This pen and ink drawing is one of 6 drawings by Herbert Moore originally lent to the Vaucluse Park Trust in the 1920s by Mrs Edith Kellerman and then sold to the Trust on her death in 1929.
The laundry building on the Vaucluse House estate was constructed around 1830 opposite the service yard of the house, an area defined by the rear wings of the house and the line of the property's water supply, a creek running though the estate. The building retains wooden tubs, a large mangle and the external stone troughs [ref: Robert Griffin, Joy Hughes, editors
Vaucluse House: a history & guide Historic Houses Trust of NSW, 2007] but the brick 'wing' shown in this drawing was demolished in 1955-56 by the then Vaucluse Park Trustees. This was a period of refurbishment of Vaucluse as a 'period house, with a consultant advisor on interior decoration, Miss Russo, working in close collaboration with the Government Architect, Cobden Parkes, who was also a Trustee. This phase was destructive of Vaucluse House's more idiosyncratic features. In 1955-56 a rendered brick structure traditionally known as the 'silver room' (later 'China room'), located in the north-eastern corner of the courtyard was demolished, followed by the removal of the remains of the wings of the laundry.
