A major collection of estate jewellery recently turned up in a suitcase, much to the surprise of resident Philips Auctions gemmologist Tanya Philips.

Within the suitcase were almost 400 pieces – each kept in a box or pouch and many accompanied by original receipts or handwritten notations of purchase date, location and history.

The collection will feature in Philips Auctions forthcoming jewellery auction from 6pm Monday May 18 at 47 Glenferrie Road, Malvern and is one of three major estates and items from a handful of private vendors.

A German bedroom suite made for the 1880 Melbourne International Exhibition (held at the newly constructed Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton) and subsequently owned by Melbourne’s Lord Mayor will be among a range of quality furniture with interesting provenances at Philips Auctions forthcoming Fine and Decorative Arts sale from noon on Sunday May 17 at 47 Glenferrie Road, Malvern. 

An interesting collection of Royal Doulton series ware join paintings and rugs as definite crowd pullers at E.J. Ainger’s next weekly sale from 9.30am Tuesday May 12 at 433 Bridge Road, Richmond.

The auction also contains a range of English and French dining room, bedroom, library and sitting room furniture.

A range of machinery, rustic items, tools and household items will be part of auctioneer Steve Graham’s next clearing sale from 10am Sunday May 17 on site at 620 Pearsons Road, East Trentham.

The auction features an eight-tonne JSW traxcavator with only 2256 hours up, an MF50 front-end loader diesel tractor and three Ferguson four-cylinder petrol tractors.

Three stationary motors are among other worthwhile pickups including a Sunshine Sundial four-horsepower B Model, a Cooper three-horsepower and Kelly & Lewis model.

Seashell collectors will have the chance to choose from a wide range of unusual specimens when Young’s Auctions next sale gets underway from 9.30am Friday May 8 at 229 Camberwell Road, East Hawthorn.

These rare auction items have been joined by a comprehensive collection of commemorative and other coins and desirable pieces of estate jewellery.

Paintings are another attraction along with a wide selection of antique and modern furniture.

Items include a rolltop desk, grand piano, sideboard, chest, couches and armchairs.

Tom Szekeres and his son Chanon decided on the name of a family dog when they set up their antique business in West Melbourne 16 years ago - partly because of exasperation, partly from timing and partly from subliminal family influence.

“Wally Johnson was the name of my wife Julie's grandmother's dog,” Tom explained. “When we went to register the name of our business, frustratingly all the names we had chosen were already taken – so we decided that name was as good as any.”

The Steam Yacht Ena is a lasting testament to the luxuries of the Edwardian era.

Designed in 1900 by Walter Reeks Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron commodore Thomas Dibb, Ena is the finest Edwardian steam yacht in Australia and one of only three of its kind still in existence worldwide.

The steam yacht has been operating since mid-2014 on the Yarra River and Port Phillip Bay and is now up for auction.

Erotic Japanese netsuke figurines, part of a contentious indecency court case in the 1980s, will be auctioned from noon Sunday May 17 by Philips Auctions at 47 Glenferrie Road, Toorak.

The figures belonged to the late Bonnie Knight, who died recently aged 84, and are being sold by the family as part of her collection.

Bonnie, who had been collecting artefacts and jewellery since she was a teenager, viewed netsukes (be they wood, stone or ivory) as her favourite items.

Unique black and white photos taken in 1964 of the Beatles appearing the Ed Sullivan Show, on their way by train to a Washington performance and arriving in Adelaide are among an unusual collection of entertainment memorabilia auction from noon Thursday May 7.

The auction, by Leonard Joel at 333 Malvern Road South Yarra, feature the Beatles at press conferences, in hotels, in concert and travelling during the start of their phenomenal success as the world’s leading pop band of the 1960s and 1970s.

Colin McCahon’s work Paul to Hebrews 1980 is one of the more fascinating pieces of art to be auctioned from 7pm Wednesday May 6 by Deutscher and Hackett at 105 Commercial Road, South Yarra.

Comprising written passages from the Bible on three sheets of Steinbach paper using synthetic polymer paint, the painting is one of two biblical texts that dominated the final period of McCahon’s oeuvre (the first being a Letter to the Hebrews in the 1970s).