The Entrance Hall

The Entrance Hall is recreated in the spirit of Johnston's original decor and sets the timeframe. You might be entering any number of London houses of the 1950s or 60s. The black-and-white floor, white paint and red wallpaper are so reminiscent of that era. Pride of place is given to a very fine long case clock by Henry Hindley (c.1745), once owned by the late Eric and Freda Avery, notable Melbourne collectors.

On the opposite wall is a pair of elegant, French, 18th-century bronze wall sconces. A mauve float lamp lights the hall-one of many, in various colours, in the Collection. Further along the hall, hanging above a lacquered table in the Chinoiserie style is an 18th-century engraving by Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-78) of the ruins of the great hall of the Antoninian Baths in Rome.

Maybe at the top of the stairs is a very fine fold-over top card table (c.1812-20), with the makers stamp of Wilkinson, Ludgate Hill, or on occasions one of the jewels of the Collection, a satinwood demilune card table c.1790, a piece of astonishing quality and in superb condition.

Another English piece, possibly the base of a rosewood William IV font or maybe a very grand washbasin stand, is stamped James Winter/ 101 Wardour St/Soho London. Winter was a furniture broker, appraiser and undertaker whose business continued to 1870.

A French painted and gilded looking glass is sometimes flanked with a pair of white and gilt Meissen vases. The pair of portraits on the stairs perhaps represent two English worthies with aspirations 'beyond their station in life'. These portraits, by an unknown artist, are typical of provincial portraits of their time.