Past Sales

This page has been created to mark the first 50 years of J. B. Hawkins Antiques, the  business I opened on my arrival in  Australia in 1967. I list 100 important items  that have passed through my hands into various Public and Private Collections around the world and I thank all those who have made the dream come true.

  • All
  • Antiquities
  • Art
  • Australian Silver
  • Australiana
  • Clocks and Watches
  • English & European Silver
  • English Furniture
  • Faberge
  • Furniture
  • Gold Boxes
  • Jewellery
  • Porcelain & Pottery
  • Various

The Hawkins Engine Turned Lignum Vitae Collection

Jonathan Levi asked me to write a chapter for his book, Treen for the Table, Wooden Objects Relating to Eating and Drinking published by the ...
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The Hawkins Collection of Engine-Turned Pottery

My article Staffordshire Engine Turned Pottery, 1760-1780, published March Edition of the UK Journal of the Society of Ornamental Turners, 1999, see link below, discusses ...
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An Aeypornis Egg

I have sold three Aeypornis eggs in my life as a dealer in Natural History objects. My daughter Emma still owns two. For further details ...
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An important Egyptian statue of Isis, dedicated to the Royal acquaintance of Ptahirdis

Late Period, Saite, mid to second half of Dynasty XXVI, circa 595-525 B.C. Depicted seated on a throne with legs together, her hands resting on ...
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A Pair of Anglo – Indian Griffin Ivory Candlesticks

After a design by William Chambers, Murshidabad, circa 1785. Provenance: By repute Warren Hastings (1732-1818), Daylesford, Oxfordshire; [ … ]; William Redford, London; Jon Gerstenfeld, ...
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Ivory Chandelier designed by Franz Seitz

Carved by Philipp Perron probably for King Ludwig II, if this can be finally proved, installed in his palace at Linderhof before 1875. In research ...
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Nellie the Elephant

Nellie the elephant was exhibited by Hawkins & Hawkins at the Olympia Antique Dealers Fair, London, where I sold her to America in 1998. Driven ...
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A pair of Bullock Candle Stands from ‘Great Tew’ the other pair are in the V&A Museum

I purchased the majority of the ‘Great Tew’ furniture for a proposed new Regency House based on the Nash villa ‘Cronkhill’ at Ellerston for Kerry ...
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The Cullinan Diamond

An exact model of the original 3,106 carat flawless stone made by Tiffany in New York this and the Treasury Inkwell given by the King ...
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The 1815 signed and dated Packer Cabinet, National Trust Australia (NSW)

Purchased from the antique dealer Guy Bousefield, Eton High Street for £500 in 1973 and sold to the National Trust for Old Government House Paramatta, ...
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The King Cabinet / Bookcase, National Gallery Canberra

I negotiated the purchase of the cabinet from ‘King’ family descendants, with the help of Ron Radford, the best of the National Gallery Directors who ...
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The porcelain table to a design by Schinkel, now one of the top 100 furniture treasures in the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Purchased Melbourne 1987 and exhibited at the Australian Antique Dealers Association Fair, Sydney 1988. I purchased this table for $79,500 at Sotheby’s in Melbourne, 29 ...
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The Hausburg Cabinet

Friedrich Ludwig Hausberg (1817-1886) born in Berlin, Prussia, became a naturalized British subject under very unusual circumstances on 23 March 1840. This was the year ...
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A pair of chairs from one of the four vase rooms at Duchess Street

This unique design by Thomas Hope (1769-1831) is of a seemingly simple form of Regency ‘tub’ chair exemplifies Thomas Hope’s timeless genius as a designer. ...
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A Thomas Hope Table from Duchess Street

This table was purchased by the collector Edward Knoblock, whose label it bears. When a modern 5 ply strengthener was removed from under the top ...
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The Bullock Cabinet

The cabinet is one of a pair, the other is in the V&A and contra partie to this example which belonged to the Naylor-Leyland family ...
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A pair of early George III mahogany hall chairs from Harewood House, Yorkshire, attributed to William and John Linnell, Circa 1760

Each with a scrolled serpentine top rail centred by foliage and flanked by turned finials above a panelled back, edged with foliate and bead-and-reel ornament, ...
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A set of eight Ebony & Ivory side chairs with rosewood spindles & caned seats

Indian (vizagapatam) probably circa 1710 Provenance: Edward Harrison (1674–1732), Balls Park, Hertfordshire, and assumed to have been acquired while he was Governor of Fort St ...
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The Historic Blackwood Speakers Chair for the First Federal Parliament  

Designed by Charles Pasley and made by Charles Johnston & Co. using European Labour Only. This chair was used by the Duke of York to ...
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An 18th century crescent-shaped breastplate known as ‘Taumi’ from the Tahiti Islands

These were made from materials that embodied the status (mana) and prestige of the warrior-priests and chiefs who wore them. (Feathers various, including Pacific black ...
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A European cast brass Aboriginal Gorget

Inscribed: JOHN GILLINBONG/COMMANDER and chief of the aboriginal forces/on the/ MOANBAH RIVER Captain John Maunder Gill of the 46th Regiment arrived with his Regiment in ...
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The Banks Cabinets from the Natural History Museum, London

Purchased Christie’s, South Kensington, London for $5,000. Sold to Warren Anderson for $10,000. Sold for $300,000 in the Anderson/ Owston/ Bonhams sale. For further details ...
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The Tobias Furneaux Patu, collected during Cook’s second voyage, now in the Australian National Maritime Museum Sydney

Purchased Christies in partnership with R A Lee 1986 sold to Warren Anderson for 20.000 pounds. Purchased before his sale by Bonhams by the Maritime ...
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The Tenders Estimates and Contracts for the First Fleet from England to Australia in 1788

Detail copied from the Phillip letter, from a painting owned by the Hawkins family, by Raymond Ching, exhibited at the Royal Academy London. Provenance: The ...
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