Leski Auctions

It has taken just over 18 months and three sales but Melbourne-based Leski Auctions is finally wrapping up the auctioning of the last cameras left from the windup of Melbourne’s iconic Michael family camera museum.

Part Three – and the final sale – will be held from 10am Tuesday March 26 at 727-729 High Street, Armadale, bringing to a close more than a century of the Michael’s family business involvement with the Victorian capital.

When hearts and minds from across the globe unite as one, the results can have a lasting impact on all those around them.

So it was for Michael and Valerie Gregg – he from Guernsey in the Channel Islands and she from the New South Wales town of Wagga Wagga.

Both shared a passion for collecting and, over 65 years, built an eclectic collection of silver, Australian furniture, ceramics, jewellery and pottery unrivalled anywhere in the world.

Tragically sunk in 1912 with a large loss of life when it hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage from England to America, the passenger liner Titanic is being remembered this year in Australia through the Melbourne Museum’s unique exhibition of 200 real artefacts recovered directly from the wreck site.

In its first decorative arts and collectables auction for 2024, Leski Auctions is acknowledging its own small tribute to the ship’s memory with a breakfast cup and saucer emblazoned with the White Star Line logo (lot 1372) – the company that owned the Titanic.

Melbourne-based Leski Auctions forthcoming and last sale for 2023 contains a tribute to English pioneering aviator Amy Johnson, the first woman to fly solo from London to Australia, a feat she completed in 19 days in a Gypsy Moth on May 24, 1930 by landing at Darwin.

Sadly, her life was cut short at age 38 during World War II while transporting Royal Air Force aircraft around the country when she crashed into the River Thames and drowned.

Camera buffs once more will have the chance of obtaining a piece of Melbourne’s photographic history when Part II of the Michael family camera museum collection goes under the hammer from 12pm Tuesday December 12 at 727-729 High Street, Armadale.

Some 16 months since the first sale, this auction has a comprehensive range of almost 700 cameras dating back to the early days of photography.

Situated on the corner of Elizabeth and Lonsdale Streets in Melbourne’s CBD, Michaels Cameras housed the world’s largest private camera museum with more than 3000 items.

History plays an important part in many of Melbourne-based Leski Auctions and the forthcoming two-day Australian & Historical sale from 10am Saturday November 18 followed by the last of Polish Jew Martin Sachs collection on Monday November 20 at 727-729 High Street, Armadale is a classic on two fronts.

One, it contains some of the finest Australian pottery ever to grace the auction scene (lots 1-291) and, secondly, it is a trinbute to the power of the human spirit in overcoming severe adversity.

An extremely rare batting glove used by Australian iconic batsman Don Bradman in an actual match (lot 231) is a major highlight of Melbourne-based Leski Auctions forthcoming sporting memorabilia two-day sale from 12pm Friday September 22 and Saturday September 23 at 727-729 High Street, Armadale.

A right-hand glove, according to director Charles Leski it is the only example he has auctioned in 30 years of handling sporting memorabilia items.

When hundreds of vendors consign items for auction, the result is an eclectic range that has to be seen to be believed.

Melbourne-based Leski Auctions forthcoming two-day decorative arts and collectables sale – from 10am Saturday August 26 and Sunday August 27 at 727-729 High Street, Armadale – is just such an event, with a comprehensive selection bound to suit both collectors and first-time auction goers.

Aptly named “An Eye for Beauty”, this private collection – featuring a rare 19^th century German pate-sur-pate phanolith neoclassical charger of The Argo by Jean Baptist Stahl (lot 507) on the catalogue front cover – is the forthcoming two-day offering from Melbourne-based Leski Auctions from 12pm Saturday July 22 and Sunday July 23 at 727-729 High Street, Armadale.

A spectacular and highly ornate sterling silver centrepiece in the form of a eucalyptus tree (lot 520) with strong links to the Victorian seaside town of Airey’s Inlet is the undoubted major attraction for Leski Auctions forthcoming three-day Australian & Historical auction from 10am Saturday May 27 at 727-729 High Street, Armadale.