A delightful task

Ruth’s brief was to select Australian-made items wherever possible, and ‘best British’ where it was not. This gave her the perfect opportunity to showcase the beauty of Australian timbers and the work of local cabinet makers. She proudly reported that ‘in the matter of furniture, there is not one piece in the houses made of imported timber’. There can be no doubt that Charles provided advice on the best Australian timbers to use for flooring, panelling and furniture. In 1920, while attending the Empire Forestry Conference in London, Charles had visited leading British furniture makers including Maples & Co and Waring & Gillow to promote the use of Western Australian timbers.

As Ruth noted: ‘What decorator, then, could have had a more delightful task than I? Here was the market bare of Australian furniture of the class I sought; here were supplies and the wood sawn and seasoned, and here were the craftsmen at hand to carry out the work. So I set to, and taking all the old designs that have lived down through the centuries, I had drawings made, and with full scale details, where necessary, of each piece. These were submitted to the craftsmen and divided among them according to the particular bent of each.’

A Home for the Governor-General’, The Australian Home Beautiful, 2 May 1927.

‘The wise decorator does not force her ideas on her client and so stamp the room with her personality; she discovers her tastes, wishes, ambitions and with her own knowledge and skill simplifies here, elaborates there and leading her client gently away from the startling effects she first wished for, she leaves the room stamped as the charming room of very charming people.’

Ruth Lane-Poole, The Australian Home Beautiful, 12 November 1926