Submitted by aarAdmin on Mon, 09/30/2024 - 00:00
A circa 1685 William & Mary marquetry longcase clock by London maker Richard Colston (lot 1) was the top selling item for $42,000 at Melbourne-based Leski Auctions September 22 decorative arts sale.
The clock was part of a massive collection of timepieces by one of Australia’s best-known conservationists Sydney-born Chris Pratten, who died this year aged 90.
Another in his collection – a circa 1770 George III sprint table clock (lot 3), from 18th century London maker Charles Cabrier – filled second spot in the top 10 results at $19,000.
The Pratten collection was one of three in the auction – the others being Sydney dealer Alan Landis and Tasmanian collector Chris Burghey.
A long-time National Trust member and Australian Conservation Foundation board member, as a boy Chris gained his love of nature through visits to the family property Amaroo at Borenore, west of Orange in New South Wales.
When the property was later split between he and older brother Geoff, Chris named his preferred eastern section Koolewong where, after he married Elaine in 1958, they raised their three children Stephen, Michael and Jenny.
Chris was one of the first farmers to set aside remnant bushland patches for nature conservation, fencing off hundreds of acres on his property and in the 1960s establishing an arboretum for an extensive tree and shrub planting program – the start of his lifelong conservation efforts.
His inner west Sydney roots led him in 1983 to purchase a Victorian house called Hillcrest in the suburb of Summer Hill, which he began restoring.
This resulted in him becoming secretary of the Ashfield and District Historical Society and to building a substantial collection of antique clocks, Wedgwood and other 18th century porcelain manufacturers.
Chris’s three children, who still run Koolewong, had no desire to live at Hillcrest, so asked Leski Auctions to dispose of the collection prior to the property’s sale.
A rare circa 1900 Doulton Burslem English porcelain plaque in the pre-Raphaelite style by Charles Noke and William Hodkinson (lot 312) – one of only 100 to be manufactured, with most surviving examples in public institutions including the Art Gallery of New South Wales - sold for $15,000.
Famous Royal Worcester artist George Owen featured with one of his antique English reticulated porcelain stem vases (lot 145) that brought $8000.
Australian Orchids (lot 274a) by R.D. Fitzgerald (published in Sydney by Government Printer Thomas Richards who held the post between 1875 and 1894) was another strong performer, selling for the same price as the Owen vase.
It was published in two volumes, dated 1882 and 1894, and comprised 12 parts all dedicated to the memory of naturalist Charles Darwin.
Two more clocks belonging to Chris Pratten (lots 4 and 5) – a November 1770 George Wren travelling weight driven alarm timepiece and a George III mahogany pagoda hood longcase by London’s Thomas Jackson – each sold for $4000.
Other items in the top 10 included a George Tinworth “Christ Going Before Pilate” antique pottery wall plaque (lot 97 - $3200), a Royal Worcester porcelain teacup and saucer set (lot 196 -$3100) and a circa 1810 Wedgwood rare rosso antico covered potpourri with basalt Egyptian relief (lot 283 - $3000).
