Submitted by aarAdmin on Wed, 04/01/2015 - 09:00
Sotheby’s Australia’s attempts to sell many of the personal owned by Australian opera diva Dame Nellie Melba met with resounding success when more than 400 people registered to bid and the sale achieved a total of $1.99 million including buyer’s premium.
The auction commenced with a rousing start when the first lot, a circa 1905 Belle Epoque diamond and seed pearl hairpin, sold for $26,480 – more than four times the pre-sale estimate.
Melba travelled with several familiar items including a fine Cartier rock crystal, enamel and diamond-set desk clock, which grabbed the limelight with the highest auction price – selling for $244,000 against a $20,000-$25,000 estimate.
A 1930 Cartier diamond, gem-set and silk brocaded evening clutch bag was equally amazing – changing hands for $39,040 on an estimate of $2000-$3000.
Similarly, a gold paperweight depicting Australian flora and fauna, which had been presented to Melba by the citizens of Geelong for concert she gave in 1922 to raise funds for the Kitchener Memorial Hospital, sold for $134,200 – three times the pre-auction estimate.
A pictorial highlight was Arthur Streeton’s The Windsor Damsel, Fishing (1903), which brought $189,100.
