Cupboard
Maker & role
Emmerich Revesz (b.1897, d.1958), Designer; Leslie Buckwell, Cabinetmaker
Production date
1957
See full details
Object detail
Production place
Measurements
H: 26 x W: 123 x D: 25cm (H: 260 x W: 1230 x D: 250mm)
Subject Place
Credit line
Gift, 2019
Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection, Museums of History New South Wales
Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection, Museums of History New South Wales
Caption
Tabour door cupboard, design by Emmerich Revesz and made by Leslie Buckwell, Sydney, 1957
Description
This narrow built-in cupbaord with tambour door is one of a number of pieces of furniture designed by emigré architect and furniture designer Emmerich Révész as a commission by newspaper magnate Sir Warwick Fairfax for a small garden pavillion at Harrington Park NSW. Other companion pieces of furniture in the Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection include a built-in bookcase; an office desk; a kidney-shaped occasional table on casters; and a couch. An archive of Emmerich Révész (later known as Emery Thomas Reeves when he emigrated to Australia) that includes design drawings, sketches and photographs is held in the Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection - the archive includes several design drawings and correspondence associated with the furniture at the Harrington Park garden pavillion.
The pavilion was built in 1957 as a writer’s retreat for Sir Warwick Fairfax. It was designed by a young Polish-born architect named Marcel Weyland, built in brick with a distinctive, pagoda-like, pyramidal roof sheathed in copper sheets. The pyramidal cap, finished with a bronze weathervane in the form of a cockerel made by Australian sculptor Tom Bass, served as a cupola enabling air circulation within the pavilion. The windows and entrance door were framed in bronze, with a tiny bronze figurehead of an Elizabethan man mounted on a central panel. After the death of Sir Warwick Fairfax in 1987 his garden study was closed up, the door locked. Books, papers and chairs were removed some years later but most of the furniture stayed in situ until late 2019 when Harrington Park homestead went on the market. The pavilion, vacant and dusty and a little unloved, was photographed at the end of an exceptionally hot and dry summer for the Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection's 'Recorded for the future' website.
The pavilion was built in 1957 as a writer’s retreat for Sir Warwick Fairfax. It was designed by a young Polish-born architect named Marcel Weyland, built in brick with a distinctive, pagoda-like, pyramidal roof sheathed in copper sheets. The pyramidal cap, finished with a bronze weathervane in the form of a cockerel made by Australian sculptor Tom Bass, served as a cupola enabling air circulation within the pavilion. The windows and entrance door were framed in bronze, with a tiny bronze figurehead of an Elizabethan man mounted on a central panel. After the death of Sir Warwick Fairfax in 1987 his garden study was closed up, the door locked. Books, papers and chairs were removed some years later but most of the furniture stayed in situ until late 2019 when Harrington Park homestead went on the market. The pavilion, vacant and dusty and a little unloved, was photographed at the end of an exceptionally hot and dry summer for the Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection's 'Recorded for the future' website.
Accession number
L2019/33
Share
Object name
Subject
Contact Us
Head Office
The Mint, 10 Macquarie St
Sydney, NSW 2000
On Gadigal land
T 02 8239 2288
TTY 02 8239 2377
E info@mhnsw.au
Public comments
Be the first to comment on this object record.