Mossgreen

Mossgreen’s Spring Auction Series will feature the late Ross Allan’s estate as part of a two-day auction from 10.30am Monday November 17 at 126 High Street, Armadale and continuing the following day.

The Ross Allan estate comprises Session 2, which begins at 2pm.

Originally from Sydney, Ross Allan developed a love of style, charm and grace from an early age, which eventually manifested itself in an extensive porcelain collection long before it became popular in Australia.

An impressive sterling silver candelabra centrepiece presented by Australian colonists to David and Amelia Campbell for repelling bushrangers attacking their property on November 19, 1863 is a major highlight of Mossgreen’s Australian & Colonial Antique & Historical auction from 1pm Thursday November 6 at 926-930 High Street, Armadale.

In the midst of this year’s Spring Racing Carnival, Mossgreen is holding its Melbourne Cup Auction, which, while it offers other sporting items, concentrates largely on horse racing memorabilia.

Given she remained unbeaten in all of her 23 starts, it is probably fitting that a painting of Black Caviar by Brett Jarrett is included among the auction items.

The auction will begin at 10am on Friday November 7 at 926-930 High Street, Armadale.

Never seen at auction, Frederick McCubbin’s museum quality painting Mrs McCubbin Picking Blossom (Spring) is a major highlight of Mossgreen’s forthcoming auction entitled Fine Australian & International Art.

The painting is a sensitive, luminous portrait of the artist’s wife Annie – probably in the orchard surrounding their Hawthorn, Melbourne home.

 Mossgreen’s latest auction in its Interior Decorator series has been carefully curated to include a selection of items that traverse many different styles and eras.

The auction, from 2.30pm on Sunday October 19 at 926-930 High Street Armadale, features more than 300 lots ranging in estimate from $100 to $20,000.

Mossgreen’s forthcoming Coins & Banknotes, Stamps & Postal History auction is a great opportunity for modest punters to dabble in the gold market without burning their fingers, according to Mossgreen director Charles Leski.

“The price of gold has dropped in recent times from $1850 an ounce to about $1200,” he said. “Normally, with the current unstable world situation, investors would initiate a run on gold – which hasn’t happened this time.”

As a result, the price of anything containing gold is down as much as 35-40 per cent compared with 10 years ago.

A comprehensive and fascinating collection purchased direct from Europe and through Australian specialists will be auctioned from 2pm Sunday September 14 at Mossgreen 926-930 High Street, Armadale.

Comprising more than 400 lots and assembled over four decades, the collection includes rare works of art from the Middle Ages and 15^th to 18^th centuries and is an unprecedented sale for Australia.

Neil Fletcher has had two major passions in life.

One is photography – and he spent his early adult life (from 1975-1985) building Fletcher Fotographics, a chain of 54 stores in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia before, in his forties, falling foul of the Australian Taxation office following the change to duty-free laws and having the business sold out from under him.

Among the 1000 lots that comprise Mossgreen’s forthcoming Quarterly Collectors Auction Series is a piece of a tree at Cooper’s Creek, South Australia – under which the ill-fated explorer Robert O’Hara Burke was buried with his second-in-command William John Wills before their bodies were later brought back to Melbourne.

Burke and Wills – and their fellow expeditioners John King and Charley Gray – are famous for being the first Europeans to cross Australia from south to north (Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria) in 1860-61.

Australian Rules memorabilia – some more than 125years old – will be a major highlight of Mossgreen’s sporting memorabilia auction from 10am Tuesday August 5 at 926-930 High Street, Armadale.

Among the most valuable items are two Carlton premiership medals dating from 1907 and 1908.

On the back of the former are the words “Presented by A. McCracken Esq, Presidt, 1908, To N.C. Clark, Vice Capn” – and on the reverse of the latter “Presd by A. McCracken Esq, President, 1908, E. Kelly”.