Leski Auctions

More than 100 vendors have agreed to let Leski Auctions have a crack at selling an eclectic and comprehensive range of items online in an “auction behind closed doors” scenario as Melbourne’s continuing coronavirus lockdown drags on into yet another month.

The online auction – complete with virtual viewing, telephone and absentee bidding provisions – is the latest in a long line of such remote sales necessitated by a stubborn COVID-19 pandemic that only now is being brought under some sort of control in Australia while raging like wildfire overseas.

The almost 900 lots that comprised the late Australian Geoffrey Burke’s collection is as eclectic as any collection can possibly get.

From Scandinavian and Murano glass to international porcelain and ceramics, Australian pottery and art glass, antiquities, Chinese and other Asian artefacts, silver, jewellery, furniture, lamps, clocks, photographs, posters, paintings, fossils and other items – if he liked it, he collected it.

Like several other auction houses in Melbourne who have reverted to online only auctions during Stage 3 and 4 coronavirus lockdowns in Victoria, Leski Auctions has pushed ahead with a two-day Stamp, Coins & Postal History sale (covering almost 1000 lots) for Saturday August 22 and Sunday August 23 where the only person bidders will be able to see is auctioneer Charles Leski standing in an empty auction house room in Armadale.

Leski Auctions is optimistically defying the odds of the Australian Government COVID-19 pandemic restrictions with big sales to attract the allowed but severely limited number of in-room auction goers along with absentee, phone and online bidders.

Its latest effort – a Decorative Arts & Collectables auction from 10am Sunday June 28 at 727-729 High Street, Armadale – lists 912 lots covering a wide range of collectables from silver to international and decorative arts, furniture, paintings, jewellery, clocks and a Winston Churchill collection.

The masthead figure of Don Francisco de Assis Maria Fernando de Bourbon – in English more commonly known as Francis of Assisi after the saint of the same name (lot 10) – from a 19^th century sailing ship will be among the items to greet auction goers as Leski Auctions cautiously transcends back to live auctions following the easing of restrictions after the coronavirus pandemic lockdown in Australia.

With Australia still operating under heavy restrictions following the hundreds of thousands of deaths and economic destruction worldwide caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Leski Auctions is the first of the Melbourne-based auction houses to hold a full-blown sporting memorabilia sale involving 716 lots – its biggest for many years.

The auction, from 12pm Sunday May 10 (Mothers’ Day) at 727-729 High Street Armadale, covers valued and historic football, cricket, billiards, boxing, golf, horse racing, tennis, motor sports and Olympic Games items.

Like several other Australian auction houses, Melbourne-based Leski Auctions has moved several of its sales to timed online auctions to help overcome government initiated lockdown restrictions implemented because of the current coronavirus pandemic.

At present, two are in this category – one a Stamps & Postal History sale that opened at 10am on. Wednesday April 22 and is due to finish from 10am on Monday May 4 – and the other a toy auction that will finish from 12pm on the same day.

The collection of one of Australia’s leading master model railway builders, the late Frank Kelly – who died in June 2016, will be auctioned from 2pm Sunday March 22 by Leski Auctions at 727-729 High Street, Armadale.

His handiwork was admired by all who knew him and the first 55 lots of the sale gives collectors the perfect opportunity to acquire one of his models.

Leski Auctions describes every lot as unique and testament to Frank’s ability to build from scratch by hand models of Victorian and South Australian locomotives and rolling stock.

A rare Faberge tie clip (lot 17) and a magnificent French Japanese style silver, niello and enamel comport (lot 20) are among major drawcards at Leski Auctions first auction for 2020 from 1pm Saturday February 22 at 727-729 High Street, Armadale.

The two-day sale, which continues at 10am the next day, features a huge selection of international decorative arts including ceramics, paintings, decorator pieces and glassware.

The United States might have been the first country to land a man on the Moon (Apollo 11 July 1969) but the Russians can lay claim to being the first to land an unmanned robotic probe on the surface and return a lunar soil sample to Earth (September 24, 1970).

From Mare Fecunditatis (Sea of Fertility), it was the third sample overall to come back following the efforts of NASA’s Apollo 11 and then Apollo 12 space flights in November 1969.