Australian artists feature in Armadale estate auction

An Armadale estate with paintings from the likes of Australian artists 1969 Archibald Prize winner Ray Crooke, Albert Tucker and Bill Coleman should draw the auction crowds to Philips Auctions latest sale from noon Sunday September 6 at 47 Glenferrie Road, Malvern. 

Tucker’s Parrot in burnt landscape is typical of his ongoing fascination with birds during his lifetime and carries a catalogue estimate of $16,000-$20,000.

A member of the Heide Circle, a group of modern artists and writers centred on the art patrons John and Sunday Reed located in their home of the same name in Bulleen, Tucker’s main influences were post impressionists, expressionists and social realists.

In 1941, Tucker married fellow artist Joy Hester with whom he had a son Sweeney – but six years later the marriage broke down and he travelled to Japan and Europe leading a bohemian life of painting, exhibiting and odd jobs.

His works are represented in all of the Australian State galleries, the National Gallery of Australia, and the Guggenheim Museum and MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) in New York.

Likewise Crooke’s Islanders is a favourite theme for the artist (many of his paintings are based on the works of Gaugin) and with its $6000-$8000 estimate should attract plenty of buyer attention.

Many of Crooke’s works hang in Australian galleries and his painting “The Offering” (1971) is in the Vatican Museum collection.

Herbert Teague’s Florence 1908 is a watercolour on paper. Teague was an art teacher, inventor and pioneer tethered hydroplane racer.

The brother of Australian artist Violet Teague, his commission by Queen Victoria “Florence seen from the Boboli Gardens” hangs in Osborne House as part of the Royal collection.

Coleman’s Figures in the street is typical of the artist’s oil on board work and carries an affordable estimate of $800-$1200.

Born in 1922 and dying in 1993, Coleman’s work is represented in the New York Public Library Collection and among several regional and private Australian collections.

David Boyd (1924-2011) is represented in the auction through his oil and ink pen on card Hitting a high note.

Part of the Boyd artistic dynasty established with the marriage in 1886 of Arthur Merric Boyd and Emma Minnie à Beckett, in 1956 he and his artist wife Hermia Lloyd-Jones became widely known as leading Australian potters through the introduction of new glazing techniques and use of the potter’s wheel to shape sculptural figures.

Brother to Arthur Boyd, David’s painting career began in 1957 with a series of controversial symbolic works on Australian explorers that focused on the tragic history of Tasmanian Aborigines.

The auction contains a strong porcelain selection including Royal Worcester vases, Carlton Ware, Meissen, 1753 Sevres cup and saucer and an early (1820s) Bloor Derby named views Campana vase.

The Chinese section features a small jewelled jade table screen and late Qing dynasty polychrome tea bowls.

Among the furniture is a French (in the Louis XV manner) Vernis Martin vitrine, an 1870s French amboyna and rosewood wardrobe and Louis XVI style mahogany and gilt bronze armoire.