Hallelujah, It's A Sale
Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday July 9, 1997
For anyone poised to establish a new religion, weekend activity includes a trip to Bowral for the liquidation sale of the Zion Full Salvation Ministry. Clearly Bowral couldn't be completely saved. On site at the corner of Bannyette and Bong Bong Streets on Saturday at 11.30am, Tom McLean Auctions disposes of 52 silky oak pews, more than half of them restored, lecterns, cymbals and lavender oil.
Carats and sugar ... On Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5pm at 180 Jersey Road, Christie's displays a number of extremely fine smalls from its July 21-22 Melbourne Decorative Arts sale. For anyone about to marry a billionaire there's a 6.5 carat diamond. For the monarchist and collector of the neoclassic a pair of Regency Silver gilt sugar vases made in 1812 by Benjamin Smith. These, sibling clones of the eight that adorn the Queen's dining table, derive from a design that runs from Piranesi to John Flaxman to Smith and on to Paul Storr who made more of the same. The estimate is
$20-$30,000. Also on view, one of the rarest of Lalique's Bacchante Vases, opalescent with blue stain, estimated at $18-$22,000. Christie's also reports that its London furniture sale of July 3 was a record blast. Dazzling quality and provenance ensured that the pair of Adam and Chippendale giltwood chairs went for $2,854,97, the pair of matching sofas for $2,578,930, while the whole made an unprecedented
$16 million-plus.
Cliff riches ... Clarice Cliff is
everywhere. Christie's has an Archaic Bizarre vase, Dalia Stanley a pair of Gibraltar vases and a Biarritz tea set. Her noon Sunday sale at Alberta Street is a general sweep through all categories. The eyes: comfortable quality upholstery, an English oak and elm dresser, nine William IV dining chairs with Prince of Wales feathered detail, table linens and extensive dinner services by Hutschenreuther and KPM, a small Daum Nancy five-colour landscape vase, 3 sturdy cricket tables and a large equally plain pilastered chest of drawers.
A turn on? Lawson's Book, Map and Print sale at 2pm, on Monday at 212 Cumberland Street, has the engaging logbook of one C. Moses, describing his journey in 1833 from Graves End to Sydney. And a collection of erotica. They are not advertising the fact (family auctioneers), but it consists of mildly racy turn-of-the-century French postcards including the impressed variety that reveal the outline of the body only and a more explicit album, a faked-up period piece - quaint, sad, hardly erotic - especially with those socks and sock suspenders.
Attila the Hungarian ... Wemyss has no sale this week but a live exhibition of the works of Orban Attila, a young Hungarian painter who has set up his studio in the Wentworth Avenue rooms and can be seen getting down to the essence of his recent Northern Territory experience with Aboriginal art and artists.
Tom McLean, ph 046 819 640; Christie's, ph 9326 1422; Dalia Stanley, ph 9283 3838; Lawson's, ph 9241 3411; Wemyss, ph 9283 4900.
© 1997 Sydney Morning Herald