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George Thwaites (attributed), a fine drawing room table and two…
Sale Title:
Auction House:
Auction Location:
Melbourne
Date:
11-Dec-2017
Lot No.
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Description:
George Thwaites (attributed), a fine drawing room table and two chairs, huon pine, Melbourne, circa 1865, most likely made for the playing of music with folding lectern top, full huon pine construction and finely carved column and legs, telescopically adjustable, original finish and patina, a superb and rare suite, the table 75 cm high, 97 cm wide, 49 cm deep. Provenance: The Neil Robertson Collection, Melbourne, The table and two chairs were part of the furnishings of Neil Robertson's great-great-grandfather, Edward Ferdinand Yencken's house. The house, 'Banole' was a two-story, Vicarage Gothic building, set in generous grounds at Mount Erica, which was the name given to that part of Prahran, east of Williams Road and between High Street and Dandenong Road. The house was demolished and the land sold off for subdivision, following his great-great-grandmother's death after World War I. The table and chairs are part of a much larger suite of furniture much of which is still in family hands. Robertson's great-great-grandfather Edward Ferdinand Yencken was born in Denmark in 1820, the child of Dr. Ferdinand Johann Jencken and his wife Amalie Christine von Tiesenhausen nee von Loewenstern. His parents had left their respective spouses to run away together causing quite a ripple in their native Estonia and indeed in Russia where Amalie's family was very well connected. Edward Ferdinand Yencken married Ellen Druce in Guernsey in 1848 and shortly thereafter set sail for Sydney where he carried on a business importing goods from India. The business Jencken Barber & Co failed after a few years and Edward and Ellen returned to England along with their two daughters. In the late 1850s, the Yenckens (the name was changed by deed poll in Sydney in 1853) returned to Australia but this time to Melbourne, where Edward took up a job as the secretary of the Fyansford Viaduct Company. Banole was purchased in the early 1860s. The two eldest Jencken daughters were quite artistic, particularly the eldest, Mary Druce Jencken (1850-98) whose earliest drawing master in Sydney was Conrad Martens. The drawing table is understood to have been bought and maybe even commissioned for Mary and her sister, Alice. The family was unusually well educated in the rough and tumble of Gold Rush Melbourne. They were all bi-lingual, writing and speaking English and German with equal facility and French with only slightly less skill. In addition to painting, music was also highly valued with the family being able to make up its own ensemble as the children grew older. After he moved to Melbourne, E F Jencken was the secretary to the Norwich Union for many years.
Estimate:
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Price:
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Category:
Furniture: Tables - zOther