Melbourne-based Gibson’s Auctions is hoping to entice as many buyers as possible with its live Winter Auction Series sale from 11am on Sunday July 17 at 885-889 High Street, Armadale followed from 10am the following day by a timed online part two of the exercise.

The live auction is a feast for auction goers with the late June Harris collection of quality Royal Worcester by famous artists from the opening lot up for grabs.

In a somewhat unusual move for the Australian art auction scene, a rare and significant religious painting by Justin O’Brien (1917-1996) entitled Madonna c1959 (lot 26) appears for the first time on the secondary market and is the centrepiece of Menzies forthcoming sale from 6.30pm Wednesday June 29 at 1 Darling Street, South Yarra.

Following a protracted legal battle among family members, Australia’s biggest ever gold, silver and jewellery auction – featuring more than 10,000 items that belonged to gold merchant the late Peter Davis– will be held online each day from 10am Monday June 27 to Thursday June 30 through Melbourne-based Philips Auctions at 47 Glenferrie Road, Malvern.

Pottery lovers will be delighted to see the late John Stephens collection hit the auction market when Melbourne-based Leski Auctions holds its two-day Australian & Historical sale from 10am Saturday June 25, continuing from 10am Sunday June 26, at 727-729 High Street, Armadale.

Melbourne-based Gibson’s Auctions is giving art lovers and those looking to enter the market for the first time the opportunity to pick up works by significant Australian artists at its timed Winter Art Online auction to be held from 10am Monday June 20 at 885-889 High Street, Armadale.

The paintings and editions, all with estimates in the several hundreds of dollars range, feature such luminaries as Sidney Nolan (1917-1992), Clarice Beckett (1887-1935), Anne Hall, Pro Hart (1928-2006) and Louis Kahan (1905-2002).

A fine collection of English 18^th century porcelain, sterling silver, clocks and telescopes assembled over the past 45 years by Melbourne collector Paul Mitchell will hit the auction market from 12pm Sunday June 19 through Christian McCann Auctions at 7 Harper Street, Abbotsford.

The impending sale follows Paul’s decision to follow his book binding passion and head to England to further pursue it.

Complementing the Mitchell collection is a selection of English Regency and George III furniture and fine Australian and English art.

Auctioneer Christian McCann has a fantastic venue for his next auction – the beautifully restored mansion at 15 Grandview Grove, Prahran which was once a boarding house.

The auction, from 12pm Sunday June 5, features fine French and English antique furniture and collectables, traditional Australian and European art and garden statuary.

McCann has known the family for 15 years during which time he has helped them build a collection to complement the grandeur of each historic room.

If acclaimed songwriter Archie Roach and his partner Ruby Hunter had never decided on a pioneering tour of indigenous communities on Australia’s Cape York peninsula, Julie Hickson might not have collected historically important, seminal art works from the Lockhart River Art Gang.

As luck would have it, in 1997 the two set out to visit these communities accompanied by a band and camera crew, with Julie as their manager in charge of arrangements.

Creators are a special breed and the man who invented the Décor brand and brought world-class design, creativity and innovation to Australian homewares, the son of an English adventurer and grandson of a pearl fleet owner on his mother’s side, is no exception.  

This unusual mix produced Great Depression child Brian Middleton Davis who was born in May 1930 in Broome, Western Australia before the family moved to Melbourne where Brian enjoyed a happy childhood designing and building model boats and billycarts at their Brighton home.