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The Johnston Collection is a museum of fine and decorative art in East Melbourne, Victoria. The museum complex incorporates the house museum, ''Fairhall'', as well as a gallery and reference library. The WR Johnston Trust was founded in 1986 as the result of a bequest by the late William Robert Johnston, a prominent 20th century antiques dealer, and collector of Georgian, Regency and Louis XV furniture, 18th and 19th century porcelain, and paintings ranging from the 16th to the 19th centuries. The Collection, which first opened in 1990 as part of the Spoleto Festival (now the Melbourne International Arts Festival), operates as an independent not-for-profit museum. Today, the Collection incorporates over 1200 objects, and plays host to regular rearrangements and exhibitions. It is open to the public every weekday, with three tours per day conducted by volunteer guides. Because the Collection is situated in a residential area, the address is not available to the public, and visitors are transported by courtesy bus from a nearby collection point, the location of which is advised at the time of booking. ==William Johnston== Born in Lilydale, Victoria in 1911, William Robert Johnston was the son of a boot maker and a scullery maid. Around the age of eight, he was given a Minton cup by his grandmother. This became the first piece of his collection and provided the inspiration for a career in antiques that would take Johnston around the world. At 14 he left school to work as a window dresser in Buckley and Nunn (now David Jones), where he continued to develop his interest in decoration and arrangement. After World War II, Johnston travelled to Britain where many owners of English country houses, suffering financial hardship after the war, were willing to discreetly sell their antiques. Johnston established a residence and warehouse in Greenwich, London, shipping container loads of antiques back to Melbourne for sale by auction. In 1952 he purchased ''Cadzow'', a Victorian terrace house in East Melbourne, Victoria, which he would rename ''Fairhall''. He continued to travel between England and Australia for the next 20 years, also making regular visits to India, Egypt, and Tunisia where he acquired antiques that he would export back to Melbourne for sale. In the 1970s, when Melbourne became his major base, he established Kent Antiques in High Street, Armadale. Although most of the furniture and antiques sold here were Victorian (in accordance with the popular taste of the time) his own preference was for the Georgian and Regency periods. Consequently, his collection was composed predominantly of 18th and early 19th century furniture and fine and decorative art. Much of this collection was housed at Johnston’s country property, ''Chandpara'', situated at Tyldon, Victoria. Johnston suffered his first heart attack in 1972. With his health deteriorating, he decided that he wanted the bulk of his now vast antique collection to be available to the public after his death, and began to make arrangements to this effect. Johnston suffered a fatal heart attack in India in 1986. He was buried in Lilydale following a Catholic ceremony. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Johnston Collection」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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