Australian House & Garden

Question: I was given this chair by friends who came to Australia from an area near Wimbledon, England. There are no markings at all. I would like to know if it is of any value.

Answer: In the 18th and 19th centuries, chairs fell into two broad categories, elegant dining or drawing room chairs made in expensive timbers, finely carved or beautifully upholstered, and simpler, country-made examples. Yours falls into the latter category and, in its attempt to imitate the city styles, features outswept arms and a modified form of the pierced back slats found in more elaborate offerings. The timber is probably elm or beech. Antique country-style pieces are much sought after as the provincial look is in style. Your chair could bring upwards of $750 at auction and possibly more in an antique shop.

Question: We found this unusual painting/music box, bequeathed to our grandmother by her godmother in England, at the back of our father’s wardrobe. The music box still works, though the moving parts in the picture – a train, flag, guitar, person sewing nets, a man in a window – may need restringing. There is some wording on the back timber panel.

Answer: How lucky to find something as fascinating as this at the back of a wardrobe. This is a fabulous example of the mechanical pictures made in the mid- to late-19th century, mostly in Switzerland. Before the invention of the gramophone, there was the music box, a brass cylinder fitted with wire pins that rotated to play one or more popular tunes. There were countless variations on this mode of sound reproduction and they are found not only in often beautifully designed timber cases but in clocks and automata, ranging from birds in cages that ‘sing’ to humans and animals dressed in silk or velvet that go through a series of movements as the music plays. You have a small version of just such a music box fitted to the back of this mechanical picture. You’ve hit the jackpot here. This is a superb example and could fetch anything up to $10,000. If you care to part with it, all you need to get an impressive result at auction is a rare object and two bidders who want it.

Question: This statue has been in my family for a long time. The markings include the names Pinedo and Tiffany & Co, and it has a stamp that reads ‘Bronze garanti au titre Paris’. It is 33cm tall. I would love to find out more about it.

Answer: This is a very interesting object, quintessentially Art Nouveau and also a typically Parisian conceit. It’s a toilet mirror that shows a nude woman standing on a cushion, admiring herself in an elaborate, full-length looking glass as she languidly arranges her hair. It might aptly be titled Vanity. Your piece was made by a well-known French sculptor and bronzier (maker of bronze works), Emile Pinedo, who was born in 1840 and died in 1916. He was at the height of his ability at the turn of the century and specialised in figural bronzes that ranged in subject from children playing on a sled to statues of Arabs in exotic costume. This piece is marked with his stamp, and has another stamp that guarantees it is genuine bronze. In some models this female figure can rotate on her cushion, but you haven’t indicated whether this is the case with your example. At auction, your mirror could fetch a price of $2000 or more, and an antique dealer would probably ask twice that amount.

Question: I’d love some idea of what my original Olivetti typewriter is now worth. I remember my father spending a full week’s wage to buy this for me. It was used frequently in the ’70s to complete my schoolwork but has always been kept in its case and is still in great condition.

Answer: Post World War II, Italy rapidly developed a strong reputation for outstanding modern design. Cars, furniture, household items and kitchen appliances were among the myriad subjects ripe for design re-thinking. The Valentine typewriter, created for Olivetti by the flamboyant architect and designer Ettore Sottsass (1917-2007), was first produced in 1969 and became one ofthe icons of late 20th-century industrial design. Light, portable and colourful, it spelt the death of the heavy, clunky metal office typewriter, and could be considered the precursor of today’s laptop computers. Though of relatively recent manufacture, these typewriters are collected by fans of retro design. The going price for models in good condition offered for sale on eBay is about $200-$300.

Question: I inherited this small silver crucifix from my grandmother around 1960 but am unsure of its provenance. The back opens to reveal a sliver of wood, which is supposed to be from the True Cross. The engraving on the back says ‘T.T. Trappisti’ and ‘Tre Fontane Roma’. I would be very interested in any information that you could give me on this piece.

Answer: The Roman Catholic church has always set great store by sacred relics. Bits of bone, hair and other remains of saints and holy persons are exhibited, often in elaborate silver or gilt stands, and venerated by the faithful in churches all over Italy, Spain and Latin American countries. You must pardon my scepticism if I suggest that if every splinter of wood alleged to have been part of Christ’s actual cross were to be assembled, one would probably have enough timber to construct a small city. It’s open to doubt whether the True Cross was ever found, but that didn’t stop relic dealers selling shards with ‘miraculous’ properties over the centuries. Tre Fontane, just outside Rome, is a place of pilgrimage where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared in a grotto. Your cross may have been purchased there, although the site is maintained not by Trappist monks, as the inscription might suggest, but by Franciscan friars.