Nora Heysen achieved many firsts in her career. She was the first woman to win the prestigious Archibald prize for portraiture, and the first female Australian official war artist. As a young girl, Nora was strongly encouraged by those around her to pursue her artistic talents. Sydney Ure Smith, Lional Lindsay, and Will Ashton (friends […]
Barbara Tribe was one of Australia’s most significant 20th Century sculptors. During her early art school years in Sydney, she was encouraged by George Rayner Hoff to pursue further studies in sculpture. Hoff saw great talent in Barbara even nominating her to assist him with his own commissions – the most significant being the ANZAC […]
The category ‘works on paper’ encompasses an incredibly diverse range of mediums, from ink and watercolour, to charcoal and collage. Artists have been using paper to sketch preliminary ideas, take quick impressions and use the medium to complete fully finished works. We are delighted to introduce the ‘Original Works on Paper’ collection in this coming […]
Leonard Joel is the only auction house in Australia with a dedicated Valuations department, enabling us to offer a broad range of specialist expertise for the valuation and auction of single items and entire collections. Leonard Joel is proud to be a corporate member of the Auctioneers and Valuers Association of Australia. The AVAA is Australia’s […]
Leonard Joel is proud to announce that our CEO has been appointed to the International Board of IFAW, the International Fund for Animal Welfare. In 2017, with the support of Rebecca Keeble of IFAW’s Australian office, Leonard Joel developed and adopted an industry-leading policy relating to the cessation of auction trade in elephant ivory and […]
Australian born artist John Hall Thorpe (1874 – 1947) learnt the technique of woodblock printing in the early 1890s at the ‘Sydney Mail’, under the apprenticeship of John Fairfax and Sons. It was over the course of nine years that he mastered the technique of wood engraving. Thorpe spoke very highly of these influential years […]
When we think about Christian Dior today, a handbag may be the first thing that comes to mind, such as the classic ‘Lady Dior’ bag made famous by fashion icon Lady Diana. This accessory was not actually made with Diana in mind, but was gifted to her in 1995 by Bernadette Chriac, then wife of […]
“I don’t like to be pigeonholed, but rather find the virtue in a wide range of things” Geoffrey Hatty Geoffrey Hatty Applied Arts has been running for over four decades now, not easy in the fickle world of Melbourne retail. A testament to the power of taste, Hatty’s natural awareness of beauty and design is […]
The golden age of Chinese furniture spanned the Ming (1368-1644) to middle Qing (1644-1912) dynasties, when furniture suddenly leaped away from previous lacquered softwoods towards austere and refined pieces crafted from Southeast Asian hardwoods. The emphasis was on simplicity, often with little or no decoration, wonderful timber selection and complex mortise and tenon joinery. No […]
The phrase “being born with a silver spoon in your mouth” does not deserve the unpleasant connotations that it has in today’s society; we only need to look at ancient civilizations and their practices to see why. Silver has been used since its discovery 5000 years ago and has been synonymous with wealth and currency […]