Ron Walker’s Toorak estate contents sold by auction house Leonard Joel
Gun-collecting aficionados now have a chance to buy the late, great Ron Walker’s mighty, antique pistol collection being sold online by an up-market auction house.
The Source
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Who knew that the late, great Ron Walker had such a mighty antique gun collection?
Arithmetic is not the Source’s strength, but it seems the city’s loudest cheerleader, who died in 2018, kept 19 pistols dating to the 18th century – as well as an English Flintlock Blunderbuss – in his Toorak mansion, Huntingfield, in Albany Rd.
The good news is that the guns can be yours, at a price. Up-market auction house Leonard Joel is selling contents from the Walker property in an online auction which ends on December 11.
Gun-collecting aficionados might opt for a finely-decorated European Flintlock pistol, circa 1800, which commands an estimated price of $600-$800.
According to Leonard Joel, the 54cm gun has a “white metal side plate, trigger guard, and pommel cap cast and engraved with Classical motifs and foliate designs”.
The walnut stock is “carved conformingly, with false ramrod”.
(In 2013, Walker sold a pistol once owned by Captain James Cook for almost $220,000 after Walker bought it a decade earlier from a Cook family auction in Scotland.)
Among the 189 lots are candelabras, a teapot, a pair of obelisks, chairs, a marble mask, sofas, a sandstone Buddha and carpets.
A bronze statue of Sir Robert Menzies is valued at $300-$500.
A pair of Chinese bronze ponies stand to cost $1000-$1500, while an antique world globe is thought to be worth $3000-$4000.
A viewing of the contents will take place this Thursday – “strictly by appointment”.
Got a tip? Let us know at thesource@heraldsun.com.au
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