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.

IMPORTANT AUSTRALIAN ART

Pictured top  Lot 23 FRED WILLIAMS 1927-1982  Masons Falls (1981)   oil on canvas   182.2 x 151.8 cm  Estimate $2,000,000–3,000,000  Sold for $3,250,000  AUCTION RECORD FOR THE ARTIST  © Estate of Fred Williams/Copyright Agency, 2023 VIEW LOT	Pictured above Lot 20 JOEL ELENBERG 1948-1980  Mask 1 (1978)  black Belgium marble  55 cm high (including base)   Estimate $350,000–450,000 Sold for $1,156,250 AUCTION RECORD FOR THE ARTIST AUCTION RECORD FOR AN AUSTRALIAN SCULPTURE   © The Estate of Joel Elenberg VIEW LOT

IMPORTANT JEWELS & WATCHES 

The Melbourne exhibition for the forthcoming Important Jewels & Watches auction will be open to the public from Friday 25 August to Sunday 27 August, from 10 am – 5 pm, at 14-16 Collins Street, Melbourne.

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 magnificent Chopard Imperiale ref S38/3467-20, an 18ct white gold and diamond-set wristwatch with bracelet (estimate $55,000–65,000, pictured above).  

VIEWINGS

IMPORTANT AUSTRALIAN ART

The exhibition will be on view in Sydney today, Wednesday 23 August, 10 am to 5 pm, at 30 Queen Street, Woollahra.

Among the highlights of the sale is Fred Williams’s magnificent Masons Falls (1981) (lot 23, estimate $2,000,000–3,000,000, pictured above).

Fred Williams’s ‘Waterfall’ compositions of 1979-1981 have long been acknowledged as one of the artist’s most accomplished, sustained and complex series; a body of work that finds its origins deeply embedded within the history and development of Australian art as well as fundamentally inspired by the astonishing qualities found within the Australian landscape itself.

We are particularly honoured to present the magisterial Masons Falls for public sale for the first time – a composition of exceptional quality, beauty and significance – created at the height of Williams’s powers as an artist and one of great influencers of his own and subsequent generations.

The auction will be held at the National Council of Jewish Women of Australia, 111 Queen Street, Woollahra at 6.30 pm tonight, 23 August 2023.

For more information, please contact:

IMPORTANT AUSTRALIAN ART

The exhibition will be on view in Sydney from Monday 21 August – Wednesday 23 August, 10 am to 5 pm, at 30 Queen Street, Woollahra.

Among the highlights of the sale is Rosalie Gascoigne’s spectacular Marmalade 1989-1990 (lot 21, estimate $600,000–800,000, pictured above).

Rosalie Gascoigne’s cunning formalist assemblages are made from many and varied objects – kewpie dolls, shells, enamelled metal utensils, thistle stalks, feathers, corrugated iron, linoleum, the worn timbers of apiary boxes, drink crates, cable reels and plywood form boards – but perhaps the most original and certainly the most popular of all her materials are the retro-reflective road signs.  Possibly inspired by the work of James Lee Byars and Jannis Kounellis, Gascoigne’s yellow and orange chequerboards first appear from the mid-1980s, concurrently with her Schweppes bottle-crate structures.  In these two complimentary bodies of work, the sawn squares and rectangles and strips create both subtle tonal harmonies across the picture plane and minimal, stuttering dada poems of words and letters.

We are honoured to present Rosalie Gascoigne’s magnificent Marmalade, one of the artist’s finest compositions ever offered for auction, from the collection of Cate Blanchett AC and Andrew Upton.

The auction will be held at the National Council of Jewish Women of Australia, 111 Queen Street, Woollahra at 6.30 pm on 23 August 2023.

For more information, please contact:

IMPORTANT AUSTRALIAN ART

The exhibition will be on view in Sydney from Friday 18 August – Wednesday 23 August, 10 am to 5 pm, at 30 Queen Street, Woollahra.

Among the highlights of the sale is Fred Williams’s magnificent Masons Falls (1981) (lot 23, estimate $2,000,000–3,000,000, pictured above).

Fred Williams’s ‘Waterfall’ compositions of 1979-1981 have long been acknowledged as one of the artist’s most accomplished, sustained and complex series; a body of work that finds its origins deeply embedded within the history and development of Australian art as well as fundamentally inspired by the astonishing qualities found within the Australian landscape itself.

We are particularly honoured to present the magisterial Masons Falls for public sale for the first time – a composition of exceptional quality, beauty and significance – created at the height of Williams’s powers as an artist and one of great influencers of his own and subsequent generations.

The auction will be held at the National Council of Jewish Women of Australia, 111 Queen Street, Woollahra at 6.30 pm on 23 August 2023.

For more information, please contact:

IMPORTANT AUSTRALIAN ART

The exhibition will be on view in Sydney from Thursday 17 August – Wednesday 23 August, 10 am to 5 pm, at 30 Queen Street, Woollahra.

Among the highlights of the sale is Sidney Nolan’s magnificent Ned Kelly: Wounded Bushranger 1955 (lot 22, estimate $750,000–950,000, pictured above).

Included in Nolan’s highly significant solo exhibition at The Redfern Gallery, London, in May 1955, Wounded Bushranger is a dramatic composition that evokes empathy and pathos.  Here the armed and mounted outlaw slumps in his saddle, his eye visible through the slit in his helmet, directed to the ground out of physical necessity, rather than strategic bushmanship.  Ned Kelly’s horse is shown pushing forward, propelling his passenger towards the river, where he may escape the advances of his avenging pursuers.

Compositions from Nolan’s ‘second’ Ned Kelly series remain tightly held, with the majority residing in prestigious public and private collections.  We are honoured to be entrusted with the sale of Wounded Bushranger – a rare and inventive depiction from our most internationally renowned Australian artist – that was last offered for public auction almost a quarter of a century ago.

The auction will be held at the National Council of Jewish Women of Australia, 111 Queen Street, Woollahra at 6.30 pm on 23 August 2023.

For more information, please contact:

IMPORTANT JEWELS & WATCHES 

The digital catalogue for the upcoming Important Jewels & Watches auction at Smith & Singer is now available to view online.

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 18ct white gold, diamond, emerald and onyx ‘Dame à la Panthère’ necklace, Cartier (lot 71, estimate $90,000–110,000, pictured above).  

VIEWINGS

Pictured top

Lot 71

18ct white gold, diamond, emerald and onyx ‘Dame à la Panthère’ necklace, Cartier

Centring a resting panther pavé-set with brilliant-cut diamonds and accented with carved onyx spots, the eye set with a pear-shaped emerald, the nose and collar carved onyx, flanked by annular and gate link connectors to a necklace of stylised baton links all grain-set with brilliant-cut diamonds, inner circumference approximately 420mm, signed Cartier, numbered 98 688A, French assay mark.
Accompanied by a Cartier pouch.
Estimate $90,000–110,000

VIEW LOT