Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Feather Sale Goes Global


Last Thursday Webb's sold a huia feather for $8,000 as part of their Tribal Sale. It turns out it is a record for a feather at auction. Lord knows who keeps the lists of these records... Telegraph article here.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

No Go Poe


UPDATE: The Poe portrait as referred to here has failed to sell at auction in Baltimore. Estimated at $30,000 - $50,000 the piece could not get a $15,000 starting bid.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Napoleon Archive Found In NZ To Be Auctioned This Month


Following on from the recent story about rare films being discovered in the NZ Film Archives another important discovery has been made by Art + Object at a recent charity Roadshow. At the end of the month they are to auction 40 items that have come through the family of Captain Denzil Ibbetson (1788-1857), who accompanied Napoleon to exile on St Helena in 1815 and stayed with him until the emperor's death in 1821. The items include a lock of hair (pictured) estimated at $12,000 - $15,000 and a lithograph of Napoleon on his deathbed. A+O described the archive "being in effect an artistic and documentary record of Napoleon's final days this offering constitutes one of the most important collections of artwork and objects associated with a major historic figure ever to be found in Australasia". The auction takes place at 6pm on June 29th and it is on view from the 20th. There is also a Wellington viewing by appointment on Saturday 12th of June. This exciting find will surely have much international interest.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

New Zealand Born Designer Adds Contemporary Touch To Historic Mansion


Mark Brazier-Jones has been asked by the National Trust to add some 'bling' to The Vyne -a Tudor mansion in Hampshire. This pink chaise is one of the pieces he has incorporated into the house which was last decorated in the mid 19th century. (Guardian article here).

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Million Dollar Snuff Bottle Sells in Hong Kong


This 1.6inch snuff bottle made for the Emperor Qianlong has beaten an auction record when it sold in Hong Kong for

$1.75 million (NZ$). Read Daily Mail article here.