Established in Glen Innes in 1886, Kwong Sing & Co was more than a store — it was a sensory experience. Visitors were met with the clatter of horse-drawn carts, the aroma of sawdust on wooden floors, the soft chime of tonic bottles and coins against shop counters. The emporium supplied everything from medicines and […]
A grand house deserves fancy furniture. Perhaps that’s why James Martin Hillhouse Taylor (c1814-1875) purchased this elaborate dining chair and ‘grandmother’ chair in about 1849 – to furnish his new residence in Morpeth. As a shipping agent for the Hunter Valley Steam Navigation Company, with a profitable side business selling spirits and other goods, Taylor […]
Seated at this elegant desk, Irishman John Hayes (c. 1861-1934) shuffled his papers, dipped his pen into his inkwell and meticulously inscribed his accounting records in his ledger books. In 1907, Hayes had been appointed as auditor to the Morpeth Borough Council and quickly proved to be thorough and reliable, spending countless hours at this […]
Each time the last few drops of tacky, golden liquid dribbled out of this one-gallon (3.8 litre) copper jar, the French polisher at J.G. White’s furniture manufactory in Morpeth filled it again with methylated spirits. Then, carefully measuring out a pound (450 grams) or two of dry amber coloured shellac flakes, he emptied them into […]
After returning home each evening, weary from work, Morpeth furniture craftsman Joseph George White (1822-1912) probably followed the fashion of his fellow Victorian era gentlemen. Retreating to a quiet room in his home after dinner, he probably put on a smoking jacket and this smoking cap. But did he then light up a pipe and […]
The steam engine hummed and clanged to a steady beat and the machines buzzed and whizzed. Fine sawdust scented the air and coated every surface. From the 1860s, J.G. White’s furniture factory in Morpeth was equipped with all the newly invented, thoroughly modern power tools, saving countless hours of laborious hand sawing and carving. It […]
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