1. Our Australian clients
We have many clients who are based in Australia. We have sold to private collectors in Sydney, Perth, Brisbane and Melbourne in the last few years as well as
to museums, including the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra and the Art Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide.
The remarkable strength of the Australian dollar has seen the numbers of Australians grow. We price in pounds sterling which means that in Australian dollar
terms the cost to Australians who buy from us has fallen significantly.
The gallery is based in the heart of central London just off Regent Street but was established by Michael Backman. He has been resident in London for ten
years but was born in South Australia. At various times he has lived in Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth and Canberra as well as a two year stint in Jakarta. Gallery
assistant Eddie Chin was born in Malaysia.
2. Paying from Australia
Our Australian clients usually pay via credit card or direct bank transfer. In terms of credit cards, we accept MasterCard and Visa. We do not accept American
Express. In terms of bank transfer, any Australian bank can provide an international bank transfer. We charge in pounds so the bank will need to convert
dollars into the correct pound amount before the funds are transferred.
Our prices are expressed and charged in pounds sterling only. Approximations of prices in Australian dollars can be provided but these are approximations
only.
3. Shipping
Usually we usually send items to our clients in Australia by a private courier service that allows for tracking.
4. Paperwork
You will receive any credit card receipts, a full written invoice or receipt describing the item and its price and with your details and ours, and a full description of
the item with an image with each item or shipment that you receive from us.
We are fully aware of Australian customs requirements and sensitivities regarding items with plant, wood or animal-part components. To date none of our
items have encountered any significant problems entering Australia. Almost all the items we sell have been in the UK or Europe for many decades. This helps
to alleviate some of the concerns of Australian customs. When items have an ivory or tortoiseshell component then we will obtain CITES certification (at our
expense) to allow the items to enter Australia.
5. Guarantees
We guarantee all our items as described. We sell items from this website but we are not an Internet-only retailer. We have a gallery that is open to the public
in the heart of central London and we sell to collectors and museums worldwide. We have a reputation to protect. We choose our items very carefully and do a
great deal of research to support our acquisitions.
6. Where do our items come from?
We do not source our items from their countries of origin. We travel to Asia regularly but these are not buying trips. They are trips to visit local museums and
call on our clients. We find that many items available in Asia today have questionable provenance, excessive restoration or are reproduction pieces. Instead,
we source almost all our items from the UK and the rest of Europe from collections and contexts which suggest that the items were collected and brought to the
UK and Europe during the colonial era. Britain alone colonised India, Malaysia, Singapore, much of Africa and parts of the middle east so that today the
largest source of fresh-to-market antiques from these areas are to be found in the UK – in the homes of the descendants of former colonial administrators and
the like. The UK also was wealthy early on and imported many art-related goods from its colonies which were retailed in London and elsewhere – silver items
came from India, brassware came from Malaysia and so on. Many of these items came to the UK over one hundred years ago, they were new when they
arrived and in most cases have been well maintained since. Ironically the UK particularly is a better source of well provenanced antiques from Asia, Africa and
the Middle East than are most countries in these regions today.