The Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection, located at the Mint in Sydney, hosts a number of semi-permanent and temporary displays. The displays focus on and highlight aspects of the Library's collection, which broadly covers the history of house and garden design and interior furnishing in New South Wales. The image galleries below provide a taste of the library's past and present displays.

More examples of collection items can be accessed via the Library's extensive collection databases: the Library catalogue, Pictures catalogue and Museum collections catalogue.

• Current display
• Past displays

Current display

Art Nouveau display
Wednesday 14 March 2012 — Friday 13 July 2012

Chip-carving is a woodcarving technique in which geometric patterns are incised into timber surfaces. On display is a wonderful example of this craft - a demountable occasional table, produced in Melbourne around 1902 by English-trained emigrant carpenter George Stevenson Liggins (1874–1907), together with tools used for chip-carving, a manual and a pattern book showing chip-carving designs.

Find out more about the Chip-carving display

The Crown Crystal Glass company was a Sydney-based manufacturer of lighting and all types of domestic glassware. The lights featured in this display were used in the lounge room of a house, built in 1950, in the Sydney suburb of Epping.

Find out more about Crown lighting

Making rag or hooked rugs became a popular pastime in Australia and many other Western countries during the 1920s and 30s. Rugs were often made from scraps of fabric, worn pieces of clothing and other recycled textiles.

Find out more about rag rugs

Encaustic tiles are a type of tile that is inlaid with a decorative pattern. They were first used in Medieval churches but are commonly found on verandahs of mid-19th to early 20th century Australian houses - they are usually laid alongside plain geometric tiles that together form a tessellated pattern.

Find out more about encaustic tiles