News and Opinion — Year 2014

In our News and Opinion and News Bites sections we publish relevant and timely articles on the antiques, collectables and decorative arts markets by respected and independent writers.

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Two pieces of Australiana sold comfortably above their estimates at very different auctions in Melbourne and Sydney this week. At Leonard Joel's Fine Art Auction on March 25 View of Mr Sturgeon and Mount Abrupt from the Crater of Bald Hill by Eugene von Guerard painted in 1869 sold for $270,000 hammer ($329,400 with premium) while at Noble Numismatics auction in Sydney on March 26 a bidder acting for Westpac paid $334,000 ($280,000 before buyers premium) for one of the first Australian banknotes.

Buyers compete for trophy art of the colonies by Terry Ingram

By Terry Ingram on 27-Mar-2014 (Exclusive to the Antiques Reporter)

Two pieces of Australiana sold comfortably above their estimates at very different auctions in Melbourne and Sydney this week, writes Terry Ingram .

The confident pictorial expressions of the colonies in different stages of their early development – and almost trophy lots - sold for around exactly the same hammer price which was well over $300,000 and in excess of expectations.

Andre and Eva Jaku said this week in a letter to friends and clients that they would be closing the Bondi Junction publishing operations of their JQ Pty Ltd and its associated companies. As well as giveaway quarterlies these produce the glossy half yearly magazine, World of Antiques and Art and their six a year Collectables Trader.

The end of (the) World is nigh.

By Terry Ingram on 10-Mar-2014 (Exclusive to the Antiques Reporter)

Andre and Eva Jaku said this week in a letter to friends and clients that they would be closing the Bondi Junction publishing operations of their JQ Pty Ltd and its associated companies.

As well as giveaway quarterlies these produce the glossy half yearly magazine, World of Antiques and Art and their six a year  Collectables Trader. 

Mossgreen takes the trail to Adelaide

By Terry Ingram on 10-Mar-2014 (Exclusive to the Antiques Reporter)

Mossgreen Auctions is expected to announce shortly and with a big fanfare the auction of the contents of one of Adelaide's most prestigious properties.

Continuing the frenetic growth of its business out of swank new premises in the Armadale High Street, the Melbourne-based company looks like having its first sale in South Australia from one of Adelaide's most respected families.

The $3 million stamp collection of Mr Julian Sterling, the deceased Melbourne art and antique dealer, will be sold by Mossgreen Auctions in Melbourne in three sales in April, May and June. Concentrating on Commonwealth stamps (King George heads) that were being used when he was a boy, he bought many prize specimens from collections, but ran out of time to complete it.

Another Sterling event but traditional stamp missing

By Terry Ingram on 23-Feb-2014 (Exclusive to the Antiques Reporter)

Mr Julian Sterling's last collection - of Commonwealth stamps - faces an uphill battle after a decade of saturation at the top end of the market. The deceased Melbourne art and antique dealer ran out of time to complete it.

But a new generation of  mostly men in their 50s are turning to philately and rare stamps are becoming a hot collectable. This is despite the decline in traditional mail in favour of the Internet and the over- supply of new issues.

This year a legendary magenta South American stamp is expected to make millions of dollars and the world's finest collection of Tasmanian stamps also listed to go under the hammer in Switzerland.

From their Camberwell salerooms, Youngs Auctions sold the collection of Richard and Fran Berry, who ran a Melbourne antiques shop, mostly out of Flinders Lane in the 1960s. The collection comprised 2266 lots and was sold in three tranches over two years in 2008 and 2009. Amongst the 'sleepers' was this short wooden Papuan ancestral figure, which sold for 40 times its top estimate: a $24,000 hammer price against a high estimate of $600.

Youngs Auctions - out of the old and into the new

By Terry Ingram on 12-Feb-2014 (Exclusive to the Antiques Reporter)

Another auction house is to become a property developer with Youngs placing its property in Melbourne's Hawthorn East for sale with Colliers with estimate of $4 million \ to $5 million, and a search underway for a property to replace it.

The single-storey building on a 445-square-metre block at 229 Camberwell Road a few doors from Camberwell Junction and the busy Burke Road shopping strip, will most probably make way for the suburb's next medium-density apartment building.

Martin Miller (1946 - 2013): Knew the price of everything, and the value of everything

10-Jan-2014

Martin Miller, who died on 24 December 2013, was a charismatic entrepreneur and bon vivant, and after co-founding the bestselling antiques price guides that bear his name (and made his fortune) went on to become a successful hotelier. Once described as “the Richard Branson of the antiques world”, Miller failed his 11-plus exams in childhood but developed a natural flair for business, spotting gaps in the market which took him into such diverse fields as publishing diaries, devising and marketing his own premium brand of gin, and running country hotels.