Bidders will have to wait until the end of Melbourne-based Christian McCann Auctions Sunday March 3 sale to contend for an important 19^th century Italian carved giltwood centre table (lot 400), distinctive for carved gold entwined sea serpents base support.

The table has a $40,000-$60,000 catalogue estimate and is the highlight of an exclusive auction featuring 19^th century French and English antiques that will begin at 12pm at 7 Harper Street, Abbotsford.

Tragically sunk in 1912 with a large loss of life when it hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage from England to America, the passenger liner Titanic is being remembered this year in Australia through the Melbourne Museum’s unique exhibition of 200 real artefacts recovered directly from the wreck site.

In its first decorative arts and collectables auction for 2024, Leski Auctions is acknowledging its own small tribute to the ship’s memory with a breakfast cup and saucer emblazoned with the White Star Line logo (lot 1372) – the company that owned the Titanic.

Camera buffs once more will have the chance of obtaining a piece of Melbourne’s photographic history when Part II of the Michael family camera museum collection goes under the hammer from 12pm Tuesday December 12 at 727-729 High Street, Armadale.

Some 16 months since the first sale, this auction has a comprehensive range of almost 700 cameras dating back to the early days of photography.

Situated on the corner of Elizabeth and Lonsdale Streets in Melbourne’s CBD, Michaels Cameras housed the world’s largest private camera museum with more than 3000 items.

An impressive postal history collection up for auction in Melbourne inextricably links the former Australian penal colony of Norfolk Island and Pitcairn Island, home to survivors of the infamous 1789 mutiny on the British ship HMAV Bounty and their descendants.

Under the leadership of acting lieutenant Fletcher Christian, the mutineers had commandeered the ship from Captain William Bligh who, with several of his loyal crew, managed to sail the small boat they were set adrift in to Indonesia. Bligh later became an early Governor of New South Wales.