12 Exceptional Fine Art Results

40424777

ARTHUR BOYD (1920-1999), Shoalhaven Landscape, Sold for $74,400 IBP >


40402013

ARTHUR STREETON (1867-1943), Hollyhocks, Sold for $27,280 IBP >


40416676

DAVID LARWILL (1956-2011), Beast Master No.2, Sold for $24,800 IBP >


40417574

TIM STORRIER (born 1949), The Australian Studio 1979, Sold for $42,160 IBP >


40417600

JOHN MACLAUCHLAN MILNE (British, 1885-1957), High Corrie, Arran, $29,760 IBP >


40420589

HUGH SAWREY (1923-1999), Bound for Dalgetys, Sold for $16,120 IBP >


40420939

TOMMY WATSON (born c.1935), Kapi Pitjani 2005, Sold for $24,800 IBP >


40421293

JAN NELSON (born 1955), Walking in Tall Grass (Viktor) 2005, Sold for $16,740 IBP >


40422101

PATRICIA PICCININI (born 1965), Cyclepups: Firestarter 2005, Sold for $29,760 IBP >


40423618

§ CHARLES BLACKMAN (born 1928), My Cat at Swanbourne Beach, Sold for $17,360 IBP >


40425647

KATTINGERI KRISHNA HEBBAR (Indian, 1911-1996), Untitled, Solf dor $24,800 IBP >


40425677

JEAN- BAPTISTE ARMAND GUILLAUMIN (French, 1841-1927), Paysage de l’Île de France c.1885, Sold for $21,080 IBP >

Barassi Museum Dream Now a Reality!

Barassi

View the catalogue >

Ron, Paul Little and Leonard Joel are delighted to announce that the entire Ron Barassi Collection, scheduled for public auction on September 4th, has been purchased in its entirety by Paul Little for the purpose of preserving the collection for the football fans of Australia.

edm6Paul Little AO:

“Ron is a great friend for whom I care and respect immensely and his unique, more than half century long, sporting and public legacy is something I wanted to secure forever. Over the years I’ve been conscious of Ron’s clear vision for this historically significant collection; a vision I share and we both believe this collection must stay intact and be placed on public display for all the football loving public to enjoy.

In discussions with the AFL, they have offered to assist in finding an appropriate home for this highly significant collection. Should the AFL acquire Etihad Stadium, it is possible a suitable location could be found at this home of Melbourne football to place the collection on permanent display. The Melbourne Football Club via its Chairman Glen Bartlett have also offered to assist with the collection which is of special and obvious significance to them.

Can I also highlight the professional cooperation from Leonard Joel and John Albrecht in particular in assisting all parties to navigate this delicate contribution.”

edm3John Albrecht for Leonard Joel:

“The most memorable collection I believe I will ever manage in my lifetime has concluded with a dream only a very tiny handful of collectors ever realise and that is their treasures, both personal and historic, forming a public display for all to enjoy. Paul Little has made that dream a reality now for the Barassi family and I couldn’t be more thrilled to have negotiated this deal between Paul and Ron. It is not just a win-win, it is a win-win-win! While the purchase price must remain confidential I’m proud to advise on behalf of Leonard Joel that it is unquestionably the most valuable football sporting collection ever sold in Australia. The buyer is thrilled, Ron Barassi is so pleased the collection will remain intact and the third dimension is the icing on the cake; permanent public display celebrating the history of football and his key involvement in the development of the game. As an auctioneer I love an auction but I felt all along that this collection must stay together for public benefit and we achieved that result.”

Ron Barassi:

“I was born with football in my blood and I’ve had the pleasure of lifelong involvement with the game that I love – the clubs, the players and the fans far and wide. My collecting has been both very personal and interesting through this journey. I can’t speak highly enough of the care and professionalism of the Leonard Joel team in turning my collecting into a collection. I’m thrilled and honoured that my good friend, Paul Little, has so generously seen fit to keep my collection together for public display. This happening in my lifetime is amazing and humbling.”

Ron Barassi, John Albrecht (Managing Director, Leonard Joel), Rosemary Long (Manager, Ron Barassi) and Paul Little AO

Ron Barassi, John Albrecht (Managing Director, Leonard Joel), Rosemary Long (Manager, Ron Barassi) and Paul Little AO

Treasures from the Collection will be on view to the public
31 August 9am-8pm | 1-2 September 10am-4pm | 3 September 10am-5pm
Leonard Joel | 333 Malvern Road, South Yarra

View catalogue >

For media and further information contact:
Katarina Ljahovic, Marketing & Communications Manager
03 8825 5620 | katarina.ljahovic@leonardjoel.com.au

Furniture & Interiors – Exceptional Results June 2016

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AN ORNATE CAST IRON GARDEN BENCH WITH LILY OF THE VALLEY DETAILING
$4880 IBP


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AN EARLY 20TH CENTURY COPPER ‘INGRAMS’ MELBOURNE DOUBLE DIAL CLOCK
$2440 IBP


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A 1960’S DANISH STYLE TEAK BUFFET
$915 IBP


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A LOUIS XV STYLE KINGWOOD THREE DRAWER COMMODE
$1830 IBP


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A RARE 19TH CENTURY AUSTRALIAN CEDAR SECRETAIRE BOOKCASE
$854 IBP


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A MID-CENTURY EIGHT-DRAWER FILING CABINET WITH BRASS FITTINGS
$1159 IBP


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A 1960’S TEAK SIDEBOARD BY ‘PARKER’
$915 IBP


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PERSIAN MASHAD CARPET; SIGNED PIECE; ORIGIN IRAN; IN RARE INDIGO PERSIAN BLUE
$1830 IBP


 

Screen Shot 2016-07-07 at 8.48.57 AMA FINE LATE 19TH CENTURY CHEVAL MIRROR WITH INTRICATE MARQUETRY INLAY
$1708 IBP


 

Screen Shot 2016-07-07 at 8.49.09 AMA FINE QUALITY 19TH CENTURY FRENCH GILT WOOD PIER MIRROR AND CONSOLE
$3416 IBP

 

Connoiseurship at the Fore

251In and of itself a desirable piece, given the current demand for Crichton’s ‘zoomorphic’ creations, this example is lent an extra significance through its presentation inscription, stating that it was a gift from the Frankston Bowling Club to Major General Harold William Grimwade in 1937 (lot 251). Its collectable appeal aside, if nothing else, the claret jug can’t help but invoke a nostalgia for a bygone era when truly exquisite gifts were bestowed upon highly regarded citizens!

Closer to home, the 1853 ‘First Hunt Steeplechase Trophy’ will be offered for the first time in 163 years, and only a few blocks from where it was originally presented (lot 245). Won by colonial pioneer Alexander McLean Hunt’s ‘Benedict’, the race took place at the former Prahran Course, which was located in the precinct between what is now Toorak Road and Fawkner Park.

459Few collections in this auction represent connoisseurship better than that of the late Sara- Jean ‘Sally’ Dilena. A pioneer in the Melbourne manufacture and retail of American confectionary in the 1950s and 60s, Sally’s innate entrepreneurship and commercial drive co-existed with her passion for collecting. She was a regular purchaser at the Melbourne antique auctions and a valued customer of well-known retailers such as Kozminsky Galleries, on Bourke Street in Melbourne – so much so that she frequently understated the real cost of her purchases to her enquiring husband! Her discerning eye is evident throughout her collection, particularly in the high quality selection of silver, many pieces in their original retail boxes (including lot 459). As with previous auctions of this type, our aim has been to place emphasis on the personal context of the objects on offer, separate from notions of market value. We trust that you will enjoy the collections presented here and the stories behind them.

Auction | Sunday 15 May 2016 at 12pm
Viewing | 11 May 9am-8pm | 12-13 May 10am-4pm | 14 May 10am-5pm | 15 May 10am-11.30am
See the full catalogue here >

Guy Cairnduff
Head of Classic Furniture & Objects

 

The Silk Road Selection

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Leonard Joel invites you to preview the upcoming thematic auction, The Silk Road.

Auction | Thursday 28 April 10am
Viewing | 25-26 April 9am-5pm, 27 April 9am-8pm
Enquiries | Ryan Parle |03 8825 5632 | email

Interiors & Jewellery: Returning 7 April

INTERIORS & JEWELLERYThere will be no Interiors & Jewellery viewing or auction this Wednesday and Thursday, due to the short intake period resulting from the long weekend.

However, this means that we are accepting consignments throughout this week and on Monday in preparation for the Thursday 7 April auction.

If you would like to make an appointment to consign furniture, art, jewellery or objects/collectables, please contact us!

03 8825 5620 | info@leonardjoel.com.au 

Richard Boland: Devoted and Enthusiastic Collector

LECTURE EVENT

Wednesday 27 April at 6pm, refreshments provided
Dr Juliette Peers will be presenting a talk on the collection with a focus on early South Australian art. Foremost a lectuerer, Dr Peers has also curated and written catalogue essays for 44 events in Australian public galleries.


Whilst auction houses regularly point to the exceptional factors of any “single-owner” collection passing though their stockroom, the collection of Richard Boland fully deserves to be considered unique, even amongst “single-owner” auctions.

Given that many serious Australian art collectors often work with advisors and dealers, and 6that many who collect art are motivated either by the classic connoisseurship notion of “quality”, even in contemporary art, or in maximising investment potential, this collection breaks many expected conventions. The primary motivating factors for purchasing a work were its intrinsic visual qualities. An appeal to the eye, a pleasing appearance, perhaps an intriguing element of design or subject, often triggered a purchase. This sense of visually- driven entertainment as a means of evaluating work may point to the biographical backstory that the collector worked in the early years of television in Australia. At this highly experimental and exploratory phase of the industry, there was a clear awareness of the hitherto unprecedented need to swap from a text based format of mass communication, such as the press, to visual methods of communication and therefore the design, framing and moving image cutting techniques that camera work and set dressing and construction entailed. Many of the early employees of the television station had an art and design background as much as a technical one, linking into the substantial history of professionals art training in Adelaide, such as the Adelaide School of Arts and Crafts and the present day University of South Australia. Many of the collector’s workplace friends and colleagues had attended art school.

A private collector always has the freedom to choose whatever artworks may please him or her, unlike the complex social, political and economic (given that they buy art using public monies) obligations that public collections must heed. Although in reality generally few collectors exert that option with any degree of singularity or novel flavour. Collectors often seem wary of assembling a group of artworks that does not fit peer-group accepted templates of a “good” collection. However this collection has never heeded conventional rules of what is acceptable to either curators or the marketplace. Thus Marie Tuck’s sesqui-centenary history painting of the proclamation of South Australia found a place in the collection, as too numerous still lifes and even formal society portraits from the 551930s to 1950s. Such works hold intrinsic and immediate appeal to many viewers, but are not necessarily the genre of work that would be highlighted in a scholarly context if analysing Australian art. A collection formed independently of institutional conventions says much about art history that is often invisible or sidelined in “official” accounts. Such is the power of the works in private collections. However these alternative narratives often lie hidden for generations in family homes or escape notice when they are fed work by work anonymously to the market. This collection’s sheer range of work offers a rare chance to explore a comprehensive overview of early to mid-twentieth century artwork from Adelaide and to challenge familiar narratives of Australian art history.

The owner emphasises that his personal engagement with a piece was paramount in selecting it for the collection. Moreover he believes that in Australia still not enough emphasis is placed on the sheer pleasurable aspects of searching for and collecting artworks. Yet from that first flush of personal enthusiasm some threads of connectivity and binding rationales have emerged. Certain periods of art appealed more to him than others, with impressionism as a starting point rather than colonial and Victoriana, and also later and less well-known followers of the plein air style becoming a central feature of the collection. Early modernism including the characteristic relief prints of the interwar period and after is another clear focus. Relief prints were an affordable and highly popular way of circulating advanced artistic expression in the 1920s to 1940s, especially and they have returned to collector favour over the past three decades and are certainly never dismissed as trivial. The range of prints, especially linocuts, by Lisette Kohlhagen in the collection offers some accomplished but lesser known examples of the genre. Expatriate artists and artists who have spent significant periods of their working life outside of Australia, such as Marie Tuck and Rex Wood, represent another clear thread. Such travellers have often been forgotten back home, when the generation who knew them directly dies off.

However the key element linking most works on offer is their South Australian origins. Starting from a position of simply liking the individual works, the collector became increasingly aware through visiting galleries and auction viewings of the number of competent and appealing artists working in twentieth century Adelaide. Thus he not only searched for works by South Australians through auctions across Australia’s east coast, but also began assembling dossiers of biographical information, to fill in the professional context behind the artworks. Behind the direct “pleasure of the chase” grew a possible future intention of establishing a museum devoted to South Australian artists, a plan that has not come to pass, but individual works were frequently loaned to public galleries for survey shows of particular artists, especially those that sought to consolidate a more secure place in public memory for the artist themselves. Having established his mission to champion South Australian art, occasional artworks from other states such as that by Ludmilla Meillerts or James Cant, or even overseas artists, did find their way into the collection, given that he was always on the lookout for artists whose pricepoint and exposure was far below the talent evident in their work.

When considering the history of art and culture in Australia, Adelaide has always “punched above its weight” in relation to the greater national picture, even if conventional accounts have tended to focus from Bernard Smith onwards on the Melbourne-Sydney axis. Today Adelaide is recognised as a site of highly significant institutional support of the arts. This pre-eminence dates for over half a century from the Festival of Arts founded in 1962, when the Art Gallery of South Australia shocked the cold war era by both presenting recent art from the Soviet Union and the first professionally curated re-evaluation of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, to the Experimental Art Foundation and the Jam Factory craft workshops in the 1970s. From c 1980 onwards, the AGSA became, under the guiding inspiration of Daniel Thomas and Ron Radford, perhaps the most intriguing and inventive of all public art galleries in Australia. The Art Gallery of South Australia had a series of important artists as directors throughout the early twentieth century. Harry P Gill was, like the better known Bernard Hall, at the National Gallery of Victoria, both an accomplished artist and a connoisseur whose appreciation of a wide range of artefacts bestowed a complexity upon the original holdings of the Art Gallery of South Australia which would blossom fully in a more recent era of complex cosmopolitan scholarship and curation. Gill had a strong interest in decorative art and design including the production of Australian motifs in design, an interest that the Gallery has expanded over the years. Other artist directors include Louis McCubbin, son of Frederick, and Henry Van Raalte, a major printmaker and painter and a favourite of the collector.24

One of the earliest surviving arts organisations in Australia is the Royal South Australian society of arts – with RMP Melbourne being the second oldest. A Diaghilev-style Ballets Russes company, Les Ballets Contemporains, presented ballets in the 1930s and 1940s with major artists’ original modernist designs, including those of Dorrit Black. Mary Packer Harris instituted an early interest in modernist stylisation tied in her with her more conservative theological/religious interests. Adelaide is famed as a particular crucible for surrealist imagery in the 1940s. Given the large proportion of women artists in the collection, Adelaide has always foregrounded a strong history of female leadership in the arts. Wax portrait sculptor Theresa Walker of Adelaide was the first Australian-based artists to send works back to the Royal Academy in London. Her sister Martha Berkely presented some of the most charming and complex compositions of early colonial women, painted again in Adelaide. Elizabeth Armstrong was first female lecturer appointed at a public art school in Australia in 1892 at the South Australian School of Arts, later the South Australian school of arts and crafts and later still the University of South Australia. Women artists such as Dorrit Black, Mary Packer Harris and Marie Tuck encouraged many younger students to become professional artists – Rex Wood for example learned his modernist design and printmaking skills from Harris – and promoted a more dynamic and contemporary outlook amongst Adelaide art makers. Gwendoline Barringer and Dora Chapman also enjoyed long tenure on the teaching faculty of the South Australian School of Arts.

By Dr. Juliette Peers


Auction | Tuesday 3 May at 6.30pm
Viewing | 27 April 9am-8pm | 28-30 April 10am-4pm | 1-2 May 10am-4pm | 3 May by Appointment
Auction Location | Leonard Joel, 333 Malvern Rd, South Yarra
Enquiries | Maggie Skelton | 03 8825 5630 | email

Anne Hall: The Last Antipodean Expressionist

art2Anne Hall, like Joy Hester, had the misfortune to be married to one of the leading Figurative Expressionists in the history of Australian Art. Hall married John Perceval in 1972 and Hester, Albert Tucker in 1941. Like Hester, Hall was swept up in the steamy John and Sunday Reed circle out at Heide. Arthur Boyd and Sidney Nolan cast longer shadows than Perceval who was the youngest and died in 2000. Nolan departed in 1992 and Boyd in 1999. Which makes Anne Hall the last surviving member of this heroic chapter of Australian art.

Hall studied at RMIT, and had met Perceval in 1967. Right from the start her work showed a deep emotional intensity, particularly in her drawings. While not a signatory to the Antipodean Manifesto, like Boyd and Perceval in 1959, Hall was a next generation Figurative Expressionist, and what one could call an “Antipodean” by style and marriage. She began exhibiting with the South Yarra Gallery in 1968 and into the 1970s. Her work was reviewed favorably during this period by the Herald Art Critic Alan McCulloch who praised her work as “highly imaginative, strong in observation of character and understanding of distortion”. And it was Patrick McCaughey of The Age who described her as an heir to the Antipodean Movement.

Urgency of expression and highly developed drawing skills are hallmarks of Hall’s very personal style. Gestural workings, often-distorted facial features running off into a single line characterize much of her drawn oeuvre. Staring eyes sometimes veiled by a pentimenti of charcoal dust are watching us. Sinuous ngers seemingly searching for the warmth of touch reach out for something unanswered.

As the dust settles on the 20th century there is greater transparency. It seems that the relationship between Hall and Perceval was a collaborative one as well as a caring one. Perceval’s biographer, Traudi Allen, originally noticed this when writing about Perceval’s masterpiece Veronica and the Conspirators, based on the Dutch master Heironymous Bosch’s Christ Carrying the Cross. Allen writes that Perceval had Hall copy the right hand corner of the Bosch which he then improvised around.

art1When comparing the work of both during their ten-year marriage it becomes clear there are many stylistic similarities, as there was between Tucker and Hester. Their relationship ended in divorce in 1981 following Perceval’s admission into Larundel Psychiatric Hospital with alcoholism and schizophrenia in 1977.

After showing great promise during the pre-Perceval years of her career, moving in with Perceval, at the very, least cost Hall much independence as an artist. It is in the post-Perceval period that signs of a different artist begin to emerge. Yet there hasn’t been enough work around to really make an informed opinion. Hence there is great excitement in the art trade over Leonard Joel’s securing of over two hundred works, to be auctioned on Thursday 3rd March.

There are over thirty- ve paintings and the rest are works on paper. The earliest is dated 1965. Most cover the tumultuous years with Perceval, and there are a few from the post-Perceval period. Highlights would include two portraits of Perceval. One in a patterned sweater dated 1976 a year before Larundel . The other is dated 1981 the year of their divorce. The eyes in the rst are open to the world, in the second they are downcast. Blank. Desolate. Hall’s paint handling in both is passionate, descriptive, deliberate, and the bitterness that resides in the corners of Perceval’s mouth is not expressionist license, but how it was. Both these works would sit well beside other portraits of Perceval painted in the same period : Tucker also painted Perceval in 1976. It’s a brutal painting with bulging blood-shot eyes and iron bark for hair. And Clifton Pugh was a runner up in the Archibald Prize in 1985 with a rather saccharine portrayal. Both miss the man. Whereas Hall, no doubt because of daily contact cuts right through appearances to Perceval’s very soul.

Jeff Makin
Artist and Art Critic
January 2016

The Contents of 834 High Street, Thornbury, Melbourne: Mid-Century & Industrial Furniture, Lighting & Objects

DSC_0171Leonard Joel Auctioneers and Valuers are thrilled to present The Contents of 834 High Street, Thornbury: Melbourne’s Secret Collection of Mid-Century Design.

The expansive double shop front of the former Brooks & Co. Furniture building at 834 High Street, Thornbury, in Melbourne’s inner-North, has long been the subject of speculation and intrigue.

The doors to the shop have remained firmly padlocked for some time and its attractive window displays have offered just enough of an insight into the treasures within to whet the appetite of local mid-century design aficionados.

Now, this well-kept secret will be revealed when the collection is dispersed from 11am on Monday 22nd February, in one unreserved public single-owner auction at Leonard Joel’s sale rooms, 333 Malvern Road, South Yarra.

A lengthy process of sorting, unpacking and cataloguing by Leonard Joel specialists has yielded the type of international and Australian design rarities seldom found in one collection, let alone the same auction, with many items in untouched original condition.

Leonard Joel is delighted to be entrusted with the sale of this intriguing collection, and we look forward to sharing the secret with you!


Auction: Monday 22nd February 11am

Viewing: Wednesday 17th February, 9am to 8pm
Thursday 18th February, 9am to 4pm
Saturday 20th February, 10am to 5pm
Sunday 21st February, 10am to 5pm

Enquiries: Dominic Kavanagh, (03) 8825 5632 | email

 

Catalogue online Friday 12 February 2016