The Contents of “The Horak House”
Theodore Bruce Auctioneers is delighted to bring to auction the contents of what will be known as “The Horak House”, a 1940s Moderne home in Sydney’s Rose Bay. The former home of highly regarded Holocaust survivor and artist Olga Horak OAM – well-known to visitors of the Sydney Jewish Museum – features a remarkable decorative interior of ‘time-capsule’ furniture by leading postwar designers, Paul Kafka and Decor Associates, with many of the furnishings, artworks and decorative items to be included in the auction.
The entire decoration of the home has been documented by Museums of History NSW and will be included as part of the Caroline Simpson Library Collection. The following article on “The Horak House” is by Dr Catriona Quinn, Design Historian, Researcher and Academic at the University of NSW.
The Remarkable Horak House
The Horak House, a 1940’s streamline Moderne home in Rose Bay, hides a remarkable interior that reflects the life and taste of its owner for most of the past 70 years, Olga Horak.
Bratislava-born Olga and her husband John, both well known for speaking out as Holocaust survivors, migrated to Australia in 1950 where they prospered thanks to their hard work in the textile industry and where they raised their two daughters in the Rose Bay house, which they bought in 1952.
This is a house whose contents is characterised by layers, an eclectic mix that appears richly incoherent in style, yet is immediately recognisable as the work of two leading design firms, very different in style, yet each well-known in postwar Sydney. To the expert eye, traces of the earliest interior decoration scheme survive. The upstairs bedrooms are a time capsule of 1952, when the Horaks moved into the house.
Leading cabinetmaker Paul Kafka was commissioned to design furniture for the new bedrooms. Kafka’s signature inlaid timbers and creative use of veneers made his firm popular amongst European migrants in 1950s Sydney and the Horak’s three bedroom suites show some of the range of Kafka’s design vocabulary, from the main bedroom’s darkly conservative glamour to the children’s up to date purpose-built desks and fitted shelves in warm honey toned wood. When the Horaks bought the house from property developer Walter Rivkin, they also retained several pieces of outdoor furniture already in the house, including a wrought iron setting and a pair of Butterfly chairs which were amongst the earliest produced in Australia by local maker Descon, who copied them from the original Hardoy chairs brought to Sydney by Harry Seidler in 1948.
As the family became successful and the girls grew up, Olga and John decided to extend and transform the whole ground floor living spaces, commissioning Polish émigré architect Henry Kurzer in 1969 to create a jazzy, tiled outdoor terrace, a modernised American-style kitchen and lend a more open plan feel to the living and dining areas. Not only that, but Olga also chose top decorators Tom Harding and David Lorimer’s firm, Decor Associates, to completely refurbish and redecorate the interiors.
The ground floor of the house remains unchanged from this 1969 scheme, a remarkable survivor and testament to Olga’s love and appreciation for her home. Decor Associates were internationally recognised and the darlings of Sydney’s north shore and eastern suburbs, amongst the establishment and their many successful and eminent Jewish clients, including Lady (Mary) Fairfax and Sir Asher and Lady Joel. Their signature style was eclectic, highly glamorous American-infused modern interpretations of French classics, of which several key pieces of furniture in the Horak house are superb examples. The dining suite with sideboards is finished in a green stained timber, known at the time as ‘pickled’ finish – a specialty of Decor Associates which the decorators had seen in the United States.
All the Horak furniture from Decor Associates was custom-designed just for this house, such as pairs of modernised ‘Louis’-style armchairs, a striking curved lounge and the obelisk-shaped drinks cabinet, lined with imported antiqued mirrored glass. The firm was known for its use of exclusive, luxury materials imported from the US and even a cloakroom for hats, coats and umbrellas at the entry vestibule has the Decor Associates touch, incorporating pickled green louvred doors and a theatrical “curtained area” which screened a storage area behind it. By commissioning Decor Associates, Olga achieved a totally different atmosphere downstairs in her home than in the earlier Kafka bedrooms upstairs.
One of the most important aspects of the Horak house is that it has become extremely rare now to see complete interiors by Kafka or by Decor Associates: to find these two schemes surviving in the same house makes it an extraordinary record of the shifts in fashion and taste exercised by Olga Horak over time. These interiors document a living record of her aspirations, changing preferences and influences and the meaningfulness of home as a reflection of herself and her family.
Dr Catriona Quinn
Design Historian, Researcher and Sessional Academic, UNSW
The Contents of Horak House
The upcoming auction will feature furniture, rugs, antiques & collectables acquired by Olga Horak and her family.
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Contact: Casi Prischl