My interest in antiques and in collecting began in the 1970s, but didn’t get serious until my husband and I moved from suburban Melbourne to the town of Sale in Gippsland. While John busied himself with his new project, a specialist secondhand bookshop, I renovated the two-storey stables on our property and opened a weekend hobby business, “Maruska’s Antiques”. I could only manage to run the business part-time as I was still in full-time employment during the week.

Sale and Gippsland received most of its’ tourist traffic on weekends and my little business soon became very busy. People loved to come and browse the shelves and I often added a little something fresh (and free!) from our thriving garden, when one of our regular customers bought something. We felt very welcomed into our new community and the years we spent in Sale were a wonderful part of our lives.

Coming back to Melbourne in the 1990s, we moved into a large home in Kew and managed to keep filling the available space with more antiques – ceramics, books, furniture, artworks – I couldn’t resist adding to the collection, even though I was no longer trading.

Buying, selling and living with antiques has given me a lot of pleasure over many years. Now I hope that other people will also derive pleasure from these pieces.

Maruska Aughterson

Contents
1532-1563  Australian Pottery & Glass
1564-1606  Silver
1607-1719  Porcelain & Ceramics
1720-1756  Glass
1757-1757  Accessories
1758-1776  Chinese & Asian Art
1777-1803  Decorative Arts – General
1804-1819  Paintings & Artworks
1820-1822  Collectables
1823-1835  Books & Ephemera