Unusual estates add excitement to auction sale

Two significant estates are part of Leonard Joel’s forthcoming Jewels & Objets D’Art auction from 6pm Monday June 27 at the NCJWA Hall, 11 Queen Street, Woollahra in Sydney.

One of the estates belonged to Hungarian-born Vera Salgo who spent her time residing in both Australia and Monaco.

Well travelled, it took her many years attending auction houses and haunting dealer premises to amass her collection, which features mainly decorative arts that incorporates a European (mainly Hungarian) art component – an interesting and curious mixture of portraits and landscapes.

The collection also includes Vera’s personal jewellery with an emphasis on flamboyant cocktail pieces from the 1950s and 1960s.

Highlights include an exquisite pair of Edwardian diamond drop earrings (lot 2) and a rare and collectable Zenith repeating clock pocket watch (lot 237).

The second estate, which belonged to John Van der Muelen, reveals his scholarly interest in ethnographic decorative arts – amassed from 1950 to 170 as he worked throughout West Africa, Indonesia, Borneo and South East Asia.

John worked for the United Nations and eventually became head of its Food & Agricultural Organisation, before a senior position in India with the organisation during the 1970s beckoned.

John was one of the few Westerners of his time to travel to many of the world’s remote areas, including Bhutan in 1971, and his epic overland journey from Italy to India was a major source of treasures.

The collection includes rare carpets, Indo-Portuguese pieces, brass, carvings and Indian wall hangings and artefacts.