Antiques from the collections of two of Canada's most famous arts mavens and philanthropists go on sale next month at Christie's in Manhattan, with the auction house estimating they could fetch upwards of $1-million (U.S.).

The antiques, mostly furniture, household and decorative items from 18th and 19th-century England, are to be sold the morning of April 7, having been consigned by Nancy Southam and Lindy Barrow, respectively the daughters of the late Gordon and Jean Southam from Vancouver and the late Helen Gardiner, wife of George Gardiner, former president of the Toronto Stock Exchange and founder of Toronto's Gardiner Museum for Ceramic Art.

Each collection was assembled over several decades largely by Helen Gardiner and Jean Southam, each of whom was predeceased by her husband (George Gardiner died in 1997; Southam, grandson of William Southam, founder of what became the Southam newspaper chain, in 1998).

The 60 lots from the Gardiner estate are going into Christie's auction valued at between $272,200 and $429,200.

The most valuable lot by estimate ($80,000 to $120,000) is a pair of George III commodes, dating to 1775, made of satinwood and rosewood and topped with alabaster veneer.

(The house at Gardiner Farms and 113 acres of surrounding property are also for sale, with an asking price of $6.5-million.)

The Southam consignment totals 84 lots carrying a pre-sale estimate of $469,700 to $700,400. Two lots are going into the bidding with high-end estimates of $100,000 each - a Queen Anne walnut settee, dating to 1710, with arched back, out-scrolled arms and six cabriole legs, and a George I chest of drawers from around 1730, made of walnut.

In a note in the Christie's catalogue, Nancy Southam writes that her mother, who died at 91 in October 2007, "rarely saw an expensive 18th-century piece of English furniture she could live without." It was Gordon Southam's role "to keep her passionate, infectious antique collecting in some sort of perspective." The Southams began collecting seriously in the mid-1950s, and one of their annual highlights, for more than 40 consecutive years, was to attend the Seventh Regiment Armory antique fair on New York's Park Ave. in the company of society pianist/bandleader Peter Duchin and Pat Buckley, the Vancouver-born wife of conservative pundit William F. Buckley.

Helen Gardiner's collection was accumulated over a shorter time frame. As the Christie's catalogue explains, Gardiner - identified only as "a private Canadian collector" - travelled to London in 1978 to enroll in a year-long course in decorative arts at Christie's. "This experience nurtured her interest in all aspects of the decorative arts and the English country-house style, which is reflected in the pieces she purchased." Virtually all the significant ceramic pieces she bought are now housed in the Gardiner Museum, opened in 1984.

Another roughly 107 lots, consigned by non-Canadian collectors, also are available for bids as part of a sale by Christie's devoted to "important English furniture, clocks and ceramics."