A CARVED AUSTRALIAN BLACKWOOD SETTLE BY ROBERT PRENZEL Circa 1908 Of rectilinear design, the panelled back and closed arms above the hinged seat enclosing a storage compartment, the back and lower part of the front each with a pair of panels finely carved in relief with sprays of flowering and fruiting eucalyptus, the outer sides each side panelled and carved in relief with a kookaburra alighted on a branch 99cm high, 125cm wide, 47cm deep PROVENANCE: Part of a suite of bedroom furniture commissioned from Robert Prenzel circa 1908 by Margaret Laidlaw as a gift for her husband, Thomas Haliburton Laidlaw, and installed at Kilora , Hamilton, Victoria Thence by descent in the Laidlaw family, Western District, Victoria LITERATURE: Terence Lane, Robert Prenzel, 1866-1941: His Life and Work, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1994, p. 18 (referring to the suite generally) and relatedly p. 20, fig. 34 (illustrating the wardrobe from the suite - lot 86 in the present auction)