The Johnston Collection at the AAADA Antiques & Art Fair Melbourne

This past April the Australian Antique & Art Dealers Association held its annual Antiques & Art Fair Melbourne. With thousands of visitors immersing themselves in the refined world of antiques in the historic Malvern Town Hall. They explored distinctive collections for purchase, unwound with Scotchmans Hill Evening Drinks, engaged...

May 30, 2024 Tira Lewis News.

ENGLISH SILVER FOR WRITING

DR ALISON M HOLLOWAY Little is recorded of silver, used in England for writing, before the time of the Commonwealth (1649-1660). There are references to two standishes in the inventory of plate belonging to King Henry VIII dated 1520. One is of Spanish origin, the other probably English marked...

April 8, 2024 AAADA Admin News.

HYAKUMANTŌ DHĀRAṆĪ (百万塔陀羅尼): THE EARLIEST RELIABLY DATABLE PRINTED TEXT

DOUGLAS STEWART The Hyakumantō Dhāraṇī is the earliest printed text to have survived in Eastern or Western cultures that can be verifiably dated, predating the movable type of Gutenberg by some seven centuries. In the year 764 CE, the Empress Shōtoku (称徳天皇) commissioned one million (hyakuman) miniature wooden pagodas...

AAADA Admin News.

FRANK HYAMS THE NEW ZEALAND WATCHMAKER & JEWELLER – GREENSTONE CANDLESTICKS

JOHN HAWKINS Between 1885 and 1905 Frank Hyams ran a watchmaking and jewellery business in Princess Street, Dunedin. When his first wife Elle Hallenstein died in 1895, he married her London-based cousin Hilda in 1897 and he moved to London in 1898. The Hallensteins founded a clothing, retail and...

AAADA Admin News.

TASMANIAN ABORIGINAL (PAKANA) SHELL NECKLACES

ANNE SCHOFIELD Antique jewellery dealer Anne Schofield recently exhibited a collection of rare Aboriginal shell necklaces from Tasmania, which were on show in June at her Woollahra gallery. A tradition of adornment extends from the oldest living culture on Earth, and continues unbroken to this day. That’s what excites...

AAADA Admin News.

A PRESENTATION CASKET WITH CARVINGS BY JOHN K. BLOGG, 1915

SARAH GUEST The box seen here shows the superb carving of John Kendrick Blogg, a successful and entrepreneurial industrial chemist who was born in 1851 in Canada, settled in the Surrey Hills region of Victoria in 1877 and died in 1936. His day job involved making perfumes and extracting...

AAADA Admin News.

KING ALBERT’S ‘BIRTHDAY BOOK’, 1915

JOHN WADE After Albert I King of the Belgians refused safe passage to Kaiser Wilhelm’s troops to attack France, Germany invaded neutral Belgium on 4 August 1914. Britain, bound by an 1839 treaty to support Belgium’s neutrality, declared war on Germany the same day. Australian Prime Minister Joseph Cook...

AAADA Admin Uncategorised.

WEDGWOOD, JANE AUSTEN AND WHITE WARE

Roger Elliott, on behalf of Zena Thomas: “Wedgwood, Jane Austen and White Ware.” Writer Jane Austen wrote to her sister Cassandra that she visited Wedgwood’s London Showroom where her brother chose a dinner set in White Ware for his household. With notes and illustrations provided by Zena Thomas, Roger...

AAADA Admin Uncategorised.

A VERY EARLY DEPICTION OF FRENCH EXPLORERS IN THE VIRGIN EQUATORIAL LANDSCAPE OF ISLAND MELANESIA, PAINTED BY LOUIS-AUGUSTE DE SAINSON, THE OFFICIAL VOYAGE ARTIST ON DUMONT D’URVILLE’S FAMOUS 1826-29 EXPEDITION IN THE ASTROLABE.

DOUGLAS STEWART FINE BOOKS From a historical perspective, this painting is of great significance as a rare example of early nineteenth- century Pacific voyage art. More specifically, its rarity is underlined by the fact that there are no finished watercolours by de Sainson held in public collections in either...

AAADA Admin Uncategorised.

CHUAH THEAN TENG 1914 – 2008

LAURAINE DIGGINS FINE ART Celebrated as the ‘father of batik painting’ Malaysian artist Chuah Thean Teng is credited as the pioneer of developing batik to a fine art painted medium, elevating the everyday craft to an art form. Combining his training at the Amoy Art Institute in Fujian, China...

AAADA Admin Uncategorised.

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