get collectors of antique timepieces buzzing at Sotheby’s latest decorative arts sale from 6pm on April 5 and 6 at 926 High Street, Armadale.
A Victorian mahogany extension dining table (lot 799) with eight leaves, and complete with leaf holder was knocked down for $32,000 as frenetic bidding saw 96 per cent of lots change hands at E.J. Ainger’s special sale on March 26 and 27.
A major highlight of the E. J. Ainger two-day auction on March 26 and 27 at 433 Bridge Road Richmond, is the pair of George IV flame mahogany breakfront bookcases (lot 518) that John Ainger sold 25 years ago to a Hawthorn doctor who, because of ill health, is now placing them on the auction market.
From 8 April 2011 Leonard Joel Sydney will trade under its former name of Bay East. The operation, however, is unlikely to return to what are now remembered as its halcyon days when serious finds and worthwhile arbitrage profits paid for the more than occasional celebratory pint of Guinness.
It’s billed as Tasmania’s biggest sale in yonks. From the sprawling turn-of-the- century Nettlefold home in Hobart’s Sandy Bay comes an array of classic English and Continental furniture, ceramics, bronzes and clocks, silver, chandeliers and curios, even fascinating Australiana.
A Christchurch antiques dealer is appealing to authorities to help save his valuable collection before his CBD store is bulldozed.
Scammells Auctions in Adelaide confirmed the assertion in our article of February 21 (Brown furniture sparks new interest) that there is a revival of interest in brown furniture, that either stands out visually, has provenance, and is in good condition, when they sold a Victorian dining suite, (table and 12 matching chairs) for $38,250 (IBP) on February 27.
The Australian antique and art trade is enjoying a big lift in morale with the opening of Bonhams Australia’s new premises at 76 Paddington Street, Paddington. This follows a serious depletion of the industry's ranks over the past decade.
Two Sydney North Shore antique stores have been robbed in the past week and shop owners believe an international gang could be responsible. Antiques valued at “hundreds of thousands” of dollars were stolen from Past Connections Antiques Mosman store on Sunday night, and a large quantity of jewellery, silverware and cash was taken from Beryl’s Old Charm Antiques at Roseville sometime between last Thursday night and Friday morning.
A black rhino head worth more than £50,000 has been stolen from an auctioneers in Essex. Thieves forced open doors to Sworder's Auctioneers in Stansted Mountfitchet on Monday evening and fled with the mounted rhino head via a nearby field. Police said experts fear the rhino's horn could be ground down to use in black-market Chinese medicine. The object has a price tag in excess of £50,000, but could be worth more sold to the traditional medicine market.
Just as the Antique Collectors Club Furniture Index slumps to a new low, there are glimmers of hope for brown furniture. Both overseas and local sales provide hints of a revival of pieces that either stand out visually, have provenance and are in good condition.