The silver was a pair of 12 cm tall kangaroos cast and chased as two antique silver salts which were offered at Catherine Southon's March 24 auction in the Farleigh Golf Club, near Selsdon, Surrey. They made £18,000 hammer price (£21,240 including BP) against estimates of £6,000-10,000. The near double the estimate result (estimates do not include the buyers premium) was paid by a non UK buyer against the Internet, so it is more than conceivable that they have headed Down Under.
The last piece of silver in the sculptured form of a kangaroo cast like these is believed to have gone to Ros Packer, widow of Australian media tycoon Kerry Packer who is a keen collector of Australiana.
At Christie's South Kensington in late 2006 she was reported to have paid £60,000 hammer (then around $150,000) for an 1882 silver-mounted glass claret jug modelled as a kangaroo by English silversmith Sampson Mordan.
The kangaroos sold by Southon were made by English silversmiths Hunt and Roskell and were hallmarked London 1854 and 1856 with later spoons. This was the second auction conducted by Catherine Southon's auction house with support undoubtedly assisted by her long experience as a specialist at Sotheby's and her role as a BBC TV presenter.
The kangaroos came from a private collection and were brought in on a valuation day in one of the small pouches in which novelty pieces of silver often turn up, heart-stoppingly so because of this fact.
There was another Australian connection in her sale with the offering of nine bronzes by the Australian-born contemporary artist and former dancer Tom Merrifield which sold for a total of £6000 EBP including Troilus for £2295.IBP. Tom sketches and models his dancers at his Hampstead Studio.
At Shapiro's well promoted sale of the Richard Mackay collection of Australian pottery at its rooms in Sydney on March 22 kangaroos also fired. The best price for three examples by Arthur Merric Boyd and Neil Douglas was paid for a circular plate which was decorated with kangaroos and goannas in bush scene, incised to base 'Arthur Merric Boyd 1947. The estimate of $1,200-1,500 was comfortably exceeded by the price of $2040 (IBP).
Two (non-kangaroo) vases by Klytie Pate went to the Tallis Foundation, the home of which is Beleura in the Mornington Peninsula. The museum is open to visitors by appointment, welcomed as guests.
Beleura was erected in 1863 for James Butchart, and was bequeathed to the people of Victoria by Jack Morton Tallis as a place of historic and educational interest. Beleura and its land, acquired by Sir George Tallis (1869-1948) and Lady Tallis in 1916 and from 1950 the home of Jack Morton Tallis (1911-1996).
The foundation has a collection of theatrical memorabilia and history developed as a result of Sir George Tallis' involvement on the Victorian theatrical scene for many years at J C Williamson where his ventures including topically (for the saleroom buff) planning Dame Nellie Melba's program.
When a descendant of Sir George John Tallis died in 1996 he left Beleura to the people of Victoria, requesting it become a house museum with guided tours are available for individuals and groups on selected days throughout the year.
The foundation has been building on a collection of the Melbourne potter Klytie Pate following the interest of the later members of the Tallis family in her work and now has at least 1000 pieces.
There was "a surprising level of telephone and internet bidding," throughout but two pieces of Klytie Pate were secured for around expectations. They were a "White Cormorants Vase" titled from its decoration which sold for $5520 IBP against estimates of $5000 to $6000) and "the Karnak Vase"- in a very Egyptian shape (estimates $1000 to $2000) for $2640 IBP. The entire Mackay collection fetched $52,164 IBP compared with expectations of between $50,000 and $100,000. The clearance was about 85 per cent.
Both had been purchased from Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, suggesting what a lucky culture dip, the gallery, the home of Ian Fairweather, could be even as late as 1989.
The Foundation was unaware of any kangaroos among the 1000 strong collection but looking continuously to build on the collection it will be watching out to develop it should any come along. It is building a small wing or "treasury like" structure to house the Pate collection.
A kangaroo stopped the (foot) traffic at the Basel – Hong Kong Art Fair held last month.
The photograph was on the stand occupied by Melbourne art dealer Anna Schwartz Gallery in a very prominent spot near the entrance to the upper level hall.
The gallery had one of the biggest spaces of any of the Australasian Galleries at the Hong Kong Art Fair (held March 22-26) but even then the crowds stopped the flow.
The photograph, the artist, Shane Gladwell explained, is a counterpoint to his Apologies series of videos, in which a motorcyclist stops alongside road kill – dead kangaroos and wallabies that he cradles as if wishing them back to life
Untitled - Murramarrang Plank, 2014 "C" type print, framed with eerily blue transparent acrylic and measuring 114 x 168 cm reflects the artist's continuing fascination with Australian fauna that arose from his encounters with road kill. Murramarrang is near Canberra.
Gladwell is shown planking, floating on his belly while looking directly into the eyes of an eastern grey kangaroo as the kangaroo stares at him inquisitively, just centimetres away.
He could refer any criticism of the underlying photograph to his mother. It was she who took the photograph. But there has not been. Just the same curiosity the roo is showing.
As there are only three copies of this print including an artist's proof, the print was rapidly accounted for at $18,000 for but there is another presently on view in the Redlands Art Prize at the National Art School in Sydney.
Despite other artists including Singapore's Heman Chong featuring on the Schwartz stand the crowds that passed through the building seem to be more transfixed with the kangaroo than anything else.
Schwartz said that the fair was a great opportunity for cultural exchange. That was why she included two Beijing artists at the fair, She wanted to "mix it up" with other galleries at the fair.
Australian pottery has also been on the move lately from Norwood in Adelaide to the Art Gallery of South Australia on North Terrace.
An exhibition A Chance Beginning consisting of more than 50 out of 164 pieces given to the Gallery in 2014 under the Cultural Gifts Program by Adelaide psychiatrist Dr Robert Lyons, a specialist in transgender health has opened at the gallery. It runs until August 23.
The collection which like the Tallis has been quietly built up over the years includes 19th and early 20th century South Australian and Australian decorative arts.
It includes pieces from the potteries of Bosley, Trewenack Pottery and London Pottery as well as the studio pottery of Gladys Reynell and women china painters of the early twentieth century.
It surprisingly does not include any kangaroos although Dr Lyons is understood to have bought some stunning examples. These are folk art and folk art is elusive in the current exhibition unless a Bosley pottery gnome could be said to be folk art. Perhaps there are plans for this aspect of the collection later on. The gnome dwarfs the tiny kangaroos which were sold in Surrey.
Perhaps having an extensive property in the country where too many kangaroos run wild, he regards them as pests.
Dr Lyons' interest in art began by chance. In 1975 he had just moved to Adelaide and, he recalls, "the house I rented was filled with European and Australian art."
His interest now has drifted to the more topical field of contemporary photography.
