Fine Arts Auctions

Not sure how much of a step up it is from manufacturing aluminium ladders to collecting antiques – however, if you ask Werner and Cecile Hecht they have had a lot of fun doing both.

Born in Munich, Werner was 21 when he moved to Australia in 1960. Cecile, who hails from Toulouse, France, migrated to Melbourne 12 years later at age 24.

Both were married with children to other partners before they teamed up and in 1980 started their step ladder business Mboss Access Ladders in the garage of their home.

A rare 1856 colonial oil painting of Sydney Harbour featuring the former penal settlement at Cockatoo Island is one of the important highlights Fine Arts Auctions online sale from 11am Sunday December 12 at 239 Wickham Road, Moorabbin.

The auction, which mainly contains items from a Lysterfield mansion and Moorabbin estate, can only be viewed online because sale items are being held in separate locations – but condition reports and more photos are available on request. Bidding also is online, over the phone or via absentee bids.

Items from the prestigious Achilles III motor super yacht, owned by former transport magnate the late Doug Kefford, will be an important part of three major deceased estates to be auctioned online from 11am Sunday August 29 by auctioneer Phil Caldwell.

Because of current Victorian COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, all viewing is online and items can be purchased either by bidding online, over the phone or as absentee bids.

Kevin Gange is popularly known as the “Taxi King” – largely because his family has been involved in Melbourne’s taxi industry since the 1860s when his great-great-grandfather first started ferrying passengers around city streets in a hansom cab.

He and auctioneer Phil Caldwell initially crossed paths in 1999 when Kevin purchased a hansom cab as a reminder of his family’s early beginnings at the Monte Christie horse-drawn vehicles auction in Junee New South Wales, owned by Reg Ryan.

Auctioneer Phil Caldwell is heading to 9 Rimington Avenue, Kew for a boutique sale from 11am Sunday March 21 that will feature Australian art, antiques, jewellery, rare Chinese and Egyptian antiquities, rugs, porcelain, glassware, garden statuary and general household items.

The auction will be conducted online via live internet, phone and absentee bidding with in person or online viewing at the property from 10am to 6pm Friday March 19 and Saturday March 20.

With their entrepreneurial and business acumen, local business identities the late Paul and Sophie Courtnay left an indelible impression on Melbourne’s western suburbs – even more so when they decided in the 1990s to build a magnificent 100-square home to house their family at 49 Stewart Drive, Werribee.

The solid cedar boardroom table that media mogul John Fairfax commissioned renowned early colonial Australian furniture maker Joseph Sly in 1855 to make for the Sydney Morning Herald offices is to be auctioned in Melbourne.

A unique piece of Fairfax Media history and possibly the only one made by the furniture maker still in existence, the table (lot 151) will be part of the Fine Arts Auctions sale from 11am Sunday November 3 at the Morning Star Estate homestead 1 Sunnyside Road, Mt Eliza.

Melbourne’s leading royalty, 82-year-old “Aussie Earl” Englishman Keith Rous – the sixth Earl of Stradbroke – and  his wife of 42 years, Rosie, never do anything by halves.

 They are about to carry out a multi-million dollar renovation to dramatically enlarge and modernise the massive Hawthorn mansion “Haven”, built in 1898 and with its twin towers one of the original landmark properties of St James Park Estate, that they bought almost three years ago – and are ditching many of the property fittings to do so.

An historic sterling silver horse racing cup has been discovered among contents to be auctioned at a Brighton mansion in Melbourne.

The cup – commemorating the 1823 York Spring Meeting in England – was found among various other treasures at 9 St Ninians Road, Brighton as auctioneer Phil Caldwell and his team were busy cataloguing the items for sale.

The onsite auction will be held from 11am Sunday October 21. 

The auction is being held under instruction from teh Morris family with the father now in his mid-90s.

When auctioneer Phil Caldwell opened an old cupboard at his latest auction venue – the heritage listed 1874 mansion “Roseneath” at 31 Nepean Highway, Elsternwick – he could not believe his eyes.

There, stashed at the back, was a rare silver emu egg inkstand by German-born silversmith Joachim Wendt (1830-1917), who migrated to Adelaide in 1854.