Charles Vivian was born in London in 1959. He worked in the fine art and antiques trade for twenty years in both England and Australia before devoting his time to writing about the subject for a number of magazines and journals. He moved to Ireland in 1997 where he lives in West Cork with his wife and four children.
He has written regular columns on the fine arts, including: ‘Antiques Column’, Australian Farm Journal; ‘Medal News’, Coin and Banknote Magazine; ‘Antiques Column’, Highlife Magazine, ‘Fair Report’, James A. Johnson & Associates Fair Handbook, ‘Fair Comment’, Antipodes Magazine; ‘In the Rooms’, Australian Antique Collector; ‘Antiques Column’, Smart Woman Magazine; ‘Irish Column’, Antiques and Art Independent; as well as contributing to the Australian Coin Review, Numismatic Association of Australia Journal, Australian Antique Collector, James A. Johnson & Associates Fair Handbook, Antipodes, Antiques Trade Gazette and Masterpiece.
Lecture subjects include English Watercolours, Anglo-Saxon and Norman Coinage, Australian Proclamation Coinage and Holey Dollars, British Campaign Medals, Valuing Antiques, Australian Medals.
He worked for Spink & Son Ltd in London from 1978 to 1980 and for Spink & Son (Australia) P/L from 1980 to 1988 where he was a director and ran their highly acclaimed art gallery and edited and published the gallery magazine Acanthus. In 1988 he set up Charles Vivian Fine Arts P/L in Moss Vale in NSW where he dealt in English and Australian furniture and silver, Oriental works of art, paintings and orders, decorations and medals. He was a valuer for the Federal government for their tax incentives for the arts scheme and has acted in an advisory capacity in publishing of many fine art books.
He was an official vetter of the Australian Antique Dealers’ Association Fairs for medals, oriental and jade from 1993 until he left Australia in 1997 and was an official vetter of the Irish Antique Dealers’ Association Fairs in Dublin for silver and pictures during 1999 and 2000.
He continues to write and research on all aspects of fine art and antiques history while also voluntarily teaching history at his local primary school. Many students at this small local school have gone on to study history at secondary and third level after being inspired by his enthusiasm for the subject.
In 2008 he published his first novel, The Ballingaddy Find, through Ringrone Books.
