Choosing furniture, art and objects is an art in itself. Melissa has teamed with Lawsons to do the work for you with the biggest ever Lawsons Spring Sale with things that go right to the essence. Pieces with a sense of soul that offer a globe’s worth of treasures close to home. We are big proponents of mixing antiques, an earthy palette, old masters, big vintage baskets, statues, and garden furniture with archeological artefacts—that reach for the sublime.
It’s more than just aesthetics. It’s about investing in pieces that can stand the test of time, which are not only a sustainable choice but a joyful one.
Plus extraordinary bronze garden statues unlike anything else around. At a time when the furniture retail industry is being hit so hard by supply chain problems – this sale is a chance to grab beautiful one-off pieces to update your home in time for Christmas, and the holiday season that you will cherish forever.
Melissa styling all the exciting lots from this Christmas sale including…
You’ll find items by designers such as Cameron Kimber, the Earl of Snowden, and more.
Furniture and objects shouldn’t be there to just quietly decorate the room, it should also give it personality and be something to talk about.
There’s something comforting about living with beautiful furniture, art, and objects – many of which are sourced from houses in Australia’s Southern Highlands that work as statement pieces in the most important spots of the home and are a way to ensure your home is an optimistic, beautiful, happy place.
We like anything with a sense of soul.
The most interesting collections are built over many years and are often very personal. A collection shouldn’t be only decorative, but remarkable and tell a story.
The more your collection means to you, the better it will stand the test of time and even grow with future generations. Here are more than 400 pieces, many sourced from homes in Australia’s Southern Highlands which were the starting point for our Spring sale with scores of French antiques and garden bronzes.
The Sale is also a chance to Sidestep Shipping Delays
The sale includes a knockout mix of one-of-a-kind pieces from all times and places, from grand to simple, authentic furniture, and art, with a history that has style simply because it is real, well made and will bring pleasure and history to everyday living.
High-quality key pieces from good mirrors, to elegant antique table lamps, tables, commodes, vintage coffee tables, which are pieces that will retain their value.
Most people overlook depth when they decorate – flat walls, flat paint, flat basic fabrics, flat art on walls, flat-screen TVs – this sale includes beautiful pieces that will make your home rich; give it a third dimension.
The sale includes loads of lamps, lanterns, garden furniture, rugs, art, upholstery, mirrors, porcelain, and tableware – a feast of 18th century artisanal pieces and one-of-a-kind furniture and garden items.
Things that will draw people to a space. They have a way of transforming a house into a home. Or a backyard into a garden.
From 18th century armoires, (ex-The Country Trader from Rona, Bellevue Hill) to Georgian-style leather armchairs, an early 20th-century bookcase, an early 19th century carved oak plate rack, a petite Georgian Pembroke table, an English armchair in the Jacobian style, a set of six Georgian period oak dining chairs, including two armchairs, and much more.
There are large baskets from France and America – both Vintage and new ones, which are the secret item leading designers to use to give an interior a more layered, cultured, eclectic look. You can use them to stow everything from magazines to wood, blankets, towels, toys, loo paper, ferns, foliage, whatever you fancy. You will spot them in all good interiors.
There are the ultimate multifunctional piece, whether for practical or decorative use; a great basket is a great buy that you are guaranteed to use daily.
Seek out a wonderful 20th century Asian Buddha depicting a Zen Master, and an antique Thai Buddha with original paintwork and splendid pair of Chinese blanc de chine ceramic Foo dogs.
Pieces to learn how to bring history into your homes such as superb bergeres and fauteille armchairs. Or a 19th-century French Bergere with painted cane in excellent condition, a pair of French mid-century armchairs, as well as a late 19th century Louis XVI style gilt bronze mounted parquetry bureau and late 17th-century Italian marquetry desk, an early 20th century Louis XVI style mahogany marble top table and a French brass lantern.
The surprising affordability of antiques compared with more contemporary designs is only part of their allure…there’s anything with a sense of style or soul. Or whimsy.
You have to keep a mix to keep it interesting.
Everything from a custom sofa by interior designer Cameron Kimber, to an antique French marble top console, circa 1850s, and a 19th-century French brass candelabra, a Chinoiserie-style black lacquer table with painted decoration, antique French painted display cabinet, a good French open bookcase with aged patina finish, a late 19th century Napoleon III parcel-gilt ebonized marble-top corner cabinet.
There’s the kind of things you see in the grandest English country houses from a number of hats, including Louis Vuitton and Borsonlini originals, a matched pair of Colefax & Fowler original carved wall brackets, a pair of the mid-19th century cast iron emerald green urns by J.J. Ducel et Fils of Paris, a pair of late 19th-century continental bronze urns with plinths.
Plus, a French metal drinks tray with leather handles, ex-The Country Trader, a pair of bamboo effect metal lamps, with shades. Antique Georgian tea caddies, antique french industrial tables, six French rush seats, and large Chinese blue and white hand-painted jardiniere and bowl.
GARDEN BRONZES AND STATUES
For artistic impact, a stately sculpture can do wonders. Find the right one—such as one of the bronze ballerinas or acrobats in the Spring sale – and you’ve got yourself an en plein air pièce de résistance. The sale has plenty of one-off statues and bronzes to add a sculptural note, the kind that features in the world’s finest gardens you see in Architectural Digest magazine.
Don’t let the idea of adding them to your backyard seem intimidating.
They can transform a space, however small, by creating a focal point in your garden.
The bronze statuary effect really depends on its expression, whether it’s whimsical or playful. Whenever you look at them, you feel their emotion, too.
They’re like another personality in the garden. They’re part of the property.
The bronzes are beautifully crafted and deliver comedic and romantic relief at the same time. Ballerinas, acrobats, giraffes, horses, stags, hinds, swans, giraffes, even children – with some that are lifesize and almost weigh as much the real thing. Pieces that can integrate into the landscape, and remain forever inspiring. Acrobats, lifesize ballerinas 1.84m, a pair of bronze swans,, a pair of standing bronze herons.
Wait until you clap eyes on the pair of lifesize bronze giraffes, which are unlike anything we’ve seen before. Giraffes have become a symbol of childlike wonder and feel very Alice in Wonderland, injecting whimsy into any space.
The super-sized giraffe is having a moment in children’s nursery’s such as Kourtney Kardashian’s house in Calabasas, California, and Nicky Hilton Rothschild’s New York City penthouse, where they peer watchfully into cots, but these magnificent creatures, are great focal point that will add soul to your garden for outdoor soirees, private tea parties and dinners.
GARDEN FURNITURE
There are also loads of garden benches with deep seats and armrests to keep you in the garden all afternoon because If you’ve got the seating right, you’ve got the garden right.
A good bench can add character to a space as well as a functional perch.
Seek out classic Lutyens styles, conservatory looks, Chinoiserie, railway-designs, diamond-back, estimates from $799 as well as rare antique cast iron armchairs and a Coalbrookdale bench, designed by Christopher Dresse.
Expect hand forged wrought iron base tables, 2m x 1m, or wrought iron table with glass tops, tons of beautiful terracotta anduze-style pots planted with lavender, painted black Champs Elysee style cast iron lights, the odd clamshell and steel-framed garden mirrors, cast iron pineapple and artichoke finials and much more.
ART AND RUGS
You’ll also find plenty of fine art, we love old portraits, classical art, aboriginal paintings, which are a great way to update your interiors.
And of course no interior is complete without rugs. Actually they are often the starting point for rooms. Check the rugs from tribal kilims and Moroccan Jan Kaths handknotted flatweaves, in pure wool which work with most styles.
MAJOLICA
There is also very good majolica pottery in the sale which designers are going mad for according to the latest Architectural Digest magazine and is recently a subject of a a very good show at the Bard Graduate Centre now on until January 2022. At London’s Great Exhibition in 1851, English manufacturer Minton & Co. introduced the new type of earthenware that skyrocketed to commercial success in Britain and the United States.
Lot 145: A vintage French majolica seven-piece oyster service in a green with white glaze, one large serving platter Diameter 34cm, and five serving plates, lawsons.com.au
Majolica pottery—exuberant objects glazed with lead ranging from the practical to the purely ornamental—took cues from Italian maiolica glossed with tin as well as the highly decorative work of French potter and scientist Bernard Palissy.
Minton majolica was seen as a British triumph of art applied to industry.
During the second half of the 19th century, Britain and the U.S. churned out huge quantities of the stuff. The Center shows off this expansive range, from fanciful ceramics for the everyday (think sunflower-emblazoned teapots and a matchbox shaped like a fly) to real showstoppers.
Our current obsession? Oyster plates and we have a couple of sets in pink or green.
You’ll find so many layers of colour in this sale —amazing browns, beiges, yellows, green, sand, and black – all the shades of the earth. Listen to your intuition and try to feel it.
‘We love pieces of furniture made in simple wood or metal or terracotta with a natural sense of proportion,” says Melissa.
‘We like things that go right to the essence.’
Investing in pieces that can stand the test of time is not only a sustainable choice but a joyful one. “Mixing in vintage pieces when it comes to furnishings in the home, and then also pairing with great functional items—to me, that’s sustainable,” says Melissa.
“Your pieces should mirror your taste, and your view of life.”
“When you approach a collection that way, you can buy different things but there will always be a connection.”
“This sale is all about buying fewer but better things. Your purchase will rise in value—both in monetary terms and in the pleasure you get from the object.”
“Happy decorating and collecting – we hope you find something to help you create the beautiful home that you and your loved ones deserve.”
Register and bid online for a piece to love forever now at: Melissa Penfold’s Spring Sale with Select Pieces from homes in the Southern Highlands.
Sale closes 17 November 2021 – 19:00.
