A late career break-through sculpture of a couple sitting by the British artist Lynn Chadwyck in stainless steel sheet; The Three Graces by Bellorussian Ossip Zadkine and a 1.39 metre figurative sculpture on his favourite theme of motherhood by the Spanish artist Balthaser Lobo heighten also the collection's almost equally exceptional three dimensional quality.
It may not get the founder of Aussie Home Loans into the world's top 200 collector list but no Australian has been on it for more than a decade and the parameters for inclusion are not getting very high. Mr Symond probably has no interest in being there but he has put together a refreshingly individually focussed collection which strikes out in several adventurous directions.
Many of the works are large scale but size is not an issue for Mr Symond who is a big man. He needed cranes to winch in some of the art works into the harbour side house. He jokes that he thought he may have come to like Botero, whose works in both media have been commanding prices of around $US1 million, because he depicts large sizes like himself although Botero meant something different to a comment on physical characteristics in using them.
With some works bought for lower than four figure sums, the “We will save you” tycoon has created a very focused collection of mixed decorative and collector oriented collection (he has after all been decorating a house) which should be easily recoverable if the contents came up again. Not that money is likely to have been a consideration.
At least this applies to the works that he acquired at auction as we do not know what he paid the dealers who include some said to command a lot for their brand name.
The art deco, similarly bought, is more likely to have held its value as it includes three of the most important pieces made by the Paris ebeniste Emile-Jaques Ruhlman of the a luxurious nature that might well appeal to the new Gatsbys of Russia.
But Mr Symond appears to be equally fond of more modestly sized works admiring in particular the only surviving drawing study for a mural on the ocean liner Normandie, a ship noted for its triumph of Art Deco and now long gone,
In a tribute to the collection in the luxurious publication Wingadel The John Symond Collection the director of the Art Gallery of NSW Dr Michael Brand commends Mr Symond for creating what is effectively a private museum on the shores of Sydney Harbour and filling it with a collection that is not tagged with the names of artists in the manner of the collections recommended by those created by some art consultant. He is “a very serious collector with confidence in his own interests,” Dr Brand says.
Mr Symond's only noticeable hesitation in progressive taste, which he draws attention to himself, is his reluctance to take on abstraction in a big way although there is semi abstract sculpture by Joel Ellenberg in the collection. Abstract just does not motivate him, he says. There is also a mobile by Roy Lichtenstein called Landscape bought from Sherman Gallery which is also more abstract than figurative.
His taste runs from traditional British (e.g.a Sir Russell Flint watercolour) and traditional Australian Sir Norman The Three Dollys to contemporary Latin American. The female form is a unifying force especially in view of the collections Art Deco content. The twenties and thirties produced some of the most slinky female forms in art especially in the chryselephantine figures displayed on the period's sideboards. These are very well represented in the collection. Some, which can sell for $250,000 each, last appeared on the market in Dalia Stanley's Auctions in Sydney in the 1990s.
The book, which has limited distribution and is not for sale reveals the Sydney home loans tycoon, whose enthusiasm for Art Deco had already made him a well known visitor to the antique shops on Rue Martignon in Paris, and a big spender with Melbourne dealer Mr John Playfoot, as having also been no stranger to London's Bond Street and the overseas salerooms.
The Zadkine and the Chadwyck came from London's Nevill Keating and the Boteros were mostly from Contini of Venice.
Nevill Keating's Angela Nevill is thanked in the introduction alongside a large cast of auction hands and dealers who include Lord Mark Poltimore of Sotheby's Europe and Mr Denis Savill, Metro Gallery (Melbourne) Mr Stuart Purves and art consultant Barry Fitzgerald.
The book provides the same details of provenance and context as an auction catalogue which Elizabeth Hastings, formerly with Deutscher-Menzies Auctions and the book's author/editor was well equipped to gather together.
Objects in the collection sold at the auction, The Collecting Eye of (record producer) Seymour Stein, by Sotheby's in New York in December 2003 include a Hagenauer (Austrian art deco) sculpture of a dance band which made $US108,000 or double the estimate.
It shows that Mr Symond has been no slouch either in securing some of the best Australian works available in the Australian saleroom over the past 30 years. He has been collecting for a long period but the building of Wingadal with seven bedrooms three storey accelerated his buying.
The book throws light on where many of the works which have come up at auction in Australia went to – Mr Symond.
John Olsen's Village Square of 1991 sold in August 25 2003 for $118,000 at Mossgreen. Chadwick's work sells for $10,000 to $750,000 largely depending on size and whether it is editioned.
Albert Tuckers The Card Players, listed as having once gone through the hands of Melbourne dealer Danuta Rogowski sold at Deutscher – Menzies for $99,875.
The Dolly Sisters came up at Lawson Menzies in October 2003 and was unsold at $70,000 to $9,000. Nolan's Siege and Burning at Glenrowan was acquired by private treaty in 2003 for $100,375
Other Nolans, works by Yvonne Audette and Arthur Boyd are given auction provenances while The Four Seasons by John Coburn came through the Eva Breuer Gallery in 2008. Mr Symond certainly circulated.
Brett Whiteley's Frangipani and Humming Bird at $2.04 million sold by Sothebys Australia in 2006 appears to be the most expensive purchase. David Boyd's King Found last went through the saleroom at Mossgreen's sale of the Ivan Holland collection in Melbourne in 2008 when it made $215,100. From Melbourne dealer Charles Nodrum he acquired one of Edwin Tanner's favourite own works. Two Jeffrey Smart's one a recently painted gallery buy the other, The Guiding Spheres, which last sold for $288,500
There are three large Tim Storriers arising like works by Michael Johnson, from commissions the home loaner made, while Howard Arkley is represented among other works by a private treaty work from Deutscher-Menzies. Homes are not a surprising inclusion given the Symond's' business. Tim Maguire is well represented and there is a Gary Shead from his Royal Suite by Savill.
The de luxe inclusions are by Puiforcat, Asprey and Jensen among others. The John Symond Table was designed by David Boucher, Rime Chan Design and Nick Edgar and is a remarkable piece of engineering. It is veneered in Indian Macassan ebony and came with 24 reproduction Ruhlman chairs.
The book was designed by Mark Tharke and produced by Lou Klepac's Beagle Press.
