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, 99 cm high, 125 cm wide, 47 cm 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)