Lena May (Maisie) Fornari (1904-1980)

Lena May (Maisie) Fornari was born at Fitzroy, the daughter of Melbourne doctor Alfred Charles Yelland and his wife Maybelle Lyons. Little is known of her early life, except that she travelled to Asia several times in the 1920s and 1930s and ran a gifts and artware shop in the city.

After her father’s death in 1926, Maisie and her mother moved to South Yarra where her mother ran a guesthouse. During these years, it is believed that Maisie worked as an interior designer.

Maisie married Italian fashion designer Pierre Fornari in 1942. The couple settled briefly in Frankston where Maisie became interested in the development of a children’s library. In 1948 they travelled to England where she studied the latest trends in furnishings and the decorative arts while Pierre visited the famous fashion houses of Europe. A return visit to Europe in 1954 intensified Maisie’s interest in interior design.

Maisie had a long-held interest in art and art history. Her father was a well-known collector of Victorian tokens and was one of the first speakers at a Historical Society of Victoria meeting in August 1910. She joined the RHSV in 1967, shortly after her husband’s death. In 1972 she was appointed its honorary conservator, bringing her skill and expertise to the conservation and restoration of the Society’s works on paper, many of which were in such poor condition that it was thought they were beyond repair.

As well as her work as conservator, Maisie and her sister Jean Gray made many generous gifts to the Society, including their father’s token collection and other Yelland family material.

Her volunteering ended in 1979 when she became ill. She died in September 1980 aged 75.

Kaleidoscope exhibition text by Cheryl Griffin, February 2022. Full entry to follow.