The French Sitting Room

The French Sitting Room is a very typical example of The London Look adopted by the beau monde in Australia during the middle of the 20th century. The style required a non-purist approach and an enthusiasm for mixing periods, styles and finishes. You need only look about this room to see how it was done - a group of totally disparate things melded into a harmonious and very elegant room.

Pieces of note are the 19th-century French gilt settee and matching fauteuils from Government House, Calcutta. There is a fine transitional French Commode (c.1775) and an English, walnut-veneered oak table with barley sugar twist legs and waved stretcher (c.1700).

Often overlooked, in one corner, is a small exquisite circular table - satinwood and inlaid with lacquer and a Japanese centre medallion, possibly Dutch in the Louis XVI style.

There are also some very fine works on paper and a group of miniatures cleverly housed in a splendid late 19th-century frame.

The West wall is dominated by a notable portrait, reputedly of either the Countess of Suffolk or Elizabeth Pelham (an heiress who became Lady Montagu), painted by Mary Beale in 1683. The painting came from Kimbolton Castle, England in 1949.

The enormous chandelier in this room is neoclassical in style, possibly Italian c.1820.

Sometimes one can see a mahogany fold-over card table in the Chippendale manner (c.1770) or a satinwood demilune card table, cross banded with rosewood and inlaid with boxwood and stained timber stringing (English c.1790) or an exceptional 18th-century Chippendale-style fold-over games table.