As Melbourne enters its fourth COVID-19 lockdown in 15 months – this one hopefully only for seven days – fine and decorative arts auction houses are once more in online mode, both for viewing and bidding.

This is certainly true for Gibson’s Auctions sale, entitled The Autumn Emporium, which ends from 10am Monday May 31 at 885-889 High Street, Armadale.

The auction comprises 464 lots – many of them very affordable for first time buyers – and covering such categories as art, porcelain, ceramics, sculptures, furniture and other collectables.

In 2010, a couple purchased a promotional carton of Carlton Draft beer as part of a special “Win a Prize” competition.

The prize – a beer glass in 18-carat gold by Hardy Brothers Jewellers (silversmiths to Queen Elizabeth) engraved with the words “SINCE 1864 CARLTON DRAFT Brewery Fresh”.

Auction goers are looking at a veritable feast of collectable items at Christian McCann Auctions forthcoming on site estate sale from 12pm Sunday May 16 at 17 Fairview Street, Hawthorn.

According to auctioneer Christian McCann, the entire contents of the home must be sold on the day along with items from the vendor’s Toorak mansion.

Joseph Greenberg doesn’t fit the mould of the everyday collector.

Born in 1923 in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond after his family escaped the anti-Semitism of eastern Europe, Greenberg studied graphic design under prominent established Australian artist Sir William Dargie and alongside fellow student and lifelong friend Ray Crooke – before in 1942 enlisting in the Australian Army and seeing service during World War II against the Japanese in New Guinea and New Britain.