Collectors Art Market

Sunday 9th March, 2025

Helen Nora Curle Smith
Rottnest from Bather’s Beach, Fremantle 1891

It doesn’t have to be expensive to be good!

The Beauty of  Art Auctions  lies in the story each piece of art carries – its creation, prior ownership and historical significance.  The true value of art isn’t always in it’s price, but in the layers of meaning and the connection it creates with the past. 

Owning a work of art adds your own chapter to its ongoing story, enriching both your life and the legacy of the piece. Art is more than a commodity, it’s a living connection to history and human expression, such as the work illustrated above by Helen Nora Curle Smith, which is included in our forthcoming Sunday Collectors Art Market.

Helen Nora Curle Smith (nee Murdoch), was born in Scotland and was the elder sister of Professor Walter Murdoch, the renowned essayist and academic.  She arrived in Melbourne with her family in 1884 and married another Scot, David Curle Smith in 1891.  They moved to Kalgoorlie that same year, as David was appointed as an electrical engineer with the Kalgoorlie Municipal Council.

In addition to being a skilled painter, Helen Curle Smith was a dedicated volunteer for the Red Cross in Kalgoorlie during World War I.  For her tireless efforts, she was awarded an MBE in 1920.  Beyond her contributions to charity, she also made a significant mark in the culinary world by writing the first-ever cookbook for electric ovens titled “Thermo-Electrical Cooking Made Easy” the book was published in 1906 in support of her husband David Curle Smith’s invention of the electric stove.

David Curle Smith, an electrical engineer trained in Glasgow worked for the Kalgoorlie Municipal Council, where he was responsible for lighting the Goldfields.  The municipality was building and renting out electric ovens to residents, however the project eventually became uneconomical and was shelved.