Search results for the tag 'jewellery'

The Paris Exposition Universelle, the Suez Canal and a Gold Sphinx Brooch

November 2022 marks the centenary of the discovery of the virtually intact tomb of King Tutankhamun, who reigned from about 1332 to 1323 BC. The pharaoh’s burial goods created a worldwide sensation focussed on ancient Egypt, which has long fascinated Europeans, partly because of its Biblical connections and p...

1950s souvenir jewellery and art with Indigenous motifs

Finding more examples of the silver brooch with Indigenous motifs that she discussed in our May issue, Christine Erratt delved further into their history. In the National Archives of Australia, Christine uncovered the 1954 design registration applications.
Six different designs, of which five were inspired b...

Splayds – ‘the runcible spoon that captivated the world’

Invented in 1948 and manufactured 'from the early 1950s, Splades or Splayds were a favourite gift for shower teas, weddings and Mothers’ Day in 1960s and 1970s Australia. We were vaguely aware that they might be an Australian innovation, but that wasn’t part of their advertising – they were prom...

Indigenous motifs on a silver brooch

We often recognise Australiana by the presence of motifs depicting Australia’s unique flora and fauna and, especially in the 19th century, representations of Indigenous figures. Anthropologists studied Indigenous people, while the things they made – much of it, what we would describe today as art – were r...

An early Australian mourning brooch

A gold mourning brooch to commemorate the passing of John Hillas in 1847 at Bannaby (or Bunnaby) near Taralga in southern tablelands of NSW is typical of the early Victorian era and many similar pieces come up for sale today (plates 1-2)1. Black enamel surrounds a central glass-covered locket that most likely w...

William Lamborn, gold rush jeweller in colonial Melbourne and his associations with Henry Leopold Wagner and Samuel Peck Woollett

Jillian Dwyer unravels the facts surrounding the place of William Lamborn in the triumvirate of Woollett, Wagner and Lamborn as Victorian gold rush jewellers, refines the dates of their operations, maps the emergence of Lamborn & Wagner as “one of the earliest firms of manufacturing jewellers in Australia,”...

Thomas Wright, Geelong colonial silversmith and jeweller

Thomas Wright (c.1827–1912) may not be a well-known name today, but in early Geelong his shop was a mainstay. As with many other silversmiths and jewellers, little of his work survives, so his name rarely comes up in publications. The recent discovery of a Thomas Wright silver trowel in the Geelong Grammar Sc...

Moreton Bay pearls in Australian jewellery

Australian colonial artists sought to use local materials and to appropriate local motifs in their artworks for several reasons: to reflect the Australian origin of their work, to distinguish it from the art of other nations, and to foster a stronger sense of connection with the country. Moreton Bay pearls are ...

Of frogs, gold bracelets, opals, ladies and queens

John Hawkins speculates about the origin of a massive gold bracelet with cast and chased decoration, mounted with polished Queensland boulder opal, and its possible connections with the colourful discoverers and promoters of late 19th century and early 20th century Queensland opals.

Memories of the South Australian jewellery trade

Len Peterson (1904–1981) began working at Adelaide jewellers S. Schlank & Co in 1919, and was closely associated with them until they closed in 1970. This is an edited version of his reminiscences, compiled between 1976 and 1980 for the Goldsmiths Guild of SA, giving an insight into the 20th-century Australia...

Bling: 19th century goldfields jewellery

Jewellery dealer Anne Schofield, who performed the official opening of the exhibition Bling: 19th century goldfields jewellery at the Museum of Australian Democracy at Ballarat on 16 April, kindly let us publish her address.

George Richard Addis, watchmaker and jeweller: his Victorian and Tasmanian years

George Richard Addis (1864–1937) is best known as one of Western Australia’s leading late 19th- and early 20th-century goldfields jewellers, whose Western Australian work has been documented by Dorothy Erickson.1 Many jewellers however worked in different colonies, and here Michel Reymond records for the fi...

Lady Bowen's Irish harp brooch - a Queensland colonial treasure rediscovered

In our May 2015 issue, Dianne Byrne identified a brooch presented in 1867 to Lady Bowen, wife of Queensland’s first Governor, in a photograph held in the National Library. Further detective work has revealed that the brooch is still held by Lady Bowen’s descendants in England. We illustrate it now for the f...

Lady Bowen's Irish harp brooch - a missing piece of Queensland colonial jewellery

The practice of presenting diplomatic gifts to dignitaries goes back to antiquity. As the much-admired wife of the governor of the colonies of Queensland, New Zealand and Victoria, Diamantina, Lady Bowen received some significant pieces of jewellery and metalwork. These gifts were frequently, and often fulsomel...

Finding Firnhaber treasures

Colonial Australian jewellery is rarely marked with the name of its maker or retailer. Perth jewellery dealer Trevor Hancock sticks his neck out and attributes several pieces to the German-born Adelaide jeweller C. E. Firnhaber, based on stylistic similarities of the works. All of them are illustrated here.

Book Review: Jewels on Queen

In 1970, Anne Schofield opened the first shop in Australia dealing exclusively in antique jewellery (in Queen Street, Woollahra, hence the book title) and has been dealing from there ever since. She is well-known from her appearances at fairs and in the media, for her support foreword which introduces the reade...

Gold Rush jewellers of Melbourne and Dunedin: Wagner & Woollett, Lamborn & Wagner and Wollett and Hewitt

Jewellers William Lamborn, Leopold Wagner and Samuel Woollett all arrived at Melbourne in the first few years after the discovery of gold in Victoria in 1851. Recent research has uncovered new information on these jewellers and their firms – Wagner & Woollett, Lamborn & Wagner and Woollett & Hewitt. The new i...

A Fine Possession: jewellery and identity, Powerhouse Museum Sydney

This spectacular exhibition of jewellery spanning cultures and millennia is billed as the most ambitious jewellery exhibition the Powerhouse Museum (part of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences) has ever staged. With 700 exhibits drawn from public and private collections across Australia, it takes several vi...

Jewellery is for giving

Collectors and Australiana Society members Graham and Elizabeth Cocks will be remembered by a collection of Arts and Crafts jewellery, generously given by their daughters to the Art Gallery of South Australia and the Powerhouse Museum.

Frank Piaggio and Piaggio & McKinlay, watchmakers and jewellers of Perth

The John Watts necklace: a masterpiece of Australian gold jewellery by Christian Ludwig Qwist

Ceremonial maces of Australian universities, part 2

Brilliant postscript: 1850s mounted emu eggs, goldfields jewellery and ... a goldfields cup

Goldfields jewellery

Tasmanian Aboriginal shell necklaces

Italian jewellers in New South Wales

Rediscovered: the Joubert jewel cabinet

Joseph Thomas Sleep: Jeweller, &c. Ballarat

The Elizabeth Rouse Mourning Brooch

Book review: Kenneth Cavill, Graham Cocks and Jack Grace, ‘Australian Jewellers, Gold & Silversmiths - makers & Marks’, C.G.C Gold Pty Ltd, 1992

The Elizabeth Rouse Mourning Brooch

English and the Australian Eastern Colonies' Involvement in Jewellery and Silversmithing in Western Australia

More Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Trade Jewellers in Western Australia

Book review: Kenneth Cavill, Graham Cocks and Jack Grace, 'Australian Jewellers, Gold and Silversmiths - makers and Marks’, C.G.C Gold Pty Ltd, 1992

Sydney Jewellers & Watchmakers in the 1850s

Some Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Trade Jewellers in Western Australia

Book review: Kenneth Cavill, Graham Cocks and Jack Grace, 'Australian Jewellers, Gold and Silversmiths - makers and Marks’, C.G.C Gold Pty Ltd, 1992

Tilbury and Lewis Pty Ltd. Manufacturing Jewellers, Silversmiths and Electronicplaters

Heraldry on Australiana

F. W. Nissen Queensland Manufacturing Jeweller and Watchmaker

Timothy Tillston Jones, Sydney Jeweller: A Biographical Note

W. F. Cole, Manufacturing Jeweller

Book review: Anne Schofield and Kevin Fahy, 'Australian Jewellery 19th and Early 20th Century, by Anne Schofield and Kevin Fahy’, David Ell Press 1990

Queensland Manufacturing and Working Jewellers - 1850-1900

The Jewellery of Aronson and Company, Melbourne

Nineteenth Century Silversmiths and Goldsmiths (Jewellers) of Western Australia

Kozminsky Bicentennial Exhibition Australian Silver Gold & Jewellery - Melbourne 1988

Nineteenth Century Silver & Goldsmiths (Jewellers) of Western Australia - Pearls & Progress. The Emigrants

Nineteenth Century Silver and Goldsmiths (Jewellers) of Western Australia - Swan River Colony. The First Smiths

Nineteenth Century Silver and Goldsmiths (Jewellers) of Western Australia - An Introduction