IMPORTANT AUSTRALIAN ART

Consign now to our forthcoming auction of Important Australian Art.

In August, Smith & Singer achieved a sale total in excess of $14.5 million (including buyer’s premium) that combined excellent sold rates of 121% (by value) and 85% (by volume) combined with outstanding performances against estimates.

Smith & Singer continued its market leadership in the sales of art at auction in Australia and has established 5 of the 10 highest prices in Australia this year to date, including the auction record for Australian sculpture.

Building on the resounding success of our auctions of fewer works of higher value combined with unparalleled in-house scholarship, our carefully curated November 2023 auction will include significant examples of historical, modern and contemporary Australian art.

To participate in this momentous sale, please contact our highly experienced specialists for a confidential appraisal.

You may also use our appraisal estimate form. 

The exhibition will be on view in Sydney from Thursday 14 September – Monday 18 September from 10 am – 5 pm, and on Tuesday 19 September from 10 am – 2 pm, at 30 Queen Street, Woollahra.

This remarkable collection of 42 paintings by Australia’s most internationally celebrated and collected artist, spans Sidney Nolan’s highly productive and inventive career from 1957 to 1987.  Significant examples from Nolan’s Eliza Fraser, Ned Kelly, African, Bathers, Oedipus, Gallipoli, and Silk Road series are represented by large-scale compositions in oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas and composition board that reveal the artist as the truly extraordinary innovator and trailblazer for which he is justly renowned.

All works in the sale carry the same modest estimate of $15,000–25,000 and represent exceptional buying.

The auction will be held at Smith & Singer, 30 Queen Street, Woollahra at 6.30 pm on 19 September 2023.

The Age  |  Elizabeth Flux

How did a British peer become one of Sidney Nolan’s greatest collectors and patrons? Well, according to one story, it happened after Lord McAlpine – writer, businessman and Conservative Party treasurer under Margaret Thatcher – saw the Australian artist’s work printed on a Qantas in-flight menu.

IMPORTANT JEWELS & WATCHES 

The exhibition will be on view in Melbourne from Wednesday 6 September – Sunday 10 September, 10 am to 5 pm, at 14-16 Collins Street.

This remarkable collection of 42 paintings by Australia’s most internationally celebrated and collected artist, spans Sidney Nolan’s highly productive and inventive career from 1957 to 1987.  Significant examples from Nolan’s Eliza Fraser, Ned Kelly, African, Bathers, Oedipus, Gallipoli, and Silk Road series are represented by large-scale compositions in oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas and composition board that reveal the artist as the truly extraordinary innovator and trailblazer for which he is justly renowned.

All works in the sale carry the same modest estimate of $15,000–25,000 and represent exceptional buying.

Following Melbourne, the Sydney exhibition will take place from Thursday 14 September – Monday 18 September from 10 am – 5 pm, and on Tuesday 19 September from 10 am – 2 pm, at 30 Queen Street, Woollahra.

The auction will be held at Smith & Singer, 30 Queen Street, Woollahra at 6.30 pm on 19 September 2023.

SIDNEY NOLAN

Smith & Singer are delighted to offer Sidney Nolan's Convict in Landscape 1962 for private sale.

Convict in Landscape represents an exceptional image within Nolan’s brilliant iconography from this crucial period that possess an intelligence, inventiveness and audaciousness that changed the course of Australian painting.  With these compositions Nolan transformed the genre of historical subjects from the retrograde to the avant garde.  Convict in Landscape exemplifies Nolan’s ability to synthesise the mythic and the vernacular, a confident nineteenth century past with a devastated post-war twentieth century present, and through that synthesis to identify and acknowledge an underlying restlessness and uncertainty apparent in modern Australia’s identity.

Convict in Landscape bears a distinguished history to match its high quality.  The work formed part of the personal collection of Cynthia Nolan and was subsequently sold from her estate to Lord McAlpine of West Green, who over the course of three decades formed the most comprehensive collection of paintings by Sidney Nolan.

IMPORTANT JEWELS & WATCHES 

Australian Financial Review  |  Elizabeth Fortescue

A marble bust by a comparatively lesser-known artist became the first work of sculpture to break through the million dollar mark at an Australian auction, as Smith & Singer sold up a $14.5 million storm in Sydney.

IMPORTANT JEWELS & WATCHES 

The Sydney exhibition for the forthcoming Important Jewels & Watches auction will be open to the public from Friday 1 September to Monday 4 September from 10 am – 5 pm, and on Tuesday 5 September from 10 am – 2 pm, at 30 Queen Street, Woollahra. 

The September sale features a dazzling array of diamonds, coloured diamonds and precious gemstones along with signed jewels by highly sought-after jewellers, including impressive designs by Cartier, Bulgari, Tiffany & Co., Paspaley, and Seaman Schepps, complemented by watches by Chopard, Cartier, Panerai, and Jaeger-LeCoultre.

A particular highlight of the collection is this stunning  Diamond Ring (estimate $90,000–120,000, pictured above).    

VIEWINGS

The digital catalogue for the upcoming auction Sidney Nolan: Property formerly from the Collection of Lord McAlpine is now available to view online. 

This remarkable collection of 42 paintings by Australia’s most internationally celebrated and collected artist, spans Nolan’s highly productive and inventive career from 1957 to 1987.  Significant examples from Sidney Nolan’s Eliza Fraser, Ned Kelly, African, Bathers, Oedipus, Gallipoli, and Silk Road series are represented by large-scale compositions in oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas and composition board that reveal the artist as the truly extraordinary innovator and trailblazer for which he is justly renowned.

This fascinating auction will be open to the public Wednesday 6 September – Sunday 10 September 2023, 10 am – 5 pm, at 14-16 Collins Street, Melbourne. Following Melbourne the Sydney exhibition will take place from Thursday 14 September – Tuesday 19 September, 10 am – 5 pm, at 30 Queen Street, Woollahra.

The auction will be held at Smith & Singer, 30 Queen Street, Woollahra at 6.30 pm on 19 September 2023.