The mansion at Melbourne’s Rippon Lea Estate was completed in 1868 for Frederick Sargood who had commissioned the prominent architects Reed and Barnes to design him a house and garden that would showcase his gold-rush wealth and house his large family of nine children. After Sargood’s death in 1903, the property changed hands twice until it was inherited in 1935 by Louisa Jones who set about modernising the outdated interiors in keeping with the style she saw in Hollywood movies of the time.
This lecture by Susan Scollay reviews the changes Jones made, focusing on the soft furnishings employed in the luxurious refurbishment and highlighting the exotic combination of eastern carpets and Fortuny fabrics used in the transformation of the dining room.
Scollay is an art historian specialising in Islamic art and architecture and in historic textiles.