Lot 45

Two smal chips to the edge of the glass top, pitting to the chrome base


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Leonard Joel makes no guarantee of the originality of mechanical or applied components. Absence of reference to such modifications does not imply that a lot is free from modifications.

Marion Best Pty Ltd, Queen St Woollahra
'Penhallow,' Castlecrag, 1971
The Collection of Richard 'Dick' (1913-1989) and Joan Crebbin

'A Room for Peter Sculthorpe' by Marion Best Pty Ltd, Society of Interior Designers of Australia 20th Anniversary 'Rooms on View' exhibition, Blaxland Galleries, Farmers, 13 September - 2 October, 1971
'Sydney Style, Marion Hall Best/Interior Designer', Greenway Gallery Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney, July 31 - October 17 1993, cat. no. 191

'Rooms on View' exhibition catalogue, Black and White Committee and SIDA, 1971 cat.no. 8
Catriona Quinn, Sydney Style, Marion Hall Best Interior Designer Historic Houses Trust 1993, illustrated p 7
Michaela Richards, The Best Style, Craftsman House, 1993 illustrated p 53

Armed with introductions from New York agencies, Marion Best set up business relationships on a 1967 buying trip with the major Milanese furniture companies, including Cassina, who made this Frattini design. She later wrote, 'all now are known but then were the only ones taking the plunge on importing them.' The Frattini table and the 'Room for Peter Sculthorpe' represented an important shift in Best's later career - a move to greater internationalism and experimental materials. The coffee table was in good company with Scarpa chairs, pendant Flos lights, blue tiled floor, green glazed wall and, reflected in the Mylar ceiling, an astonishing musical sculpture by Jack Meyer, its coloured lights moving in response to the sound of Sculthorpe's composition, 'Landscape'. Ron Saw described the room as 'mind blowing'.

Best called the room her 'Alpha and Omega…the joy and purpose of designing in three dimensional transparent colours which echo and sing through their movement in space.', Dick and Joan Crebbin purchased the entire room from the display in 1971 and it was recreated in its entirety for the 1993 Historic Houses Trust exhibition. That the 'Room for Peter Sculthorpe' remains amongst Best's most influential work is acknowledged by the 1999 acquisitions of the Flos light by Sydney Living Museums and the musical sculpture 'Industrial Revolution,' by the National Gallery of Victoria. The coffee table is the last component to come to auction.