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It might have been the excitement of watching Japanese champion Mer de Glace win this year’s Caulfield Cup the day before that prompted the successful bidder at Abacus Auction’s Coins & Memorabilia, Stamps and Collectables October 20 sale to part with $24,000 for California’s 1932 Agua Caliente Racebook (lot 338) featuring Australia’s iconic legend Phar Lap who won the race (one of America’s greatest) in track record time.
Tragically, it was to be the giant horse’...
Works by Australian artist the late David Boyd (1924-2011) featured prominently in Gibson’s Auctions October 14 Melbourne-based Australian and International Art sale with five of his paintings occupying the top six auction spots.
In first place was Boyd’s Reconciliation, 2001 (lot 73), changing hands for $21,960 including buyer’s premium, followed closely by his Discovering the Mystery of the Deep Blue Rose (lot 80) for $18,300.
Third and...
Although Menzies September 26 Sydney auction fell well short of the hoped for $8 million in revenue, there were several important results to satisfy art connoisseurs that investment in high profile artists is worth pursuing.
At $5,004,511 including buyers’ premiums, the sale still reached a healthy 77 per cent by volume and 69 per cent by value.
One of the leading paintings was Rick Amor’s The Waiter (lot 34) which sold for $220,909.09 against a...
No one really batted an eye when Claire-Jeanne Roberte Colinet’s (1880-1950) Theban Dancer (lot 58) went under the hammer for $23,180 (including buyer’s premium) at Gibson’s 20th century Design auction on September 22 in Melbourne.
The sculpture carried the top estimate ($20,000-$30,000) of any item before the auction and during her lifetime Colinet built an enviable reputation as a Belgian-French sculptor whose best known works were art deco Arab...
The more spectacular and intricate the clock, the more collectors are prepared to pay for it – if the results of Leski Auctions Melbourne-based Fine & Rare Clocks sale on September 15 are any guide.
Two of these circa 1885 clocks, both by French clockmaker Andre Romain Guilmet, brought the same amount on the day – a hammer price of $38,000 each.
One is a nautical “ships stern” industrial clock (lot 67) that sold for almost six times the upper catalogue...
The late Ken and Joan Plomley collection of modernist art, comprising the first 36 lots of Deutscher and Hackett’s August 28 Sydney auction, surpassed all expectations – with only four left unsold and the remainder going under the hammer well above their catalogue estimates.
The collection was famous for containing one of the largest number of Roy de Maistre (1894-1968) paintings in private hands – and his works proved popular with bidders.
For example, lot 2...
Despite being below its catalogue estimate of $20,000-$25,000, a block of four five-penny King George V head stamps (lot 209) on August 28 easily brought the highest price at Leski Auctions first Melbourne-based Stamps, Coins & Postal History auction since December last year.
The stamps sold for $15,000 – with lot 239, a King George V Perkins Bacon one penny black die proof, changing hands for $6500 and the preceding lot (again a King George V one penny proof but...
Not surprisingly, it was the photographs of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay conquering Mount Everest that sent collectors into a frenzy when the lifetime works of English climber, explorer and photographer Alfred Gregory (1913-2010) went under the hammer at Gibson’s Auctions Melbourne sale on August 26.
The year was 1953 and the pair were creating history – for the climb had never before been successfully completed.
Gregory, who with his wife Sue...
Two cricketing items streaked the field at Leski Auctions August sporting memorabilia sale in Melbourne.
One was former Australian fast bowler Rodney Hogg’s yellow rebel tour Test team cap (lot 241), which sold for $6500, and the other the first membership badge issued by the Melbourne Cricket Club (lot 48) – knocked down for $5000 on a $3000-$4000 catalogue estimate.
Hogg played 38 Test matches and 71 One Day Internationals, taking 123 Test wickets at an...
An 18th century Qing Dynasty celadon and russet jade boulder carving (lot 617) topped popular demand for Chinese statues, porcelain and other collectables when it changed hands for $15,525 including buyer’s premium at Gibson’s Winter Auction Series Melbourne sale on August 5 and 6.
The 790-lot two-day sale featured more than 200 Chinese items including a Longquan Yuan Dynasty carved celadon dish (lot 743) which sold for $5961.60 and an 18th/19...
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