Auctions are often a middle ground between high-end antique retailers and more mass-market stores. Thanks to sites such as LiveAuctioneers and Invaluable, which partner with auction houses around the world, you can access hundreds of sales any hour of the day. Such sales can be rich hunting grounds for vintage and antique furnishings, from majolica plates to well-made 19th-century French farmhouse tables and Mid-century pieces that sell for three times the price on designer retail sites like Chairish. Online auctions, such as Lawsons, are one of the most cost-effective and easy ways to buy antiques, with pictures and descriptions of the items posted before each timed sale. Auction houses provide catalogues online with photographs, brief descriptions and an estimated market value of each item.
Browsing them can be entertaining and educational – watch for patterns emerging.
Whether you’re a collector or a new devotee, there’s an explosion of interest in online auction shopping as it offers all the convenience of mass-produced decor without the environmental impact. The benefits of decorating with antiques are endless. There is an incalculable amount of vintage and antique furniture available, as well as art, to scroll through on your screens. Here are the best online auction sites to browse, and to bid and buy on the secondary market. Find what gets you excited and buy the best quality you can.
Photo: Abbie Melle
1STDIBS
1stDibs provides a platform for both auctions and direct sales, allowing buyers to choose their preferred method of acquisition. While it offers an auction platform, the 1stDibs site brings together more than 3300 professional dealers specialising in design, furniture, fine art and other collectables for affluent consumers and interior designers. 1stdibs.com
AALDERS
Founded in 2006 by Julian Aalders and Kim Fyfe, Aalders’ rooms in Sydney’s Stanmore are home to monthly auctions, including private and single-owner collections and estates. Aalders specialises in a broad range of antiques with a focus on Oriental, European and Australian objects including silver, porcelain, art, textiles, jewellery, mirrors, furniture and architectural garden pieces. We have sold items here over the years. It’s the dealer’s choice. Great Google reviews, too. aaldersauctions.com
BONHAMS
One of the world’s oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques, and the only international auction house holding sales in Australia, Bonhams Australia forms part of the company’s international network of salerooms and offices located in more than 25 countries. It offers Australian vendors the opportunity to reach a global art market. Bonhams has developed a highly personalised online sales and bidding platform that connects bidders with the physical saleroom experience. bonhams.com
Specialising in furniture, Australian paintings, Asian arts, jewellery and decorative arts. Keen collectors can pick up a beautiful portrait, good porcelain, or a Georgian table or rug for a good price.
CHRISTIE’S
The famous auction house became a private company in 1988, bought by Artemis, billionaire François Pinault’s private holding group, and has held collections spanning artwork, antiques and jewellery. It no longer trades in Australia but deserves a place on the list, being synonymous with the world’s most famous and expensive paintings, having facilitated sales of Picassos, Pollocks, Monets, Van Goghs and Warhols. It sold Salvator Mundi, the painting attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, which became the most expensive piece of art ever sold. It’s clear why Christie’s is the ultimate art auction house. In 2016, Christie’s celebrated its 250th anniversary and has broken countless records over the years. We’ve bought art, rugs and antique English furniture in Christie’s London rooms over the decades, many of which we now have in our own homes. christies.com
Notably, sales at the Rockefeller collection auction at Christie’s became the most significant charity auction ever staged, coming in at $832.6 million.
Photo: Abbie Melle
GIBSON’S
Very nice rooms in Armadale, Melbourne, which could easily be mistaken for a high-end antiques store. Founded by Jennifer Gibson in 2018, Gibson’s has a team of experienced industry professionals with regular curated sales and single-owner private collections. Always a great mix of antiquities, furniture, decorative arts, Asian art, as well as local, Indigenous and international paintings. gibsonsauctions.com.au
HERITAGE AUCTIONS
Based in Dallas in the USA, but with global reach, Heritage Auctions is the largest collectables auctioneer and third largest auction house in the world. It covers a wide range of antique furniture, art and collectables, previously owned by some of America’s most prominent families, and is raided regularly by top-tier Australian dealers and collectors. ha.com
It even auctioned the ‘stealth wealth’ memorabilia, props and wardrobe from HBO’s Emmy-award-winning drama Succession.
INVALUABLE
Invaluable works with more than 5000 auction houses, dealers and galleries across 16 locations. Last year, it expanded its reach with 33 per cent new bidders and an 88 per cent average sell-through rate by lot for its landmark auctions and single-owner auctions. The top lot of 2024 – The Destruction of the Bastille, a rare ink-wash drawing gifted to President Washington by the Marquis de Lafayette – exceeded all expectations, selling for close to $2 million, almost four times its pre-sale estimate of $500,000. Potential buyers can browse catalogues and bid online. invaluable.com
LAWSONS
One of the country’s oldest auctioneers is now a massive online auction marketplace with an incalculable amount of vintage and antique furniture to browse on your screen. It broadcasts feeds of its unpretentious Thursday auctions in real time. Following along will give you a feel for the rhythms and idiosyncrasies before you dive in. Clients who have registered may place bids as if they were in the room. In addition, Lawsons holds regular timed online-only Thursday sales for interior and garden items. Its timed online auctions let bidders place their top bid ahead of time, which keeps you from being caught up in the adrenaline-fuelled drama of live auctions. Identify the items you like, put in your maximum bids and walk away. When the auction closes, you can go back and see what you’ve won, knowing you haven’t been taken for a ride. lawsons.com.au
LEONARD JOEL
Year-round, multi-category auctions backed by sophisticated online interviews and magazine articles. Its popular The Auction Salon presents more than 1000 items every Thursday. These tend to be eclectic collections across four categories: furniture; art; objects and collectables; and jewellery. The weekly salon sale is great for items at lower price points, which owner John Albrecht explains is “so first-time bidders can dip their toes in without worrying about making a bad investment”. It also offers curated standalone sales with recent auctions including names such as Barry Humphries, which reached four times the estimate at its June sale. Melissa’s family recently auctioned a valuable fine art collection of more than 200 lots to great success with a 98 per cent clearance rate, and highly recommends the Leonard Joel vendor experience. leonardjoel.com.au
Isabella never misses its program of pop-up modern art exhibitions and weekly The Auction Salon sales.
Photo: Abbie Melle
LESKI AUCTIONS
Established in 1972, the respected auction house based in Armadale, Victoria, is run by long-time proprietor Charles Leski. Leski is a leading authority in the field of collectables in Australia and a government-approved valuer for the cultural gifts program. In collaboration with fine arts specialist Harry Glenn, the boutique house offers live and timed online auctions for beautiful Asian and European decorative arts, paintings, furniture, silver, jewellery, antique clocks, English pottery, porcelain, ceramics, glass, lighting, rugs, textiles, tribal artefacts, artworks and collectables. leski.com.au
PHILIPS AUCTIONS
Philips launched online-only sales in 2018 – live auctions supported by an online bidding platform. The Australian auction house, founded by the late Arnold Philips more than 50 years ago, is now housed in purpose-built premises in Malvern, Melbourne. Its first sale from this location was the dispersal of the original Georges on Collins – the famous department store’s fittings, fixtures and selected furniture. philipsauctions.com.au
It holds eight special decorative arts sales and jewellery auctions once a year.
POTTLE AUCTIONS
Specialists in onsite house contents, deceased estates and single-owner sales. Leading Sydney real estate agencies, including Ray White Double Bay, recommend Pottle to clients who are selling their homes and want to offload the contents fast. The team has over 20 years’ experience in antiques and auctions and has partnered with Invaluable for 18 years. Pottle’s has great Google reviews, too. pottleauctions.com.au
Photo: Abbie Melle
RAFFAN KELAHER & THOMAS
Owner Phillip Thomas, an old-school gentleman and hugely respected in the industry, and his renowned team curate selling exhibitions, both online and through a program of live auctions. Every Friday, catalogues are available for the upcoming week and auctions are held every Monday and Tuesday in Sydney’s Leichhardt, with hundreds of people (including dealers) picking over the furniture, estate and outdoor lots. Friendly and unpretentious. A good spot to look for Victorian and Edwardian furniture: ’20s, ’50s and ’60s pieces; and outdoor furniture (wicker and marble, in particular). Plenty of Mid-century pieces from well-known manufacturers that reliably sell for three times the price on designer retail sites such as 1stDibs and Chairish. rkta.com.au
SHAPIRO AUCTIONEERS
Shapiro has several world-class sales every year, focusing on 20th-century art and design, including Aboriginal art, as well as estate auctions – think lifetime collections of Wedgwood china up for grabs and a gallery selling everything from handmade Indian quilts to tribal African and campaign furniture. shapiro.com.au
Shapiro is one of the best. Melissa’s family used Shapiro when they moved houses to offload excess items.
THEODORE BRUCE AUCTIONEERS & VALUERS
The 150-year-old auction house is a good place to snag bargain mid-20th-century furniture and collectables. Watch out for special sales of 20th-century designer furniture – you’ll find decent design names. Almost every day there is a timed general sale of furniture, decorative arts or bric-a-brac collectables (good for 1950s glass, great wicker and faux bamboo, or books and more. theodorebruceauctions.com.au
VICKERS & HOAD
This auction house pioneered the container model of bringing shipments from France to Australia and selling antiques, vintage objects and garden items at affordable prices. Genuinely like a flea market experience. Located in the Southern Highlands of NSW, it now holds regular online-only auctions, with most sales comprising French pieces and the contents of moving or downsizing households. Prime hunting grounds for gently used, vintage and antique furnishings, from Grandmillennial hits such as majolica plates to vintage champagne buckets. The dealer’s choice. vickhoad.com
