Smith & Singer In the News

Australian Financial Review  |  Peter Fish

Bristling weaponry, paintings and fine Asian furniture will be on show at Sotheby’s Australia in Melbourne from July 24, prior to going under the hammer on Tuesday, July 29.

Arguably one of the biggest and most anticipated Australian sporting events at the time, the South Australian Coursing Club’s Waterloo Cup attracted spectators from across the country, holding enormous significance to South Australia’s social and sporting calendar.

In 1886 the winner of the South Australian Coursing Club’s principal greyhound race was awarded a trophy donated by the club’s president, Robert Barr Smith, a prominent Adelaide businessman and philanthropist.  A keen sportsman, Barr Smith’s own dog was defeated in the 1886 Waterloo Cup.

Consigned from The Estate of the Late Dr Jan Altmann, the 1886 South Australian Coursing Club Waterloo Cup (circa 1882-1883) is an excellent example of Australian silversmithing.  It was made by one of Australia’s most highly regarded colonial silversmiths, Henry Steiner, who trained in Germany and came to Adelaide during the gold rush in 1858.  The Cup is simple in its design, bearing none of the usual decorative engravings typical of Victorian silver during that time.  Other trophies from the time commonly featured Aborigines and native flora and fauna. Local media noted the unique design and size of the 45oz trophy, with The South Australian Weekly Chronicle describing it as ‘massive though of chaste proportions’ on 1 May 1886.  The Waterloo Cup has been exhibited at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra as a significant piece of early colonial silversmithing.

John and Jan Altmann were avid collectors of Australian Silver.  Through the late 1970s, 1980s and 1990s the majority of The John and Jan Altmann Collection of Australian Silver was donated to the National Gallery of Victoria and transformed the gallery’s holdings in this area.  The Waterloo Cup was retained as part of their personal collection.

Although the Cup bears the mark of Henry Steiner, it was retailed by August Ludwig Brunkhorst, another well-known Adelaide German silversmith and former employee of Steiner.  Ludwig Brunkhorst took over Steiner’s business in 1844 when Steiner returned to Germany.

On 29 July 2014 the Cup will be offered to the market by Sotheby’s Australia at its Fine Asian, Australian & European Arts & Design sale with an estimate of $15,000-20,000, lot 33.

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*Estimates do not include buyer’s premium and prices achieved include the hammer price plus buyer’s premium.

Australian Financial Review  |  Peter Fish

Last week’s sale of the Tom Roberts’s portrait Miss Minna Simpson at an auction record for the artist of close to $1 million could signal a reawakened interest in Australia’s Heidelberg School artists as well as highlighting what may well be a shift in sentiment towards more ­traditional paintings.

Australian Art Sales Digest  |  David Hulme & Brigitte Banziger

The Australian Financial Review  |  Peter Fish

Even a towering effort by the late Fred Williams couldn’t save Bonhams’ important fine art sale in Sydney on Monday, with a big tally of unsold paintings heading back to disappointed vendors and only a handful of respectable prices.

But the Sotheby’s Australia sale the ­following night – the night of Treasurer Joe Hockey’s “horror” budget – was seemingly a world apart, recording exceptional prices and artist records.

The Australian  |  Michaela Boland

Blouin ArtInfo  |  Nicholas Forrest

Sotheby’s Australia will offer a repatriated Sidney Nolan painting entitled “Ned Kelly: Kelly and Horse” 1955 (estimate $300,000-400,000) as part of their May 13 Important Australian Art auction in Sydney. The painting has been in private hands in London for nearly sixty years.

The Australian  |  Michaela Boland

Australian Financial Review  |  Peter Fish

Sotheby’s Australia appears to have comfortably exceeded its financial targets with its Sydney sale of arts and design last week, helped along by a couple of surprises.