Australian Parliament’s very first Speaker's Chair is available to buy as part of businessmanTrevor Kennedy’sprivate collection which will be put for auction at the end of the month.
Kennedy sold almost half of the collection of Australiana-themed furniture,curios and collectibles earlier this year to the National Museum of Australia in Canberra. The chair - which is regarded as the most valuable item of the lot - was the subject of separate negotiations between the museum and the businessman that appear to have gone nowhere.
It’s now been put to auction with a price guide of $300,000 to $500,000. Perhaps that’s the reason the museum baulked. The historic item has attracted interest from Aussie buyers based in the UK and the US according to Leonard Joel auctioneerHamish Clark.
Any offshore buyer would have to negotiate tough export restrictions if they wanted to move it out of Australia. Such a key piece of Australian history leaving the country may also become a political issue.
The upholstered chair has seen a bit in its time. It was first used at the opening ceremony for the Parliament of a federated Australia,which took place in the Melbourne Exhibition Building on May 9,1901. The Duchess of York,who later became Queen Mary,used the chair at the ceremony as her own personal perch. After that,it was used by Australia’s first Speaker,SirFrederick Holder,who claimed the chair was a requirement of office. He presided over the first Federal Parliaments from it until 1909,when he slumped forward in the chair and died at 5am after a marathon sitting of Parliament.
By that point,the chair was less than a decade old. We know this because the blackwood frame still carries its maker’s stamp of Charles Johnston&Co of Gertrude Street,Fitzroy from 1900.
(There’s also a stamp on its underside which reads,unfortunately,'EUROPEAN LABOUR ONLY'). Holder's family was given the chair,which was later bought by Mr Kennedy.
There are more than 1200 lots to go under the hammer in the sale which all come from Kennedy’s Australiana collection.
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