Melbourne boutique auction an online stunner

Auctioneer Phil Caldwell is heading to 9 Rimington Avenue, Kew for a boutique sale from 11am Sunday March 21 that will feature Australian art, antiques, jewellery, rare Chinese and Egyptian antiquities, rugs, porcelain, glassware, garden statuary and general household items.

The auction will be conducted online via live internet, phone and absentee bidding with in person or online viewing at the property from 10am to 6pm Friday March 19 and Saturday March 20.

Mr Caldwell describes the auction as “an interesting and eclectic collection” that includes a fine mahogany dining table, sideboards, cabinets, bookcases, inlaid French commodes, a marquetry card table, silk upholstered settees and oak and walnut pieces.

Among the artists on show are David Boyd, Pro Hart, D’Arcy Doyle (Over the Fence is Out), Sidney Nolan, Brett Whiteley, Hugh Sawrey, J.H. Scheltema, Robert Dickerson and Donald Friend.

Jewellery lovers will be impressed by the array of diamond, sapphire, opal, and aquamarine gold and platinum rings along with pendants, a sea pearl necklace and several rare watches.

And for antiquity collectors the important Chinese Tang Dynasty pottery Cuju/Ts’u-chu football player with accompanying Oxford T/L certificate is a must see  - along with the Tang pottery fat lady, PR of ancient Cambodian Dong Son bells and Ming Dynasty marble Buddha.

Other important items include an ex-Binh Thuan shipwreck Swatow charger retrieved from a Chinese junk that sank in 1608 off the Binh Thuan province in Vietnam.

The 24-metre long junk, divided into 25 narrow compartments, is believed to have belonged to Chinese merchant I Sin Ho, who was transporting a cargo of silk and goods from China to Johore including cast iron pans and Zhangzhou (Swatow) porcelain, and was first discovered in 2001 by fishermen while trying to unravel a trawl net caught in the wreckage.

An important Egyptian mummy mask fragment is another item worth viewing along with an Egyptian Shabti, rare Inzk glazed tile (horserider) and jade tear bottles.

The auction also features several collectable clocks, rare porcelain including Royal Doulton and Royal Worcester and glassware.