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Marion Hall Best
Marion Hall Best (1905-1988) was born Marion Esdaile Burkitt in Dubbo, New South Wales to parents Edmond Henry Burkitt and Amy Theodora, née Hungerford. 1 An influential Sydney decorator and interior designer, her showrooms introduced many to the colourful designs of the 1960s.

Early life
Marion Hall Best attended Frensham School in Mittagong and initially trained and worked as a nurse. Holidays in Palm Beach NSW led to her first decorating project at her mother’s house Farleigh in 1929. In 1927 she married prominent Sydney dentist John Victor Hall Best in Darling Point, Sydney. During the 1920s and 30s Best studied painting with Thea Proctor and embroidery with June Scott Stevenson, moving informally into interior design. In 1938 Marion Hall Best studied architecture at the University of Sydney under the charismatic founding chair Professor Leslie Wilkinson and undertook a New York-based course in interior design by correspondence. Her `Classic Modern’ and `Young Modern’ designs for a room in an exhibition for the Australian Red Cross Society New South Wales Division in 1941 achieved wide publicity. 1 Other exhibitions which included interiors by Marion Hall Best were “Rare and Beautiful Things: an exhibition” at the Gallery of NSW (1961), Sydney’s “Ten best dressed rooms” (1962), Rooms on view (1967), Rooms on view 1971 (1971). In 1950 there were few practising women architects just 2.7% of all registered architects were women, however sixty-seven women had graduated from the University of Sydney architecture degree course in that year. 4

Professional career
Marion Best opened her first retail business in 1938 Woollahra, Marion Best Fabrics and later in 1949 a small shop in Rowe Street, a well-known sophisticated and cosmopolitan area in central Sydney. She stocked local designers - Gordon Andrews, Clement Meadmore, Roger Maclay and Leonard French and was influential in setting up the contacts for the importation of international textiles, furniture, and wallpaper of designers such as Marimekko, Herman Miller, Eero Saarinen, Noguchi, McGuire and Jim Thompson. The workshop in Woollahra was also the location of Marion Best Pty Ltd Interior Design operating until its closure in 1974. Private residential and commercial commissions included “Luxury Flats for Moderate Incomes” at 7 Elizabeth Street, Sydney, Lewarne House in Neutral Bay (1965-1980), Cater House in Red Hill, Canberra (1965) the interiors of the Lady Gowrie Child Centre (1941), Erskineville, Moonbah Ski Lodge, Thredbo (with Bill Lucas, 1959-1961), Crebbin House in Castlecrag Sydney, (1960 – 1975), the Hyatt Hotel Kings Cross, Sydney decorated in 1969-70, and The Grove, the Hall Best house in Woollahra, Sydney. The last was featured both in Vogue Australia April/May 1968, and Australian Home Journal February 1969. A number of Australian artists were commissioned to design fabrics for sale in the showrooms under the brand Marion Best Fabrics. These included Amie Kingston and Dora Sweetapple and were produced by Gilkes & Co. Post-war her work was published in home magazines reaching a wide audience.1 She ran the David Jones Art Gallery in 1947-48. Marion Hall Best was a founding member in 1951 of the Society of Interior Designers of Australia. At the sixth Australian Architectural convention in 1956 Marion Hall Best presented a paper titled “Design for Every Day Things: Furnishings”.

Marion Hall Best’s daughter Deidre Hall Best also studied at the University of Sydney architecture school, graduating in 1955. As Deidre Broughton, she provided much material for the Marion Hall Best collection held by the Sydney Living Museum. Marion Hall Best died on 26 June 1988 in Darling Point.

(Citations 1: Catriona Quinn, 'Best, Marion Esdaile Hall (1905–1988)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/best-marion-esdaile-hall-12205/text21885, published first in hardcopy 2007, accessed online 20 September 2015. This article was first published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 17, (MUP), 2007 2: Bronwyn Hanna Absence and Presence: A Historiography of Early Women Architects Appendices, p.354 3 http://dictionaryofsydney.org/person/best_marion_hall 3 http://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/rowe_street 4 Australia's Early Women Architects: Milestones and Achievements Bronwyn Hanna' FABRICATIONS, THE JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND VoL 12, No 1 5 http://www.womenaustralia.info/leaders/biogs/WLE0030b.htm The Encyclopedia of Women & Leadership in Twentieth Century Australia, Harriet Edquist, RMIT University. Published by the Australian Women's Archives Project 2014 ISBN 978-0-7340-4873-8 6 http://sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/marion-hall-best-collection Caroline Simpson Library and Research Collection, Sydney Living Museums MHB/B/7 7 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Thompson_(designer) 8 Michael Lech “The Gilkes Family, Marion Best Fabrics and early fabric printing in Australia”, in Australiana August 2005 (reference not checked, from 6) Studio portrait of Marion Hall Best c1936-37 Caroline Simpson Library and Research Collection, Sydney Living Museums MHB/P/56 photographer unknown Marion Hall Best in the courtyard of The Grove Woollahra, Sydney c1952 Caroline Simpson Library and Research Collection, Sydney Living Museums MHB/P/64 photographer unknown