Another amazing, and recent, Australian art find and one that is now firmly in the collection. An original Jack Quayle sketch on a letter, dated 26 June 1940, that he sent to The Savage Club in Adelaide accepting an invite to attend a luncheon.  I don't think the Adelaide branch of the Savage Club exists anymore, if it does then I don't know where it is. I suspect that this was hanging on it's walls until it closed - the age of the frame it was in dates back to the 1950s - after which time someone merely took it home. There it remained until they passed on and it found its way into an auction. As soon as I saw it, I knew what it was and made sure it came home here, where it will be looked after until such a time when I send it on further in its journey. I wonder what other artistic treasures lurk out there from such clubs that are now extinct? And what does happen to the artefacts that live on the walls of clubs and organisations which get removed after a period o

Sunday Times, 20 November 1921 It remains of the most spectacular fires ever seen in Sydney’s CBD, but it is largely overshadowed by the Pastoral Finance Association Woolstore fire of December 1921, which gutted a seven story building at Kirribilli and racked up a bill of an estimated £600,000.  Unlike the Pastoral Building, explosions tore through buildings meters away from the Town Hall and rained down a mixture of burning iron, film and molten tar, but, incredibly, the only fatalities were two cats. The damage bill went into the tens of thousands of pounds, but, more importantly, it remains the biggest loss of silent film ever seen in Australia, if not the entire southern hemisphere. It became known as the Overseas Film Service fire and it happened 98 years ago. Walter Brown was the brainchild behind the Overseas Film Service. Brown was bornin New Jersey in 1873 and served with the New York police department where, according to his later memories, he was known for hi

It’d be hard to find anyone interested in comic books and their history who hasn’t heard of Todd McFarlane’s legal woes, but very few outside of McFarlane’s immediate circle know just how many legal fights he was facing as the 1990s closed.  Virtually all of McFarlane’s court cases came down to three decisions, made by him alone.  The first was to name a mobster in his Spawn comic after a hockey player, Tony Twist.  The second was to hire Neil Gaiman to write a single issue of Spawn and the third came when he decided to buy all the remaining assets from Eclipse Comics at their bankruptcy sale.  The first decision led to the Tony Twist trial, last two choices lead to Neil Gaiman filing suit and, ultimately, winning a portion of the Spawn universe and the hotly sought after, by some, character Miracleman. The Tony Twist trial was the beginning of a long, long period of uncertainty for Todd McFarlane and very nearly brought down the empire that he’d worked so hard to build. A