Important and notable works amongst the collection include a rare work in oil titled Mustering the Horses (Lot 19 ) by artist James Alfred Turner; an extremely scare sfumato medium work by David Boyd (Lot 102 ) titled Islington Child as well an extensive and diverse collection of works by outback artist Kevin Charles Pro Hart including a major work in oil titled Still Life with Flannels (Lot 50 ) displaying one of the artists famous Miners Crib Time subjects of faceless figures in shirts inside the mines in the artist’s home town of Broken Hill.
Included amongst the collection is an extremely rare and one of the most important exhibition style pieces by master sculptor William Ricketts (1899 - 1993).(Lot 30). This work is one of the most highly detailed and refined terracotta clay sculptures to ever be seen, standing a large 171 cm tall, featuring a main centre figure of an Aboriginal elder backed by a central oval type shield or pod, with the elder’s arms and hands placed firmly backwards grounding him to the sculpture. Sculptured tree roots rise from the base turning into branches, with pierced clay, flanking either side of the centre figure, traveling to the top of the sculpture and turning into hands of spirits to present a cluster of faces of Pitjantjatjara children with a main centre figure of a young aboriginal child at the very top of the work. This, along with two other works (Lot 31) and (Lot 64) in this auction, are some of the largest privately owned works known outside the artists sanctuary in the Dandenong’s, Victoria.
Another highlight of the auction sees an important palace sized oil by Charles Martin Hardie (1858 -1916) (Lot 1 ) measuring an impressive 170 x 260 cm, This historically important and monumental work records an incident in the life of Robbie Burns, when in 1787 at the height of his popularity he met the literati in Scotland's capital Edinburgh in the setting of the drawing room of the home of the Duchess of Gordon. It has an important Australian connection, having hung for over 100 years in Birksgate Mansion, Glen Osmond South Australia, owned by the famous Barr Smith family of Adelaide (Thomas Elder Barr Smith). It was sold in 1970 at the Birksgate Estate Auction then later purchased by Evan Mackley in 1977 where it has hung over the fireplace ever since. A similar almost identical work is a major exhibit at Wellwood Burns Centre & Museum, Irvine Scotland.
Other notable artists that feature prominently in the collection include Dorothy Braund, Deborah Haphern, Ernest Buckmaster, Gabriel Sterk, Lucy Boyd Beck, John Perceval, John Olsen and Bill Coleman.
