The dashing 61 by 44 cm c.1840 portrait of the dandy (he was so described in contemporary newspaper reports), Nunn was last on public view at Christie's sale of Australian and topographical art in London in September last year.
It sold then for the equivalent of $19,008. At the fair it could be had for $42,000 reflecting claimed advances on what Hordern House regard as a rather perfunctory cataloguing as "British School, Artist Unknown".
The work is now “attributed” to Joseph Fowles, an artist of some celebrity from early colonial times, the artist making a triumphant flourish with his seeming return to the Randwick Racecourse to whose facilities he added, and whose horses he was famous for painting.
The attribution, it seems, has something to do with his membership or establishment of a dainty feet school. Other work(s)show the Commandant of the Mounted Police NSW with feet that suggest he would have had to mince his way through life, like the detective Poirot with small pointy steps.
Nunn was no ordinary policeman and old saleroom habitués would feel the old trooper was an old friend.
Chris Deutscher had another version, a similarly sized oil on canvas of the portrait which he catalogued as “artist unknown” in a catalogue of 19th and 20th art he published when he had a gallery in Carlton in October 1982.
It was – what a coincidence – also priced at $42,000 and reported as sold to an institution. It has a battle with horses going on in the background and is now in the National Library of Australia where it is still artist unknown.
Deutscher's cataloguing mentioned the existence of the fair picture and its appearance at Sotheby's in London in 1982. The Australian Financial Review reported its sale for £750 at that sale to “a young London expatriate who buys Australian paintings from time to time.”
That was all I could secure from my sources at that time, and since. The work has become suddenly extra topical because of the massacres that are happening all over the place. Nunn presided over the worst massacre of Aborigines to take place in Australia when at Liverpool Plains in 1838, police under his command killed more than 200 Aborigines for attacks on settlers.
Obeying orders, Nunn was responsible for what today would be regarded as an enormous crime against humanity - very much a kind of local equivalent of the reversal of the battle at Little Big Horn of Custer's last stand against America's native races.
Nunn is therefore not the kind of character to have in your drawing room as the subject of polite conversation and his likeness is already represented in one institution. But Hordern House's Matthew Fishburn believed a sale could go through given that institutions have approval processes which make immediate decisions rare.
It is also a work of great interest to military historians, one of whom, the late Len Barton, underbid the first appearance of Nunn in the Hordern House portrait 52 years ago.
Hordern House is itself an old trooper and is now cutting a high profile through the AAADA fair. Last year it launched its reproduction of the Sydney punch bowl in the Dixson library there. That was its second consecutive fair.
Director Anne McCormick is one of the trade's most dedicated troopers turning up at all sorts of obscure events such as stamp sales (there could be none more obscure) and suburban auctions across the country on the whiff of a find.
Another trooper, Sydney art dealer Andrew Crawford, made his first appearance at the fair using it to launch his new brand, 69 John Street, named after the premises mid way between Raffan's and Lawson's in Leichhardt, where art finds continue to be made.
Crawford says he wants to return for next years fair and will be putting in an application to allow him to do so. He was a guest exhibitor at this year's fair..
Other applications to join the association are also being processed. The fair is now the only high profile event of its kind whereas once there were half a dozen a year. It and the Association, originally reserved for antique dealers, is able to present a quality showcase of goods only because the much rationalised trade has withdrawn into it and added art dealers to the fold.
Crawford is bedding down several hundred thousand dollars worth of sales as a result of the fair although he says he is not counting his chickens before they are hatched. The works being negotiated are by tried and tested names like Arthur Streeton and Hans Heysen.
He made one big discovery at the fair – the interest attached to the Victorian artist Hayward Veal. Dealer Joseph Brown had sold many works by this Meldrumite whose widow was to be seen at every Joel sale in Melbourne at which one of his works came up, decades after his death and showing great anxiety to ensure any offerings were well cared for. He could have sold his one work by this member of the grey skies misty morning school at $5500 seven times over.
At least one of the old time exhibitors, a fair veteran of half a century, seemed happy with the outcome, with Geelong based Moorabool Antique Galleries, albeit struck by the temporary downing of one of its founders, was content, but obviously would have liked more that the dozen sales of ceramics it made.
These began with a rare Pinkston cup and saucer which went to a retired Sydney academic and passionate collector of cups and saucers (rare). The pieces were mostly lower priced as appeared to be the way of the fair but they followed a very good year for Moorabool.
The firm does not rely on the fair as much as some dealers without big shop fronts so it is relatively less important to them. During the year it had many bigger fish to fry including the discovery and sale of a rare Meissen platter/charger and the family holdings of an overlooked Victorian potter called Isabel Clementine Ainslie.
The pick of the Ainslie pottery was purchased by the National Gallery of Victoria which also secured the platter. Donor funds had to, and were found by the gallery for the platter which is of such importance that it is likely to be shown in the company of the very rare and impressive Swan service platter already in the gallery's collection.
The seeming deterioration in the average price paid at the fair appears to be in line with the national erosion of personal wealth which was similarly visible at the Melbourne Art Fair.
Perhaps that is why practical purchases received priority - furniture and even rugs (not a big fair seller) which went out of the door.
Lauder and Howard from Perth sold well its container of fine furniture by classy English makers. That the firm has to cross the spinifex to sell top gear antiques when they are based in the town that has been home to a mining boom is inexplicable.
Big wealth holders were also absent from the fair presumably going contemporary or being discreet if they have any taste and are buying anything...or as like contemporary art buyers heading overseas. The parade of older collectors – at least those who are not rugged up on very cold nights was slighter. Greta Moran appeared absorbed by some of the Clarice Cliff while Paul Keating secured an Art Deco lounge suite apparently for a friend.
Snook and Company Antiques had a good run with both clocks and furniture in particular. He has invested $1.2 million in flash new premises at Camberwell, Victoria.
More antique furniture might well have been sold had a Tasmanian exhibitor's container arrived on time and the shop shown at the fair. But there were other notables absences of dealers which usually have a big following. Antiques jewellery dealer Anne Schofield was overseas and is about to launch a major jewellery book.
The fair looked good because it is now the only serious antique fair in Australia when once there were half a dozen every year. It has required a lot of dedication to stay in the country. But the industry is being rebooted.
Paul Baker, one time owner of the long-closed Woollahra Antique Centre, has founded a new centre in Sydney's Potts Point to which at least three members of the AAADA have gravitated after the closure of the Sydney Antique Market in Surrey Hills. Efforts are being made to revive World of Antiques and Art, the up market glossy magazine of the industry which is another casualty of the winds of change.
The organisers say that all exhibitors appeared happy with the event, but results were clearly varied as always. It has not yet tallied attendance figures and has been hesitant to estimate them before regarding them as a not very fair indicator of results and progress of the fair.
Always look on the bright side, sang Monty Python's Eric Idle, and of the three D's (debt, divorce and death), death is a contributor the industry's big generational change now taking place. Dealers complained about the limited number of free tickets for dispersal for the opening night but this freed serious collectors up to make actual purchases.
The death of Marvin Hurnall, Australia's biggest promoter and dealer in Australian ceramics will almost certainly yield some massive sale catalogues as the stock is dispersed. Julian Aalders also has the estate of the late Brian Eggleton, a keen Anglican, heraldry specialist who did distinguished service in the RAAF. He founded the Silver Society of Australia with Alan Landis.
With a membership of 90 a full room seems guaranteed from this source alone. Lower estimates are around $200,000 but this true collectors sale is likely to release an enthusiasm unconnected with economic circumstance.
The sale includes such esoteric items as a Dutch "Four Seasons" silver tobacco box, c.1720, marked FB, Amsterdam, of rectangular form, the sides engraved with foliate work, the lid and base engraved with figural scene with a season of the year to either side, the underside of hinged lid engraved with foliate work and two hinged shutters engraved with birds revealing boat scenes.
There is a 10 page research document attached and similar notes accompany other pieces.
Eggleton said that “if it was the only 'find' one made in a lifetime of collecting, one would feel very satisfied". There appear to be many lots like it in the catalogue which is now up on the web.
Its estimate? $350.00 - $650.00
