Antiques to Vintage Magazine (2025)

01/12/2025

Saddle up for the Damien Oliver collection!
Damien Oliver is one of Australia’s greatest jockeys, with a record-breaking 129 Group One victories in his career that included three Melbourne Cup wins. And you could share in his passion for racing when the Damien Oliver Collection comes up for auction on December 17 and 18 at the Burns & Co Auctions showroom in Bayswater, Victoria.
Included in the sale – which is being offered unreserved – are trophies, cups, silks, prints, photos, pictures and plenty more racing memorabilia, with many items being signed by Oliver. For the full catalogue, go to:
https://burnsandcoauctions.com.au/the-damien-oliver-collection/

21/11/2025

Gorgeous Australian pottery up for auction this weekend!

There are some stunning pieces on offer at the Graham Lancaster sale of Part II of the Keith Free Collection and selected works from the collection of Pam and the late John Stephens.

This Australian pottery auction, which is being held at Rocklea Showgrounds in Rocklea, Queensland on Saturday November 22, features pieces from quality 19th and 20th makers including William Ricketts, Disabled Soldiers Pottery, the Boyd family and many more. The sale is being held live and online from 10am.
The auction brings together a diverse and representative cross-section of Australian ceramic artistry, spanning key makers and movements from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Collectors will find important and representative works by William Ricketts, Grace Seccombe, Una Deerbon, Merric Boyd and the Boyd family, Harry Lindeman and his school, Mollie Douglas, Castle Harris, Marian Munday, L.J. Harvey and his school, Vi Eyre, Disabled Soldiers Pottery, Alexander Murray, Fred Mann, Orpheus Arfaras, John Campbell, Premier Pottery Preston and more.
Auction day viewing commences at 8.30am and the auction catalogue is available for viewing online, with pre-bidding open.

A second auction of Antique Bottles and Stoneware is being held by Graham Lancaster Auctions live and online on Sunday November 23 at the same venue.

Absentee bids are welcome and the auction house offers a professional in-house pack and post service for items suitable for Australia Post. Successful bidders can also collect their purchases from the South Brisbane office.

www. gdlauctions.com.au

14/10/2025

It’s the kind of story we love to tell.

A gentleman whose mother is now in a nursing home took a box of her costume jewellery – at least, that’s what he thought it was – into a UK saleroom and accepted a provisional estimate of around $150 for the lot. But when auctioneer Ridley Partridge started to inspect the pieces it became evident that many of them were in precious materials by makers that included Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels.

And there was another surprise, too. An untested blue stone that was offered as a synthetic sapphire with a guide of $600-$1000 received 350 bids over a period of almost 20 minutes before it was hammered down for $677,000. That’s because it was in fact an emerald cut sapphire of around 20ct and thought to have come from the famed Kashmir mines.

The total hammer price for the box of jewellery was close to $1.2m and included $118,000 for a Cartier classic 1950s cabochon sapphire and diamond Boule ring in platinum (estimated at $4000-6000), and a Van Cleef & Arpels suite of a brooch and earrings designed as flowerheads in gold with yellow sapphires and diamonds that made $183,000 (estimate $16,000-$24,000). We told you it was a great story.

You can read lots more in our monthly email newsletter! Sign up here: https://antiquestovintage.com.au/

29/09/2025

From an estimate of $100 to a new auction record for Carltonware…

It’s been close to 20 years since Carltonware set the auction houses of London alight with frenzied bidding, but in early September those heady days were revisited. A coffee service by Miss Violet Elmer – whose life and work we featured in the Spring 2024 issue of Antiques to Vintage magazine – made a new auction record when it sold for $19,400 at Peebles Auction House in the UK.

The coffee set, in the Babylon pattern, comprised a coffee pot, sugar bowl, cream jug and six cups and saucers and was in mint condition. “There were around 20 bidders on the day,” said auctioneer Garry Rennie, “and it sold to a UK bidder via a phone bid, although we believe it is destined for an Australian collector.”

Violet Elmer was brought out of relative obscurity in 2012 after two English Carltonware collectors decided to research her life and work, with the resulting publication titled Cast Aside the Shadows. Only 100 copies of the book were published, but the painstaking research undertaken by the collectors shone a dazzling light on some of the most stunning designs of Art Deco ever produced by Carltonware.

For a full length feature on Violet Elmer and her Deco designs, click here:
https://antiquestovintage.com.au/article/deco-drama/

19/09/2025

There might be a wide range of fi****ms on offer dating from pre-colonial Australia to the present day at The Hunter Valley Arms Fair next weekend (September 27 and 28), but it’s definitely not ‘just a gun show’. The organisers are also dedicated to ensuring the Fair, which is the largest regional arms fair in NSW, is an educational experience as well as a great opportunity to see items that are new to the market or seldom displayed in the public domain.
That means you’ll find more than sixty licensed dealers with everything from museum grade to serviceable used fi****ms, custom knives, swords, bayonets, military uniforms, badges, medals, flags, propaganda, patches, buttons, old and new reference books, reloading supplies, scopes and optics and spare parts. There are also educational displays, as well as private collections of authentic Wild West equipment.
Various shooting and hunting clubs will be represented, along with collector societies and associations and the Fi****ms Registry. Australian Fine Arms Auctions from Melbourne will have lots from their forthcoming auction on display and you’ll be able to get advice directly from the experts.
The Hunter Valley Arms Fair is on September 27 and 28 at the Maitland Federation Centre, 10 Bent Street, Maitland 2320. Entry is $15 for an adult or $24 for a family; tickets are available online or you can pay at the door.
https://huntervalleyarmsfair.com/home

19/09/2025

From US$24.99 to… US$209,410
This is for followers who have no idea what a Castle Grayskull playset is: it’s a toy replica of the iconic fortress from the Masters of the Universe (MOTU) franchise, designed to provide imaginative play for children and collectors and made by Mattel. In 1983, the game retailed for US$24.99. In August, an example sold in the US for US$209,410, which, according to a spokesperson from LCG Auctions, is ‘an all-time record for any production toy across all franchises, shattering past records for Masters of the Universe collectables.’ And there was no shortage of keen buyers, with a total of 33 bids before the hammer fell. At the same auction a new record was also set for ‘any superhero action figure ever sold’ when a 1982 Superman ‘Pitch Piece’ prototype sold for US$97,691, and a factory-sealed 2007 Apple iPhone 4GB First release was bid to US$88,810. Yes, you read that correctly: just shy of US$89,000 for an obsolete phone. ‘Demand for the most iconic toys and pop-culture artefacts has never been stronger,’ said LCG Auctions, itself a new kid on the block having been established in 2021. ‘From record-setting action figures to prototypes and vintage tech, collectors are pushing values to historic levels.’ Let’s hope those buyers are in it for the love of the item, because there’s no track record of investment for such enormous prices for such recent collectables.

16/09/2025

It’s not often you get the chance to take a long walk down a street full of collectables, retro vintage and upcycled, but that’s exactly what’s going to happen in Morpeth, NSW in November.
The Morpeth Village Treasure Trail is a massive kilometre-long Vintage Fair on High Street, incorporating all things antique and vintage along with coins and stamps in Morpeth’s four halls, with a community garage sale in between. The local school is planning a fete style atmosphere and St James Church will run their fete as well as have their op shop open all weekend. Entry will be free to everything and visitors will be able to get free appraisals on coin and stamp collections.
It’s all happening on the weekend of November 8 and 9, to coincide with the Australian National Garage Sale. Save the date!
https://www.facebook.com/share/1JG5zfwCLx/?mibextid=wwXIfr

02/09/2025

In 1987, Yvonne Oriel found her granddaughter playing with two of her Swarovski crystal hedgehogs. ‘Playing’ is probably the wrong description; she was banging them together. Clearly Yvonne’s collection needed a bit more protection, so she started looking for a display cabinet and then gave up smoking to get the cash to buy one when she found it.
Then she started filling the cabinet with more Swarovski crystal figures, until she had 108 of them. Yvonne passed away at the age of 90 and her collection, which is estimated at around $40,000, will go up for auction at Potteries Auctions in the UK on September 11.
"The Swarovski collection didn't just bring my grandmother joy – it prolonged her life," says granddaughter Leanne Gething, who has consigned the collection. "Those hedgehogs represent so much more than crystal figures. They represent the moment beautiful objects inspired a healthier choice." And yes, the hedgehogs are included in the sale, in a small group lot with an estimate of around $200. Other highlights include an elegant paradise roller bird (estimated at $400-$800), a kingfisher from the Paradise Birds collection (estimated at $600-$1200), and coveted Disney figurines including Mickey Sorcerer and Daisy Duck (expected to sell for $700-$1200 each).

19/08/2025

In 1942, British couple Pamela and Dudley White were involved in wartime military operations, Pamela as a signals officer and David as a naval officer. On one occasion when the pair had shore leave they stayed at the Queens Hotel in Southsea, and when they left they took a silver teaspoon with them. Fast forward 83 years and the couple’s son John was looking through his mother’s effects at his home in Bundanoon, New South Wales, when he came across the spoon – and decided to return it to the hotel. "We thought it would be a nice gesture if we could send it back to the hotel and apologise for having it for so long and hope they hadn't missed it too much", said John, who sent the spoon back with a letter explaining that his parents had borrowed it during a stay at the hotel during WWII. The hotel's manager, Paul Playford, said, "We have a little curiosity cabinet, so it's going to live there along with the pictures and the letter." The hotel no longer uses silver cutlery.

15/08/2025

If you’ve got a spare US$3m, the Force may well be with you in September when the lightsabre prop used by Darth Vader for duel scenes with Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) in the final acts of both The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983) comes up for auction.
It’s made from a British press camera flash handle that was converted with plastic grips, small electrical wires and a circuit board. And it’s estimated to sell for US$1-3m. ‘This is believed to be the only hero lightsabre prop with verifiable screen-use to ever be offered at public auction,’ says the Propstore website. ‘It is one of the rarest and most sought after “grail” Star Wars props in existence.’ The lightsabre is part of the three-day live streamed event being held in Los Angeles from September 3 to 6, with more than 1000 lots of TV and movie memorabilia.
https://propstoreauction.com/auctions/info/id/456

14/08/2025

One of the first ever examples of a so-called coffee table book has sold at a UK auction for $98,000 after being discovered in the back of a closet in Maryland, USA. The book - Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads - which was published in 1886 in a deluxe edition of just 25 copies, presents 40 platinum prints of the Norfolk Broads in photographs taken by Peter Henry Emerson, whose original plates were later destroyed. Born in Cuba to an American father and British mother, Emerson was a trailblazer in the medium of photography. At the forefront of the newly-formed Camera Club of London in 1885, he spent the next decade documenting the life and scenery of the Norfolk Broads and Great Yarmouth. A spokesperson for auctioneers Roseberys said, “Emerson is widely regarded to be the first man to elevate photography to an art form.” The book had been wrapped in brown paper and stored in a closet, where it hadn’t been touched for decades.

Antiques to Vintage Magazine

01/12/2025

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