Empires and Splendour: The David Roche Foundation

Some of the gems of 18th and 19th century Europe are on display to the public for the first time, thanks to collector David Roche.

Editorial Review

6 June - 27 July, 2008
Art Gallery of South Australia
North Tce, Adelaide

Art Gallery benefactor David Roche has spent most of his life pursuing his love of collecting antiques. He developed his taste early, enjoying private tours of art museums on family trips to Europe, and began his first purchases as a teenager, inquiring advice of expert dealer Martyn Cook.

More than 40 years later, and Roche is the owner of Australia's most internationally renowned private collection. Counted among his treasures are Napoleon Bonaparte's flintlock pistol; Catherine the Great's armchair; plates from the Duke of Gloucester's dinner service and a kangaroo-themed plate, also part of a dinner service, given by Empress Josephine and Napoleon to his sister as a wedding gift.

For the first time ever, these remarkable remnants of history are open to the public at the Art Gallery of South Australia, in the exhibition Empires and Splendour: The David Roche Collection. More than 100 luxury items are on display, a testament to Roche's lifelong passion for French, German, British and Russian decorative arts from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Other sumptuous numbers to be found here include porcelain wares by Chelsea, Meissen, Worcester and Sevres, furniture by some of the period's leading designers such as Thomas Hope, Chippendale the Younger and George Bullock, and a range of exquisite Faberge objects.

Kilian David