If you’ve ever wished you could decorate your home just like us, you’re in luck: we have curated our latest House & Garden online sale with leading Australian auction house, Lawsons making it easier than ever to pick up a beautiful piece from the comfort of your sofa.
We’ve scoured attics and ateliers, handpicking more than 330 items, that serve as a testament to our style.
Buy only things you love, and you’ll be surprised how well everything falls together over the years. From the superb piece as well as the interesting bibelot and the perfect garden bench, it has it all. Find gorgeous French commodes, consoles, chairs, tables, desks, mirrors, lamps, silver, porcelain, bronzes, art and outdoor items that will bring presence, even grandeur, to any space. This stuff just fits everywhere. It will add variety and stop your home getting stale. Remember, you find the best things when you’re not looking for them.
If you know in your bones something’s right, grab it. It won’t be there tomorrow.
This year we look to the future, with hope and optimism for our homes in the months ahead. We’ve seen a serendipitous upside in 2020’s lockdown that taught us that our homes really do matter, and a beautiful home that speaks to us, is not only life-enhancing but mood-boosting, too.
Home has never been more important to people than during the pandemic.
We’ve learned, that to make our home our sanctuary on every level – a place that reflects our taste and style – is to surround ourselves with objects that are rich with character, craftsmanship, patina and originality.
The best homes are ones that are comfortable, richly textured, and well-put-together.
To help you on this mission, we have selected a mix of furniture, art and objects that represent a broad spectrum of styles, time periods, and provenance. Plus, plenty of drop-dead gorgeous garden items.
Ease in, by checking the entire auction catalogue slowly. You won’t go wrong with any of the items – they are all timeless pieces we’d love in our own pad.
There are noteworthy French Louis XV/XVI marble top commodes, exceptional French giltwood mirrors, exquisite French painted sideboards, vintage oak coffee tables with marble tops, Regency carvers and hallway tables, Ming period export ware bowls, Minton majolica jugs and asparagus plates, good hallmarked silver, and porcelain. A Moore Brothers basket or bowl will make the perfect vase (est $30-$50). Plus, loads of delightful bargain antique brass candlesticks with cut crystal.
Lot 2: A pair of cast stone lion head garden pots in the renaissance style some small chips /wear commensurate with age – Height x 56cm x Width 43cm; Estimate $1,000-1,500, lawsons.com.au; Lot 114: A late 18th Century early 19th Century French gilt gesso wall mirror 38 x 35 cm – Estimate $1,400-1,600
Secondhand furniture is a wiser, more responsible choice – people are increasingly realising the value of reusing, recycling, and reupholstering pieces. The right antique or vintage item can make your space unlike anyone else’s. Instead of buying something generic or from a chain store, people are appreciating things that have lasted for 50 years and have another 50 in them.
Older furniture gives weight to a room, in part because it is literally more solid. If you pick up an 18th-century side chair it’s pretty darn heavy.
You’ll find cast stone lions on black lacquer stands, an exquisite Italian vitrine, superb nickel lamps, a classic Knoll sofa, Louis XVI Bergere to name a few.
French Arts and Crafts screen, a European nineteenth black lacquer ivory inlay display cabinet with glass fronts, a nineteenth-century Napoleon III gilt bronze marquetry boule, a pair of brass mounted mahogany side tables, a simulated bamboo bureau in the Chinoiserie style, a nineteenth-century French hand-painted screen, a pair of antique French carved marble finial lamp, Lloyd loom double-ended sofas, Empire-style walnut fauteuils, Louis XV side tables, desks, and bedsides.
Grab a striking mirror to elevate any room.
From ebony and gilded designs with sectional aged panels, an early 20th-century French wall mirror with chinoiserie decoration, a large French dressing room mirror in carved giltwood gesso with gilt finish and original bevel glass, sunbursts, gilt gesso small wall mirrors, and much more.
Bargains include a set of four Oriental panels, estimate $400-$500, great Anduze pots, an old French farmhouse table, 2.4m x 89cm, est $1200-$1400, a vintage French carved oak drawer leaf extension table, 2.45m x 1m, est $1400-$1600, a couple of 18th century Truman mirrors, estimate $600 each.
L-R: Lot 12: A French rush seated Walnut bench. Seating in good condition. 1.43M Width, 48Cm Depth, 1M Height; Estimate $1,400-1,800, lawsons.com.au; Lot 27: A fine pair of oil paintings by Emile Jean Marie Brunet (French Circa 1896-1943) both signed by artist. 1.22M Height, 88Cm Width; Estimate $4,500-5,000, lawsons.com.au
There is all kind of extraordinary art from antique tapestries in modern frames, 1m x 94cm, (estimate $600), botanical prints in water gilded frames, (estimate from $400), Italian pen and wash on paper in handmade walnut veneer wang water gilt frame, (estimate from $500), large twentieth-century oil paintings, 1.22m high, (estimate from $1200).
Also classic Conte drawings, (estimate $300), Henry Gilbert Jones nineteenth-century stilllifes, and great watercolours in handmade water gilt frames going for around the $500 mark.
And with outdoor spaces becoming a commodity hotter than ever before, make sure you check the knockout garden offerings.
The catalogue is chockful of iconic classic outdoor pieces and garden artefacts for a lot less than usual. There are loads of stone and bronze classics, with tables, benches, (teak and wrought iron in chinoiserie, conservatory, Coalbrookdale styles), seating (dining chairs, sofas, benches) as well as statues, fountains, urns, pots, planters, plinths, troughs and mirrors, that look like the kind of thing you see in the grandest English and European gardens on earth. Cast stone lion head garden pots in renaissance style, bronze statues, a teak canopy seat with trellis back and sides.
They are pieces to help you focus on your outdoor space’s beauty and usefulness year-round, and to welcoming small gatherings.
Find beautiful variations of teak benches, original French bistro tables, and urns that look like something out of Versailles for a lot less, teak designs that are the kind of thing you see in the best European and English gardens, for a fraction of the price.
Iconic classics galore, outdoor tables, and chairs, and these pieces will hold their own as investments. And garden artifacts- find mid-century industrial trough planters with box spheres, marble top wrought iron garden table, wrought iron chairs, cast iron urns and bases, teak Chinoiserie garden bench, conservatory bench, cast iron Coalbrookdale-style Peacock pattern bench, teak extension tables, hand-carved stone planter troughs, French industrial style mirrors, terracotta Anduze pots, cast iron lidded urns, and cast iron and steel frame mirrors.
Cast stone lion head garden pots in renaissance style, bronze statues, a teak canopy seat with trellis back and slides, french flower basket, french gilded spelter figures.
Lot 13: A fine quality mid-century European commode with attached marble top. 91Cm Height, 1.28M Width, 55Cm Depth; Estimate $2,500-3,000, lawsons.com.au & Lot 14
A pair of opposite cast stone recumbent lions on black lacquer stands after Antonio Canova – overall size Height 34cm x Width 41cm x Depth 24cm, Estimate $1,400-1,600
The sale is ideal hunting ground for the younger demographic hunting for individuality and pedigree is also entering the buyers’ pool, as they’re spending more time than ever at home and want to spruce up their best asset. In an age when new home goods can have the lifespan of a meme, millennials are newly appreciating great value “brown furniture.”
It is your chance to buy a beautiful painting. Splash out on a Georgian desk or French commode you’ve always dreamed about. Get that grand garden statue. Be brave.
Ten years from now you’ll be more disappointed by the beautiful home you didn’t create for your family – and the things you didn’t do in life.
Antiques and vintage items are some of the best ways of adding individuality, character, and personality to our spaces. They represent true luxury – simply because they last, and make interiors look, and feel, better.
They have a history, and pedigree, from an older, grander time with a texture that’s wonderful to look at and live with. They mix and match with everything – we wish you luck in finding a piece to love forever.
Melissa Penfold’s House & Garden Autumn Sale online now.
Ends 7pm, Wednesday 17 March.
