The Carpenter’s Workroom

The Carpenter’s Workroom

In The Carpenter’s Workroom at Georgegen you will find small antique wooden furniture and toys from Australia’s domestic past. Antique apprentice cabinets and salesman samples, pieces made in the Barossa Valley in the nineteenth century, to those that share the resourcefulness and make-do nature of the generations that lived from the late nineteenth century through to the Depression.

Each of these very special pieces resonate with a strong historical presence, and they were valued by previous generations so that they have survived to be appreciated by a whole new generation of owners.

Homegrown Inspiration

Throughout the Collections at Georgegen discover pieces selected to be both beautiful and useful which speak to an aspect of Australia’s cultural heritage. They tell stories about Australia, its history, its people and culture, and its place in the world.

Australian Art in The Long Gallery

Collection of framed paintings on a wall

Melbourne autumn, 1943

Painting of a tree with autumn foliage in a park setting.

Bent Street, Sydney 1952

Painting of a city street with tall buildings and people walking.

All collections tell stories

Collection of Clive James books on a wooden surface

The stories are sometimes hidden ...

Decorative silver plated breadboard with carved design on a wooden surface with yellow wattle flowers.
Vintage toy stable with a horse and cart on a wooden surface.
COLLECTOR

FEATURED PIECE | Antique Toy Stables

These toy stables were made from packing cases during the Great Depression. They were loved and played with, and yet survive to be appreciated by any collector of antique toys and dollhouses.

Formerly part of the Hans and Romy Roeder collection, pre-eminent collecting pioneers and authorities on toys, dolls and teddy bears within the Australian toy collecting community.

In her book Antique Dolls & Toys for Collectors Romy says “with this second book I would like to take all doll collectors through the delightful world of antique dolls and toys, and show how toys, displayed within a doll collection, can create a world of enchantment. This book is for my husband Hans who put up patiently with all the disorder in our lives caused by my writing and photographing for it. He is now quite a good cook!”

Rarely does such an exceptional piece of Australiana become available so if you are a collector of antique Australian toys, dolls and dollhouses, enquire now.

Enquire now

“The stark white ring-barked forests, 

All tragic to the moon, 
The sapphire-misted mountains, 
The hot gold hush of noon, 
Green tangle of the brushes 
Where lithe lianas coil, 
And orchids deck the tree-tops, 
And ferns the warm dark soil.”

There is a majesty to a great Australian gum tree that has lived for hundreds of years. They are celebrated in literature and art. In this the quintessential Australian poem My Country, Dorothea Mackellar wrote of her love of the landscape and home whilst living away from Australia in England as a young woman.

This enduring poem and the timeless pieces in The Carpenter’s Workroom, made from the trees of that landscape, have lasted generations.

Pokerwork vase with landscape carved surface in front of a landscape painting

Dorothea Mackellar | 1 July 1885–14 January 1968.

Shaped by and for generations.