The sale of the deceased woman’s chic estate – made up of lavish coats, furs and frocks – at Lawson’s auction house in Sydney is causing a stir among vintage bargain hunters but a veil of mystery is shrouding the clothing’s original owner.
Shauna Farren Price is the Lawsons auctioneer handling the sale which has sparked “massive interest”.
“It’s a phenomenal collection of clothing and lots and lots and lots of hats” she said. “All the clothing, hats and fascinators is all from a particular lady who is unfortunately no longer with us.”
The auction has been organised by the woman’s heartbroken husband, known only as Peter, whose wife died 18 months ago aged in her 60s.
“I don’t know her name, she is a mystery woman, but basically Peter called us and one of my colleagues went in probably around September of last year to talk about disposing of her contents,” said Price. “She unfortunately passed away of cancer and he just wanted a sea-change completely – he couldn’t bare to be there surrounded by all of her things.”
More than profit, there is a sentimental hope that these possessions will find their way to someone who will appreciate them and surprisingly what is on offer is only a smidge of what she owned.
“I think she shopped in Double Bay in the ’80s and I can imagine she had lots of friends,” said Price. “After she passed away and before Peter sent the things in I think quite a lot of her girlfriends took quite a few of the frocks – I think she had more if you can imagine!”
But with only hours left the auction house warns that people better get bidding if they want to buy something from a collection with a heart-warming story.
“The interest in the sale has been massive!” Price said. “I’ve been just absolutely swamped with people enchanted by the collection and really excited about all of the things in it.”
According to Price, with the amount of interested buyers there could be an unexpected silver lining in store for Peter, who now lives in the US.
“He is only expecting a cheque for a couple of hundred bucks for some old clothes and now he is probably going to get a check in excess of ten thousand and he has absolutely no idea!” she said.
“So I think that’s sort of a really sweet thing. He’ll just go ‘Oh my goodness’.”
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