Auction reveals treasure trove

TASMANIA keeps its colonial treasures hidden in unusual places and some have been there for a very long time, says Gowans auctioneer Phil Gowans.

The auctioneer has wrapped up a successful weekend auction with nearly 600 bidders for a collection of colonial antiques.

The rooms were packed with 300 bidders while the remaining bids came by phone or absentee buyers.

Before the auction, the Gowans team combed a deceased estate on Main Rd, Moonah, only 300m from their rooms, where they uncovered an unexpected treasure. In the backyard shed, among the tins of paint and tools, was a colonial cedar meat safe that fetched $9600.

A cedar chest of drawers from one of the original land grants in the colony went for $35,000 the same day. The Bagdad property of Rosewood has been in the same family since 1823. Its 90-year-old owner, the last in the line of descendants to live in the stone cottage, has sold and moved to Melbourne to live with her daughter.

A Haughton Forrest painting bought from Hobart Auctioneers Burn & Son in 1945 fetched $18,000 and a rare pottery jug by early Launceston’s Campbell Pottery fetched $7600, an Australian record.

“The vendor had no idea of its true value and submitted it for one of our Friday general auctions,’’ Mr Gowans said.

“After 38 years in the game it never ceases to amaze me what’s out there,’’ Mr Gowans said.

Interest in Tasmanian colonial artefacts was very strong interstate “but the locals are more than capable of keeping it in the state,” he said.