Luxurious French style provincial lounge and dining room furniture will be among E.J. Ainger’s auction attractions from 9.30am Tuesday April 29 at 433 Bridge Road, Richmond.

The auction contains antique French, English and Australian furniture from throughout Melbourne including homes in Eden Park and Toorak.

Auction goers should also be keen on the gilded mirrors, genuine Persian and Turkish rugs, paintings and coloured prints – along with a good range of porcelain, silver, crystal and coloured glassware.

Paul Buckley describes himself as a “nutcase collector” – and for about 50 years has indulged an unusual obsession of collecting inkwells and fountain pens in all shapes and sizes.

Now in their early 70s, he and his wife Eileen have moved into smaller premises and there is no room left for his collection.

“I think Eileen is tired of dusting all the different items,” Paul said – not surprising given there are some 200 inkwells, a similar number of fountain pens and about 5000 gold plated nibs.

The largest collection of Staffordshire dogs in Australia is set to be auctioned from noon on Sunday May 4 at Philips Auctions 47 Glenferrie Road, Malvern.

The collection, which also includes several porcelain cats and lions, was owned by a Pennsylvanian woman whose son-in-law shipped it to Australia after she died.

According to antique trade experts, it is the biggest Staffordshire dog collection in living memory and contains several rare specimens from the 1850s to 1890s.

Deutscher and Hackett will offer works by some of Australia’s best-known modern and contemporary artists at its fine art auction from 7pm Wednesday at 105 Commercial Road, South Yarra.

Some of the more highly valued paintings include Grace Cossington Smith’s Yellow Drapes 1954 – once owned by fellow still life artist Adrian Feint.

Another is John Brack’s Pears 1957, a fascinating still life that illustrates his intellectual curiosity for the genre.

The estate of Karen Esposito, whose grandfather David Sterry in 1857 established the iconic Gold Mines Hotel in Bendigo, will be among 1900 lots to be auctioned from 11am Saturday April 19 and Sunday April 20 by Glenelg Auctions at 37 East Street, Daylesford.

Born in 1832 in Suffolk, England, David Sterry became a sailor and his adventurous spirit led him to seek gold in Australia.

In 1853, he arrived in Bendigo and three years later formed Luftsmann, Sterry and Company to begin quartz reefing on the rich Victoria Reef.

Consignments from estates and private homes have built up at E.J. Ainger’s storage warehouse because the company has not held its regular weekly auction for four weeks due to the highly successful special sale of April 6.

The next weekly sale will be from 9.30am Tuesday April 15 at 433 Bridge Road, Richmond and will feature 19^th century and 20^th century English, French, Australian, Egyptian and decorative furnishings.

A silver medal presented in 1806 by the third Governor of New South Wales, Philip Gidley King, to Te Pahi, the first influential Maori leader to visit the fledgling colony, has recently been rediscovered after being lost for about 200 years.

It is one of Australia’s and new Zealand’s earliest and most significant colonial artefacts and will be a highlight of Sotheby’s Australia forthcoming Fine Asia, Australian & European Arts & Design auction from 6pm on Tuesday April 15 at the Intercontinental Sydney, 117 Macquarie Street, Sydney.

While most people associate miniature cameras with the likes of fictional British spy James Bond or the KGB and CIA, United States-born but Australian-based adventurer Willie Feinberg had just as practical a reason for their use.

They were small, light and sophisticated – ideal for his penchant for travelling the world and recording its many faces.

Born in 1935, Willie grew up in South Bronx – the only white kid in an all-black school in the bleak pre- World War II years of industrial America.

It is not often auction goers have the opportunity to see the workings of a milliner up close.

However, from 10am Saturday April 13 auctioneer Steve Graham will auction hat blocks and other hat making equipment and supplies belonging to well-known Mornington Peninsula milliner Jackie Newman, who is retiring from business after more than 30 years supplying hats for such major events as Caulfield and Flemington’s Fashions on the Field.

The collection of porcelain, silver and other fine objects belonging to nature lover and antique dealer the late Laszlo Erdos will be auctioned from 4pm Thursday April 10 by Leonard Joel at 333 Malvern Road, South Yarra.

Born in Hungary, as a young man Laszlo built a reputation as a man of birds with the Ornithological Institute of Hungary and in 1947 discovered a new species – the first in his country for 60 years.