Charles Blackman’s The Pink 1953 – acquired directly from the artist’s solo exhibition of that year and held in a private collection ever since – will be auctioned for the first time in Sotheby’s Australia’s forthcoming Important Australian Art sale from 6.30pm Wednesday August 16 at Intercontinental Sydney, 117 Macquarie Street, Sydney.

Three Georgian flame mahogany secretaire bookcases are highlights of a comprehensive range of English, French country and Australia cedar, silky oak and blackwood furniture from homes throughout Melbourne and the Mornington Peninsula at E.J. Ainger’s forthcoming weekly sale from 9.30am at 433 Bridge Road, Richmond.

The auction features twin pedestal and other desks, a fine selection of contemporary gilded and French design mirrors and a pair of light brown leather Chesterfield settees.

Menzies chief executive officer Justin Turner is confident the company’s forthcoming auction could realise almost $10 million (including buyers’ premiums) when 154 art lots go under the hammer from 6.30pm Thursday August 10 at 1 Darling Street, South Yarra.

There are plenty of strong works by top line Australian artists to back up his claim, starting with the catalogue cover piece – Frederick McCubbin’s Pastoral 1904 – purchased in 1971 by the current owners’ family at auction in Melbourne and expected to sell for $500,000-$700,000. 

An internationally significant Australian-based early English porcelain collection – the result of decades of research and acquisition – should give serious collectors the opportunity of a lifetime when it is auctioned from noon Sunday July 30 by Philips Auctions at 47 Glenferrie Road, Malvern Victoria as a pre-cursor to the company’s normal decorative arts sale.