A major new museum housing one of Australia’s largest private collections made up of more than 3,000 decorative arts objects opens in Adelaide this week (3 June). Furniture, ceramics, metalware, clocks and paintings dating from the 18th and 19th centuries go on show at the David Roche Foundation House Museum, which encompasses two buildings: Fermoy House, the former home of the late collector, and a new, adjoining A$5m ($3.6m) wing designed by the local practice, Williams Burton Leopardi architects.
The architects say in a statement: “Fermoy House will remain in much the same state as when David Roche was in residence, displaying elements of his collection in the context of his lifestyle and everyday interaction with his collection. In contrast, the new gallery is the antithesis of this with the most important pieces of the collection displayed in a stylised context within a totally black envelope.”
The main bedroom in Fermoy House, an Australian Federation villa bought by Roche in 1954, is filled with English Regency and French Empire period furniture. The collection also includes porcelain jars made during China’s Qing dynasty (1644-1911) and the Kangxi period (1662-1722), along with rare plates from the Meissen, Sèvres, and Furstenberg porcelain factories. Candelabra by the French designer Pierre-Philippe Thomire, dating from around 1815, are also on display.
“Objects in the collection are presented in an opulent manner reminiscent of how David Roche lived in Fermoy House, while the museum’s new contemporary building houses an exhibition space that will present curated and thematic presentations of the collection,” a museum spokeswoman says.
Roche, who died in 2013, established his own art foundation in 1999; the running costs of the new museum will be met by the foundation. Roche’s family established a property development company in the city in 1922.