Twelth Australiana Virtual Show and Tell Report June 2021

Active Australiana

All reports are on line: https://www.australiana.org.au/news

The VS&T is intended to keep members connected to the Australiana Society and offer members an opportunity to share, inform, discuss, and ask questions about items they hold in their private collections. No item is too grand but also, no item is too modest for inclusion. Our aim is to include the whole scope of collecting Australiana. Reports will be produced as items allow, but our aim is to publish these reports in the months between issues of Australiana to maintain an even flow of Australiana information to members. In viewing the reports, please bear in mind that there are limitations to timber identification when only seeing photographs, so these are, in some cases a “best guess” although other responses have had considerable expertise applied to them.

Alternative hypotheses: Any members who believe that they have better or additional information or alternative hypotheses than those recorded in the reports are invited to please provide them by email to the above address.

Dimensions: Please give the dimensions of the object: height, width and depth in mm or cm. Inherent in the provision of photographs is the non-exclusive right for them to be published by the Australiana Society.

Copyright: Photographs must be owned by the submitter or with clear copyright approval for publication. Photographs ‘lifted’ from the www or other people’s publications cannot be used by the Society without the written permission of the copyright owners.

Photographs: High quality photographs are preferred. However, if you have a problem obtaining decent photographs even poor-quality phone snaps can be used if necessary. We will edit photos to improve them as far as our modest Photoshop skills allow.

New items to [email protected] or [email protected] please.

The editors,

David Bedford Yvonne Barber

1

1. Australian cedar washstand

Mid to last quarter of the 19th century. Size: 102.5 (at the top of the arch) x 68 x 47 cm

An attractive Australian cedar washstand with a lovely voluptuously curved gallery and shaped lower shelf. The centre drawer is a dummy, though the two side ones open, which may indicate that the maker had intended to fit a centre cut-out for a basin but changed their mind, or else the customer wanted a solid top, which makes for a much more flexible and useful item. Dating an item like this is not as simple as it might seem because bedroom furniture was little illustrated in fine furniture books. The serpentine front of the lower shelf suggests late C19th, and the curvaceous back is similar to that seen in built in furniture of an 1888 house this editor once owned in Hobart. However, it could potentially be much earlier so comments from knowledgeable members are always welcome if they have a different opinion.

2

2. Australian cedar boot rack and boot lace pulls

C 1860. Size: 103 x 61 x 30 cm

Early boot lace pulls

This delightful cedar boot rack comes with a great provenance as it was owned by Elvy Stewart ‘The Pines’ Ingleburn and was included in the Keith Oakey Collection Sale in May 2010. Many country houses would have had similar functional items to store the family boots. The aesthetic of the times also dictated that they had to be elegant, which makes them useful accessories today. Large boots had long laces, so the pulls were also an essential part of the life of boot-wearing population, though they are not commonly seen today with our emphasis on comfortable footwear. The first elastic-sided boots were made for Queen Victoria in 1837. The innovative boot was invented by London shoemaker Joseph Sparkes Hall and presented to the Queen. Sparkes Hall created the design to do away with the difficulties of fastening boots with buttons and laces,1 however, they took some time to catch on for the general public. RM Williams elastic-sided boots would have aided the reduction in the number of laced boots in Australia after he began making them in 1932.

1 https://shoenvious.com/editorial/14-fun-facts-about-shoes

3 3. Advertising on matchbox cover

1928. Erratt and Co. Limited of Walcha advertising. Size: 6 x 4 x 2 cm

Although in a poor state, this 1928 metal matchbox cover reveals a line of advertising used in that era for customers of a local store in Walcha NSW. Matches were used for many purposes and what an effective way of having your customers see your store’s name frequently. Smoking was extremely common then and although it has been hard to ascertain the percentage of smokers in Australia at that time, records are available for 1945 when 72% of the male population and 26% of the female population were considered to be smokers. Pipe smoking was the most common means of tobacco consumption in the nineteenth century. The habit of chewing plug tobacco, unlike in America, was never more than a minority behaviour in Australia. The cigarette became ubiquitous in the trenches in WWl during which 60% of tobacco donated to Allies on the Western front as part of their rations arrived in the form of cigarettes. During the 1920s the attitudes towards smoking among women changed and their smoking changed from being clandestine to being more open and public. George Hope Erratt (1835-1904) migrated to from Thriplow, Hertfordshire, England in 1854. He worked initially at David Jones and then at Wolfe and Gorrick, merchants and importers, at West Maitland. He arrived in Walcha in 1863 and had purchased the Walcha Warehouse by the end of 1864. He built a family home, still standing today, and in 1887 established a new general store. One of his sons, Charles Henry Erratt (1871-1967) took over the running of the store after his father’s death in 1904. It was Charles who would have commissioned the matchbox covers to be made and distributed to customers. Charlie, as he was known, attributed his long life to daily morning exercises and high protein meals. He was a chain smoker and used three pipes - one he was smoking, one cooling off and the other filled ready for use. This helps explain the enthusiasm for commissioning bespoke matchbox covers.

4 4. Pottery jug

1949. Martin Boyd pottery jug. Size: 7 high, base 4 diam., body 7 diam. at widest, cm

Guy Martin à Beckett Boyd (1923-1988), sculptor and potter, was born in Melbourne. A committed pacifist, he was posted in 1944 to the 103rd Convalescent Depot, Ingleburn, New South Wales, to teach pottery to the patients. Taking up a Commonwealth Reconstruction Training Scheme grant, Boyd enrolled in 1945 at the East Sydney Technical College, where he studied sculpture under Lyndon Dadswell. In 1946 at Neutral Bay, he founded a commercial pottery which, confusingly, he called the Martin Boyd Pottery. With moderate prices, functional designs and Australian decorative motifs, his products were popular with post-war homemakers. The Daily Telegraph reported sales at the War Widows’ Craft Guild shop in Rowe St Sydney soared during October 1949. The chief attraction for tourist buyers and people buying for overseas gifts was the original aboriginal pottery pieces by Martin Boyd. Martin Boyd pottery was also used in the Australia Room of the P & O liner Himalaya. In December 1950 the same newspaper carried an article on the pottery. It recorded that Artists Guy Martin Boyd, Mrs Norma Flegg and her husband Len Flegg were partners in the business. Because of lack of storage space, they moved in early 1951 to a former bakehouse in Ryde, situated in two acres of bushland in historic Buffalo Creek.

The Daily Telegraph enthused: Ten artists, all women, including Dora Jarrett and Margaret Chambers, devise and paint the designs in special ceramic stains. They use as tools any instrument from the orthodox paint brush to porcupine quills and metal meat skewers. Other girls, working as fettlers, prepare the pottery to be 5 decorated by cleaning the rough surface of each piece, and when required, making and moulding handles. The clay and most of the pigments used are produced in Australia, Martin Boyd pottery is available in simple, everyday designs, as well as in attractive, imaginative patterns, simple cottage scenes decorating jugs, bowls and heavy platters, and simple animal drawings on lots of his other pottery. The range consists of nearly 100 lines, which include dozens of single pieces such as egg cups, ash trays, and plates, as well as bookends, coffee sets, and 43-piece luncheon sets.

Guy Boyd sold the business in 1952. He returned to Melbourne where he started his second commercial venture called Guy Boyd Pottery, which continued until 1964 when he commenced his full-time career as a sculptor. 5. Memorabilia from Sydney’s past

Mid-1933. Black and white photograph - The Roycroft Book Shop and Art Shop 27 Rowe Street, Sydney. Size: 16.5 x 10.2 cm

This mid-1933 rare photograph of the interior of The Roycroft Book Shop and Art Shop shows the owner, Mrs Frances Zabel (1868-1933), holding a book (on the rhs). There are three staff members behind the counter (L to R) Edeline Dalgleish, Helen Parker, and Patricia (?). The Roycroft was initially at No. 11 and later at No. 27 Rowe Street, Sydney. Mrs Zabel owned The Roycroft from 1923 until her death on 30 August 1933. She had moved the bookshop into Rowe Street in 1925. Much has been recorded about The Roycroft and other businesses in Rowe Street, Sydney. An Angus & Robertson 1947 publication, Tales of Rowe Street, by Margaret Mary Pearson takes a delightful look at all the shops in Rowe Street at that time and conjures up well its artistic and bohemian atmosphere. Rowe Street was a famous narrow street that connected to Castlereagh Street, just south of Martin Place. Originally named Brougham Place, it was re-named for NSW architect Thomas Rowe in 1875. It was well-known for its boutique stores, studios and cafes and frequented by Sydney’s artisans and cosmopolitan cultures. In the late 1940s, the humourist Bernard Hesling described Rowe Street as a “purl in the plain Sydney Pattern of the Pitt Street-Martin Place square – a quaint little byway that survives as a Continental memory.”

6 It was eventually demolished in 1971-1972 to make way for the then new MLC Centre and now lacks any of its former character.

Signage from The Roycroft

6. Memorabilia from the Hotel Australia, Castlereagh Street, Sydney

Another Sydney landmark that made way for the new MLC Centre was the Hotel Australia, which was demolished in 1971-1972.

Martin Place in the 1950s. The second building on the left with the ‘modern’ twin-wings is the Australia Hotel. Photographic Collection from Australia -View c

7

Duraline brand chinaware dish bearing the Hotel Australia crest. Size: 2 x 7.6 diam. cm

This item, possibly a butter dish, was part of the chinaware made expressly for the Hotel Australia by Gibsons & Paterson Pty Ltd. It is stamped with the Company’s name and “Duraline” Super/Vitrified/ Grindley/ Hotelware Co/ England. It also bears the numbers 12-50. Sir laid the foundation stone for the Hotel Australia in 1889 and the opening two years later was performed by the French actress Sarah Bernhardt. The Dictionary of Sydney states: Opened in 1891, the Hotel Australia was one of Sydney’s finest establishments, providing high quality accommodation, dining and entertainment to some of the city’s most distinguished visitors and residents. An extension was built in the 1920s … with entrances from Castlereagh Street, Martin Place and Rowe Street.

Editor: Duraline Grafton China & Sons, England distributed by Gibsons and Patersons Pty Ltd was also used at the Australia Hotel. There are at least two hotel china patterns as shown below: one in blue (1940) from before the war featuring the Hotel's trademark map of Australia and the more elaborate, (1955) multi-coloured post-war map pattern with scrolls and a banner. The map of Australia does not include the state of Tasmania; it was very common to leave them out of badges, maps etc., in those days. In 2002, this pattern was also used by at least one restaurant on the north coast of New South Wales.

A 1935 advertisement for the hotel is an interesting piece of self-promotion.

8

Travel magazine advertisement ~ July 1935

9 7. Sterling silver trophy spoon

Circa 1950-1955. Sterling silver trophy spoon made by Jamie Linton (1904-1980) for Cottesloe Golf Club, WA. Size: 11.1 x 2.2 cm, 12.3 g (bowl length is 3.2 cm)

Well-known WA silversmith, James Alexander Barrow (Jamie) Linton, established his own workshop, Linton Silver, in Perth c1938. He entered a business partnership with George Lucas in 1966 and retired from that partnership in 1976. Prior to establishing his own workshop, he had studied in Australia and abroad and then worked in his father’s silversmithing business in Perth. His business produced silverware prolifically. He received commissions from many sources some of which were local golf clubs. Spoons for such clubs were frequently made as trophy spoons and awarded to members. This trophy spoon bears the initials of the Cottesloe Golf Club (CGC) on its finial. Other similar spoons were made by Linton for the Western Australian Golf Club, the Royal Fremantle Golf Club, Lake Karrinyup Country Club, and Mt Lawley Golf Club amongst others. The finial of the spoon is cast; the bowl has a hand-beaten surface decoration to give an attractive textured finish; and Linton’s maker’s marks are stamped on the rear of the stem of the spoon. The marks are: JAL (his initials); ST. SILVER to indicate sterling silver purity of the metal; and a replica of a gumnut and two gum leaves within a rectangular outline. Jamie’s son, John, has confirmed that this spoon would have been made between 1950 and 1955. Contemporary newspapers confirm that Linton spoons were a popular prize for golf competition, especially for the ladies. For example, the Beverley Times (WA) 27 Aug 1948 p 8 wrote “Mrs. A. L. Oliver was successful in the associates stroke competition for a Linton spoon conducted on Sunday afternoon.” Jamie’s granddaughter, Bethamy Linton, is carrying on some of the Linton silversmithing traditions. As far as trophy spoons are concerned, she has current commissions for Lake Karrinyup Country Club and Melville Glades Golf Club.

10 8. Dolls House candlesticks

First half of the C20th. Mulga wood turned candlesticks. Size: 5 cm high.

Their size would classify these as doll’s house furniture, when compared to apprentice pieces or children’s furniture, which would be larger. The finish on these is a typical example of the man-made lacquers that replaces shellac in that period. It would have been a spray-applied finish, which sped up the finishing process and therefore led to production efficiency. Unfortunately, those lacquers were too hard and inflexible so that they cracked with age and chipped if the item was dropped. They have since been replaced with different synthetic finishes for production items like these and indeed most contemporary furniture, although the longevity of those replacements is still unproven. Mulga (Acacia aneura) is widespread in the drier parts of Australia and is one of those relatively few timbers where the sapwood (yellow) is resistant to pinhole borer (lyctid beetle) attack. That allows the use of smaller pieces of timber as mulga does not usually attain great girth and also gives an attractive two-tone figure.

11 9. 1827 penny

An 1827 British King George IV Penny Size: 2.9 diam. cm, 91 g.

Obverse: Laureate head of King George lV facing left. The surrounding legend reads: GEORGIUS lV DEI GRATIA, with the date (1827) below. Reverse: Britannia seated facing right, holding a trident, hand resting on a shield. The surrounding legend reads: BRITANNIAR: REX FID: DEF, with a rose, thistle, and shamrock below. Composition: Copper. Edge: Plain. Minted: London, England

It is widely believed that the entire mintage of the 1827 British penny was struck for circulation in Australia, in particular, for use in Tasmania. In H A Shannon’s Evolution of the Colonial Exchange Standard, published in 1951, Shannon states: The evolution of the monetary and exchange system that has come to be known as the Sterling area dates back to a time when almost all the territories outside Great Britain and Ireland in which this system operates were British colonial dependencies. The Sterling currency area originated in a Treasury Minute of 1825 concerned with the payment of British troops in the Colonies. Their pay was fixed in Sterling, and the Treasury sought to tidy up its administration and its conversion into local currencies. At the same time, the Minute was in part a sequel to the reform of the English monetary system itself after the Napoleonic Wars, particularly the full adoption of gold as the standard and of silver as token money. Until 1825 Britain had never supplied any of its own currency to its colonies. They had been left to fend for themselves and to pick up and use what other money they could find. It was decided to pay the troops abroad in sterling silver and copper coins and to introduce these coins into the colonies. Research in 2014 by Tasmanian numismatist Roger McNeice has contributed a great deal to our knowledge of the path that a consignment of 1827 pennies took from the Royal Mint in London to Tasmania. On page 25 of his book Colonial Coins of Tasmania (1803 - 1876), McNeice includes the following research: In 1826 a shipment of copper coins, mainly pence, halfpence and farthings was sent to the colony and then on 1 May 1827, £2,000 in copper coins was despatched from the Royal Mint to shipping agent W. Lush for shipment to Van Diemen's Land. The shipment comprised of £900 in Pence, £735 in halfpence and £365 in Farthings. At 240 pence to the pound, it amounted to 216,000 pennies. On 9 October 1827, the Transport ship 'Layton', John H. Luscombe, Commander (448 Tons) with 152 12 male prisoners from Portsmouth arrived at Hobart Town. The Colonial Times recorded "She brings £10,000 of British silver and £2,000 of copper and other stores for the Government here.”

The wear on this coin is typical of a coin of this date found in Tasmania. It is not unreasonable to accept the viewpoint that Britain had sought to have a special mint of coins for the colonies, and this is how an 1827 London Mint copper penny was found here in Australia. An interesting souvenir of our colonial past.

10. Australian sculptor in action

C 1960. Colour photograph of SA Artist John Dowie creating what appears to be a larger-than-life- sized clay bust of the sitter, Tim Langdon, at Jay Creek Mission NT. John Stuart Dowie (1915-2008) is best known for his sculptures but is also widely known as an artist. One of four children, he was born in Prospect, Adelaide in South Australia, and from the age of two, lived the rest of his life in the family home in Dulwich in Adelaide. During WWII Dowie worked in the Military History Unit of the Australian Imperial Forces, as an assistant to Australia's official war sculptor Lyndon Dadswell. As a soldier, he was one of the Rats of Tobruk. After studying art in London and Florence, Dowie returned to Australia. His work includes over 50 public sculpture commissions, including the “Three Rivers” fountain in Victoria Square, “Alice” Rymill Park, the “Victor Richardson Gates” Adelaide Oval and the “Sir Ross & Sir Keith Smith Memorial” at Adelaide Airport. He was nominated for Senior Australian of the Year in 2005, and was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1981 in recognition of service to the arts as a sculptor and painter. The sitter, Tim Langdon, a Warlpiri man from Yenmundu (Yuendumu), was also known as Kunmanalda and Japananka. His great grandson, Jamie Hampton, is the indigenous officer of the South Australian State Library and is keen to learn of the location of the sculpture.

Editor comments

A summary of our investigation is printed below. We have not been able to locate the Tim Langdon sculpture by John Dowie and would welcome information from members. If anyone is aware of its whereabouts, please contact the Secretary ([email protected]).

13 Sales record for Dowie Sculptures Records we have been able to find indicate that 193 sculptures were offered for sale since 1975 and 173 of those were sold. There is no record of a sale for the Tim Langdon bust. The highest price paid was $16,500 in 2001 at Theodore Bruce auctions for Panning for Gold. Recorded sales of John Dowie sculptures indicate that he sculpted other first nations people, possibly at the same time as Tim Langdon at Jay Creek (e.g. Aboriginal woman 1969).

14