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Australian horse racing icon Phar Lap mementos proved popular with auction goers at Abacus Auctions Melbourne sporting memorabilia sale on May 19 with his 1930 horseshoes (lot 376) going under the hammer for $25,000.
This was the year that Phar Lap won the Melbourne Cup as the only horse ever to start the race odds-on favourite – along with a major race on each of the four days of the Victoria Racing Club Spring calendar, a feat never since replicated.
During his distinguished...
A rare pair of Chinese bronze and enamel vases (lot 347), decorated with birds (including peacocks), lotus and flowering peony and iris, was the top selling lot at Leski Auctions May 5 Melbourne sale of the iconic Joshua McClelland Print Room and family associated Rathdowne Galleries (which closed in 2018) comprehensive range of prints, paintings, porcelain and furniture – going under the hammer for $19,000 on a $10,000 high estimate.
The leading art work was...
Gibson’s Auctions Red Hill sale on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula on April 28 saw many items sell well above their catalogue estimates.
Perhaps the most remarkable was an untitled painting circa 1835 from the Australian School, showing a view of Hobart with St David’s on the left (lot 155), that sold for $5612 including buyer’s premium – more than 11 times its listing.
Among the jewellery on offer, a nine-carat gold and diamond curb chain link changed hands for $3172 (lot 306...
With everyone including the auctioneer keeping their fingers crossed, Ian Fairweather’s Barbecue, 1963 (lot 23) set an auction record for the artist when it was knocked down for $1.4 million ($1.708 million including buyer’s premium) at Deutscher and Hackett’s Sydney April 10 sale, which totalled $9 million or 100 per cent by value and 87 per cent by volume.
Unlike Sotheby’s failed attempt the night before to sell Charles Blackman’s Sleeping Alice,...
It appears that finding your way around the planet and the stars is as popular as ever given that a pair of circa 1865 30-centimetre terrestrial and celestial library globes was, at $26,840, the top selling lot (341) at Gibson’s Auctions April 1-2 Melbourne sale.
A 19th century French bronze mounted Boulle tortoiseshell striking eight-day mantel clock was another popular attraction, changing hands for $10,370, in an auction that realised 80.2 per cent by value.
...
The family collection of well-known Australian colonial identity and professional artist Thomas Balcombe (1810-1861) was a hit with auction goers at Menzies March 28 Sydney sale – with the only known self-portrait selling for $28,000, more than three times the upper catalogue estimate $9000.
The collection comprised more than 100 sketches, drawings and watercolours passed down through four generations of the family since their original production in the 1850s.
Lot 57,...
A 1920 red Lalique “Escargot” vase, featured as an important and rare piece on the company’s website, sold this month at a Melbourne auction for $12,500.
The vase was the top selling piece at Leski Auctions Decorative Arts & Collectables sale, which featured a comprehensive range of items.
Not far behind ($12,000) was the Gillows of Lancaster 24-seat 1890s Chippendale mahogany banquet table, originally commissioned for Sir Robert Lucas-Tooth and believed to have been part...
The Scotland team rugby cap belonging to Judge Hugh Montgomerie Hamilton (1854-1930) was the top money earner at Leski Auctions Melbourne February Sporting Memorabilia auction, selling for $16,000.
Hamilton, whose pastoralist father Hugh migrated from Scotland and married native-born Margaret Clunes, was born in Parramatta, New South Wales.
He was educated in Edinburgh and Marlborough College, England where he captained the rugby team before going on to play for the London club...
Eighteen thousand dollars was paid for an unusual set of Australian pennies – including the rare 1930 version – at Leski Auctions Stamps, Coins & Postal History December auction in Melbourne.
The 1930 penny is always a keenly sought after treasure, as it was never meant to be placed into circulation after the 1930s Great Depression, in which more than one million Australian workers were tossed out of work, began to bite worldwide.
However, this did not...
An historically significant painting of Robert Chirnside by Augustus Baker Pierce (1840-1919) entitled Robert Chirnside and the Melbourne Hunt Club, 1882 (lot 9) was the top selling item at Gibson’s Auctions Melbourne December Summer Art Collection.
Chirnside was the nephew of Australian pastoralist Thomas Chirnside (1815-1887) who built the historic sandstone Italianate Werribee mansion, now a major tourist landmark in Melbourne’s western suburbs.
The...
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