Christian McCann Auctions

A sideboard on display in the Mornington Hotel is one of the highlights of Christian McCann Auctions last sale for the year from noon Sunday December 10 at 426 Burnley Street, Richmond.

It is part of an auction offering of 19^th century English and French furniture that includes ormolu mounted boulle and marquetry inlaid occasional pieces along with vitrines and commodes.

Long-time collector John Wade, who for many years has frequented Melbourne auction rooms, has asked Christian McCann Auctions to sell his collection at its forthcoming sale from noon Sunday November 26 at 426 Burnley Street, Richmond.

The collection joins a Parkville estate and a private estate of fine boulle furnishings, salon clocks and bronzes among the more than 600 items on offer at the auction.

Responsible for designing Australia’s Parkroyal Hotels, the late Theodore (Ted) Berman built an enviable reputation as one of the country’s leading commercial architects.

In addition to his efforts with the well-known hotel chain, his legacy can be seen throughout Melbourne in venues such as the Box Hill Central bowling club and the five-bedroom mansion he designed and built in 1964 at 1 Heymount Close, Toorak.

 Here with the help of his wife Miriam, for more than 50 years Ted amassed an impressive collection of art, antiques and collectables.

A major array of antique French furniture – ormolu mounted, boulle salon and kingwood marquetry – is the highlight of Christian McCann Auction’s forthcoming on site sale from noon Sunday October 15 at 42 Barkly Street, St Kilda.

The quality French antiques include vitrines, bureau-plat, commodes and carved giltwood – with the major attraction an exhibition Boulle centre table.

Auction goers also can feast their eyes on carved French provincial and decorator furniture including consoles, bergeres, mirrors, dining and boardroom tables, library bookcases and desks.

A Melbourne porcelain lover’s 18^th century Sevres porcelain collection is comparable to that of Russian Empress Catherine the Great (1729-1796), according to auctioneer Christian McCann. 

Items from her collection, on loan from Russia's Hermitage Museum, were viewed last year by the Australian public at the National Gallery of Victoria. The museum began as Catherine's personal collection built up during her 34-year rule and now occupies the entire Winter Palace in St Petersburg. 

A Boulle credenza and table from Sir Edward “Weary” Dunlop’s estate – among superb examples of 19th century French and English Regency furniture – should set auction goers into raptures when auctioneer Christian McCann climbs the podium to begin his latest sale from noon Sunday July 23 at 426 Burnley Street, Richmond Victoria.

During World War II, the medically trained Sir Edward enlisted in the Australian Army Medical Corps and, in 1942 when Java fell to the Japanese, was a Lieutenant Colonel in command of No. 1 Allied General Hospital at Bandung.

Two Egyptian figures once belonging to disgraced Australian businessman the late Christopher Skase are among a more than 40-year-old comprehensive and exquisite private collection of Egyptian, Roman, Greek and Chinese antiquities to be auctioned on site from noon Sunday June 25 at 7 Ottowa Road, Toorak through Christian McCann Auctions.

One is a wood bearded male mask/bust complete with long black painted beard and striped turquoise wig from a New Kingdom Late Period (664-332 BC) Egyptian mummy case.

Champion professional Australian billiards and snooker player the late Eddie Charlton (1929-2004) played on this king size fiddle back blackwood Duke of Edinburgh billiard table – made by Alcock and Co. for the 1880 Melbourne Exhibition at the Royal Exhibition Building.

For the past 70-odd years, the billiard table has held pride of place in the magnificent mansion at 11 Cloverdale Avenue, Toorak.

An important Madagascar rosewood and amaranth commode after the original Joseph Stockel piece which resides in the Musee National du Chateau de Fontainbleau is a major highlight of Christian McCann’s forthcoming auction from noon Sunday April 9 at 426 Burnley Street, Richmond.

Of German descent, Joseph Stöckel (1743-1802) was known to be in France as early as 1769.

He was made a master in 1775, set up his first shop in the rue de Chareton, and moved to the rue des Fosses-du-Temple after the French Revolution broke out.

A 1.52-metre high Carrara marble figure is a major highlight of a forthcoming sale by Christian McCann Auctions, which has been asked by the home-based Alphacon Group to auction on site its collection of antique furniture, art and collectables.

The auction, from noon Sunday March 19 at 12-14 Caserta Drive Berwick, follows relocation of the business and sale of the property.