Randwick's boomtime Earlswood for August auction

The trophy home, Earlswood at Randwick, has been listed by lawyers Caroline and Michael Williams.

The residence was built in 1891 for commissioner for stamp duty Richard Johnson.

It boasts frescoes painted in the late 1890s by Italian artist-decorator Augusto Lorenzini, which are touted as the last surviving example of his work in a domestic setting.

Lorenzini, born in Rome in 1852, arrived in Australia in 1883 after working in London and Paris as a decorative artist. His early works included the reliefs on the Pitt Street facade of the GPO.

Lorenzini retreated by the mid-1890s to fruit-growing obscurity at Castle Hill, where he died in 1921. Earlswood's initial restoration was undertaken by the Leal family after they paid $780,000 in 1991.

The Leals sold imposing Ductruc Street house for $1.6 million in 1999 to Hamish and Jane Clark, the proprietors of Pazotti Tiles + Stone, with those sales through then McGrath agents James Dack and Ben Collier.

The Williams family bought the Dutruc Street residence in 2010 for $4.3 million.

They undertook an extensive three year restoration and renovation that included dismantling and rebuilding the ornate verandas with cast iron filigree work.

There been a contemporary wing using steel, glass and marble panels with a north-facing atrium added since the last sale.

It is up for August 26 auction with a guide of $5 million to $5.5 million.