Madeleine Norton, our Head of Decorative Arts & Art in Sydney, chats to antique dealer, Paul Kenny.
Paul Kenny has a wealth of knowledge and experience when it comes to antique furniture and decorative arts. Having worked in the industry since 1957, he opened galleries in both Sydney and London during his prominent career as an antique dealer. Now retired and living in Queensland, Paul speaks with us about his career and his collecting habits in advance of his personal collection going up for auction in May with Leonard Joel, Sydney.
How did your journey into antiques first begin?
In 1957 I had a share in an Antiques Shop in Orange NSW. Buying locally in the Bathurst area and occasionally in Sydney I was able to establish a small and loyal client base.
Tell us about Paul Kenny Antiques and about your galleries in both Sydney and London.
My time spent working for a major engineering company, mainly concerned with aircraft refuelling, gave me the opportunity to travel frequently to the UK and France. Often the free time on weekends allowed me to purchase antiques and send them by wooden cases to Sydney (this was before containers became available). For many years I had a wholesale business supplying the top of the antiques trade as well as a few well-known interior decorators. My association with the wonderful Bill Bradshaw led to my appointment, together with Bill, to provide the whole of the furnishings for the Elizabeth Bay House. Ultimately this led to the refurbishment of Vaucluse House, Elizabeth Farm and Lyndhurst. Clive Lucas and Dr James Broadbent provided constant support during these years.
What areas of interest have shaped your personal collection over the years?
As an antique dealer, the lure of the chase is very important, and the selling or collecting becomes secondary to the actual ownership, most dealers are not serious collectors. The items that I have kept are much more items of sentimental value or items I have kept by way of remembering someone.
Many of the items in our auction come from renowned dealer and doyen of Australian Antique Dealers, Bill Bradshaw, can you tell us about your friendship with Bill?
I first met Bill in the early 1950s, he was living with his mother at his first shop in lower Market Street Sydney, before he moved to Queen Street Woollahra in 1957. I met him as a purchaser, but his encouragement and enthusiasm and mentoring changed my life. It was his support that encouraged me to leave my safe career (with my wife and children to consider) and become a full time antique dealer. I, like many others, remember Bill fondly for his extraordinary generosity.
As an antique dealer, what was it that you would typically look for when considering making a purchase?
Style and authenticity. It won’t be of great interest to me unless it is from the era known as the Golden Age, roughly from 1760 to 1830.
Is there a special piece you sold that you will always remember?
An important Regency bookcase that I bought and sold twice is my most memorable item of furniture. As the sale price in its home in America was nearly half a million dollars it is memorable not only for its quality, but it also remains the most expensive item of furniture I ever bought and sold.
Can you pick out a few special pieces in the auction that have an interesting story behind them?
The fabulous Bradshaw bookcase was purchased from me in the UK with Bill Bradshaw in 1974. He regarded this bookcase as one of the finest pieces of furniture he had ever owned. Sadly, it will not fit into my modern retirement house in Queensland. Also left to me by Bill is his very heavy gold curb watch chain, together with the gold seal and his gold watch, with its Sydney retailer on the dial. Another extraordinary lot is the long case clock made for Burne Jones. It has paintings on the trunk door that have not been attributed to Burne Jones but the fretwork on each side of the hood are of the initials E C B J putting it, to my mind, beyond doubt as his clock. Also, it has a three-train movement of very high-quality ringing on eight bells.
What would be your advice to budding antique enthusiasts when considering purchasing pieces at auction?
My advice has always been to buy because you will always be sorry you didn’t buy it. Don’t be forever looking back thinking of something you should have bought. Geoffrey Bennison sagely said “open the handbag now rather than waiting twenty years for another to turn up or spending twenty years regretting it.”
Madeleine Norton, Head of Decorative Arts & Art in Sydney
Top Image: Dining room Elizabeth Bay House. © Katherine Lu for Museums of History NSW
March 2025