1937 'Scene of Rooftops in the Old Part of Frankfurt, 1937', archival silver-gelatin 1980s print (49x55cm), signed & dated "Wolfgang Sievers 1937" at lower-right, double-matted framed & glazed, overall 66x77cm. Superb. An unusual aerial aspect, highlighting the architectural significance of medieval Frankfurt, the largest community of its type in Germany. During World War II, Allied bombing virtually destroyed the Old City. [Josef Lebovic Gallery in Sydney currently has a much smaller (19x21½cm) print, signed on the reverse, for sale at $5500] (Image1)

Estimate AU$10,000

1939 'Manufacture of Matches, Bryant & May, Richmond, Vic 1939' vintage archival silver-gelatin print (41x50cm), signed & dated by Wolfgang Sievers at lower-right in black ink, three small pieces of acid-free mounting tape on the reverse, pencilled "Not good" on the reverse but Focal Point Gallery have advised that it is a very fine print. [A slightly smaller mounted version sold at a Melbourne auction in 2010 for $9000] (Image1)

Estimate AU$3,000

1939 'Manufacture of Matches, Bryant & May, Richmond, Vic 1939' archival silver-gelatin print from the 1980s signed & dated "Wolfgang Sievers 1939" at lower-right, image size 50x60cm, recess mounted, framed & glazed, overall 66x83cm, very fine. A larger version of this iconic image than the previous lot. (Image1)

Estimate AU$8,000

1939 'Manufacture of Matches, Bryant & May, Richmond, Vic 1939', Ilford Digital True-B&W archival C-Type print (70x101cm plus 5cm black border), unsigned, mounted on 20mm museum-grade foamcore, very fine. An impressively large version of this truly extraordinary image, demonstrating the scale of the match-making operation, and the industrial complexity that goes into the production of the simplest of household items: from these impressive machines, to the humble matchbox. [From as early as the 1920s, Bryant & May operated a 'model factory' at Richmond, an inner-Melbourne suburb, with staff amenities that even today would be considered exceptional. Their matches are now imported from Sweden but the complex, which closed in the early-1980s, lives on, having been re-purposed for apartments] (Image1)

Estimate AU$6,000

1959 'Sulphuric Acid Plant, Electolytic Industries, Risdon, Tas, 1959', Ilford Digital True-B&W archival C-Type print (79x101cm plus 5cm black border), unsigned, mounted on 20mm museum-grade foamcore, very fine. An unusual & remarkably perceptive composition of intricate industrial pipework, rather reminiscent of the Pompidou Centre in Paris. (Image1)

Estimate AU$6,000

1962 'Employee Making Rope with Ropeway at Miller Rope, Brunswick, Victoria, 1962', vintage archival silver-gelatin print (44x60cm, slight silvering at the edges), signed in pencil on front, mounted on 3mm artboard, endorsed on the reverse "1962 archival print. Checked April 1995. Perfect archival print". An exhibiting form for the Institute of Australian Photography is attached to the reverse: the fee was $2! Art Gallery of NSW notation alongside. [This was Wolfgang Siever's favourite image from his own oeuvre, because it shows "the dignity of the working man". A slightly smaller print sold at auction in 2010 for $5760. Josef Lebovic Gallery in Sydney currently has a print (41x51cm), signed on the reverse, for sale at $8800] (Image1)

Estimate AU$10,000

1962 'Employee making rope with Ropeway at Miller Rope, Brunswick, Vic, 1962', Ilford Digital True-B&W archival C-Type print (68x101cm plus 5cm black border), unsigned, mounted on 20mm museum-grade foamcore, very fine. The largest print of another of Wolfgang Siever's iconic images, the presence of the worker demonstrating the massive size of the rope & the spindle. [Established in 1863, James Miller & Co was one of the three largest rope-makers in Victoria. The substantial factory complex in Brunswick has now been repurposed for housing & is now home to the Melbourne College of Textiles] (Image1)

Estimate AU$6,000

1967 'Gears For Mining Industry, Vickers Ruwalt, Burnley, Victoria, 1967', Ilford Digital True-B&W archival C-Type print (78x101cm plus 5cm black border), unsigned, mounted on 20mm museum-grade foamcore, very fine. This iconic photograph, Sievers' most famous image, was staged for the camera to highlight the enormity of the task of one man attempting maintenance of such enormous equipment. It was selected for the 1991 '150 Years of Photography in Australia' stamp issue: Stanley Gibbons #1292. [Vickers Ruwolt Ltd was created in 1948, when the British firm Vickers Ltd purchased Ruwolts, one of Australia's largest engineering firms. The company's foundries were closed in the early-1980s] Josef Lebovic Gallery in Sydney is currently offering for $33,000 a smaller version (60x48cm) with the comment that it is the largest known "aside from a very large blow-up for a display, which entailed a loss of image quality". If their reference is to the current print, then it is inaccurate: both this and the next lot are significantly larger and show no evidence of loss of image quality, a tribute to the work of Bond Imaging. (Image1)

Estimate AU$6,000

1967 'Gears For Mining Industry, Vickers Ruwalt, Burnley, Victoria, 1967', Ilford Digital True-B&W archival C-Type print (101x130cm plus 5cm black border), signed & dated on the face at lower-right, mounted on 20mm museum-grade foamcore, superb condition. This is the largest print known to exist, which makes it one of the most important Australian photographic items of the 20th Century. (Image1)

Estimate AU$15,000

1971 'Stockpiling bauxite, Comalco, Weipa, Cape York, North Queensland, 1971', Ilford Ilfotech High-Gloss Colour Archival C-Type print (40x50cm), signed & dated at lower-right (difficult to see on dark foreground), mounted on 20mm museum-grade foamcore, very fine condition. Comalco, now part of Rio Tinto, discovered bauxite at Weipa in 1955. To facilitate mining operations, the local aboriginal reserve was rescinded, the people were forcibly relocated, & a huge tract of land was effectively given to Comalco. [A similar print of the same size sold at auction in 2010 for $3600] (Image1)

Estimate AU$4,000

1971 'Stockpiling bauxite, Comalco, Weipa, Cape York, North Queensland, 1971', Ilford Ilfotech High-Gloss Colour Archival C-Type print (78x101cm plus 5cm black border), unsigned, mounted on 20mm museum-grade foamcore, fine condition. The largest recorded print of this marvellous almost sexualised image that juxtaposes the disgorging of the raw material from the enormous conveyor system with creation of the golden mound. (Image1)

Estimate AU$5,000

1976 'Old Cottages, Aldinga, South Australia', Kodak Endura Archival C-Type print (35x27cm), recess mounted, overall 51x41cm, unsigned, very fine. Aldinga is a small coastal community on the Fleurieu Peninsula, about 45km south of Adelaide. [This image - and all other versions offered at auction in the past 20 years - is cropped from a larger photograph: see the next lot. Two very similar but signed prints sold at auction in 2010 & 2016 for $1560 & $1115 respectively. One of them was titled 'Retired Sea Captain Cottages at Aldinga'] (Image1)

Estimate AU$750

1976 'Old Cottages, Aldinga, South Australia' Ilford Ilfotech High-Gloss Colour Archival C-Type print (80x101cm plus 5cm black border), unsigned, mounted on 20mm museum-grade foamcore, very fine. The more usual cropped image - see the previous lot - is perhaps more painterly & impactful. However, the full photograph, with the dramatic cloudscape, has a more airy quality. This is the largest known print of the full photograph, of which no example has been offered at auction in the last 20+ years. (Image1)

Estimate AU$5,000

1977 'Escalator Site, Parliament Station, 1977', Ilford Ilfotech High-Gloss Colour Archival C-Type print (79x101cm plus 5cm black border), unsigned, mounted on 20mm museum-grade foamcore, very fine. The largest known print of this stunning Hades-like image of two diminutive workmen dwarfed by the vast & unfurnished escalator tunnel descending into the bowels of the earth. Melbourne's subterranean Parliament Station opened in 1983. At that time it had the longest escalators in the Southern Hemisphere. [Two much smaller but signed prints sold at auction in 2010 for $3360 & $3600 respectively] (Image1)

Estimate AU$5,000

1980 'Underground Equipment Repair Shop, North Mine, Broken Hill, NSW, 1980' Ilford Ilfotech High-Gloss Colour Archival C-Type print (101x81cm plus 5cm black border), unsigned, mounted on 20mm museum-grade foamcore, very fine. For more than 100 years, BHP Ltd's North Mine at Broken Hill was one of the largest Silver/Lead/Zinc underground mines in the world. Production ceased in 2008. This is the largest known print of one of Wolfgang Siever's lesser-known but highly emotive works: the underground clutter of men & machines can be seen as anticipating the barren cities of the future. (Image1)

Estimate AU$5,000

1980 (c.) 'Dragline Scoop, Drayton Coal Mine, NSW' Ilford Ilfotech High-Gloss Colour Archival C-Type print (101x80cm plus 5cm black border), unsigned, mounted on 20mm museum-grade foamcore, very fine. This overtly dramatic & confronting image of a huge machine gouging massive chunks out of the earth's surface can be seen as presaging a dystopian post-industrial world. This is the largest known print. [The Drayton Mine, in the upper Hunter Valley, operated from 1983 until 2016] (Image1)

Estimate AU$5,000

1983 'Shell's Drilling Rig, the Nymphea in Bass Strait 1983' Kodak Endura Archival C-Type print (38x30cm), signed & dated by Wolfgang Sievers on reverse, unmounted, very fine. By focusing on the interplay between the rough Bass Strait seas & the legs of the oil rig, Wolfgang Sievers turned a banal industrial scene into an engaging & challenging work of art featuring the mechanical invasion of the ocean. [A similar print, mounted, sold at auction in 2010 for $2880. Josef Lebovic Gallery in Sydney recently sold a similar print - signed on the reverse - that they advertised for $3500] (Image1)

Estimate AU$2,500

1983 'Shell's Drilling Rig, the Nymphea in Bass Strait 1983' Ilford Ilfotech High-Gloss Colour Archival C-Type print (101x81cm plus 5cm black border), unsigned, mounted on 20mm museum-grade foamcore. A slightly different presentation from the previous lot, being less-cropped at the base & possibly the full image. (Image1)

Estimate AU$5,000

1983 'Shell's Drilling Rig, the "Nymphea" in Bass Strait 1983' Kodak Endura Archival C-Type print (25x20cm), signed & dated by Wolfgang Sievers on reverse, unmounted, very fine. A mirror-image of the previous lot, and not previously seen thus. The bright orange colour of the legs of the rig have been highlighted, creating the effect of a gigantic lobster emerging from the sea. (Image1)

Estimate AU$2,000

1983 'Curtains of Fire, Nymphea Drilling Rig, Bass Strait, 1983' Kodak Endura Archival C-Type print (25x17cm), 'Wolfgang Sievers' handstamp on the reverse, very fine. The subject is a nighttime test-firing of the oil rig. The vivid scarlet & crimson hues are highly reminiscent of paintings of the British bombardment of Sebastopol during the Crimean War, and can be seen as anticipating Armageddon. Another of Wolfgang Sievers most highly-regarded images. (Image1)

Estimate AU$1,500

1983 'Curtains of Fire, Nymphea Drilling Rig, Bass Strait, 1983' Ilford Ilfotech High-Gloss Colour Archival C-Type print (101x68cm plus 5cm black border), unsigned, mounted on 20mm museum-grade foamcore. With less dramatic tones than the previous lot, it has a Turner-like painterly quality. The equal-largest recorded print. (Image1)

Estimate AU$5,000