Unpacking his library in 1931, the German cultural critic Walter Benjamin surmised that a true collector cares far less about an object’s worth than its craftsmanship and provenance. “The whole background of an item adds up to a magic encyclopedia,” he wrote.
The late Terence Lane spent a lifetime thinking in exactly these terms. One of Australia’s most celebrated curators, who worked for four decades at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), he was also a fervent private collector. The narrow sandstone house he occupied in the Melbourne suburb of Carlton was accordingly a museum-like time capsule devoted to the 19th century; a cache of English Victoriana and Australian decorative design amassed across more than half a century.
The upstairs sitting room of Lane’s Melbourne home. On the mantelpiece sit a pair of Victorian glazed earthenware vases decorated with Japanese-style designs in coloured enamel, gold and silver, topped with Japanese bamboo fans. The gilt-framed mirror and gilt appliqué three-light sconce (one of a pair) are also Victorian © Lillie Thompson via The Artline
Two years after his death the collection remains just as Lane left it. “You walk into the house and you see his passion and style, how effortlessly all the different categories were put together and displayed so beautifully,” says Chiara Curcio, head of decorative arts, design and interiors at Melbourne auction house Leonard Joel. On 3 May almost the entire houseful of art, objects and furniture will be for sale – several thousand objects in total, including furniture, textiles and ceramics. “It’s already curated,” says Curcio of the collection, organised into lots by room. “It’s his life’s work.”
