AT THE MUSEUM
DISCOVER UNUSUAL PIECES FOUND IN THE PERMANENT COLLECTIONS OF GALLERIES AROUND THE COUNTRY.
THE VICTORIANS HAD
a gadget for everything, and their imaginations knew no bounds. This perfume-bottle holder, made in about 1875 by an Adelaide silversmith called Henry Steiner, is an outstanding example.
The perfume-bottle holder features a silver tree fern, around the base of which two Indigenous men appear to be fighting and a woman carries a baby on her back. The silver of the Indigenous figures is oxidised to give them a natural appearance. Above the fronds of the fern, probably cast from the genuine article, sits a divided emu egg mounted and decorated with cornucopia in silver. The emu finial serves as a button to open the egg, revealing its contents.
Also mounted in silver, the perfume bottles are made from the seed pods of the Queensland black bean tree, also called the Moreton Bay chestnut (Castanospermum australe), which because of its pretty orange flowers is often grown in gardens and as a street tree. The seed is highly poisonous, so I hope the nuts are lined!
Henry Steiner was born and trained as a silversmith in Germany before immigrating to South Australia in 1858. Like many European silversmiths and jewellers, he came to Australia attracted by the great wealth associated with the gold rushes. Establishing his business in Rundle Street, he was soon one of Adelaide’s most fashionable silversmiths. Steiner’s uniquely Australian silverwork featured Indigenous people and local flora and fauna, and often incorporated natural objects. They remind us of the Germanic tradition of silversmithing when, during the Renaissance, spectacular objects made to impress featured such things as seashells, ostrich eggs and rare pieces of red coral.
The Art Gallery of South Australia has an outstanding collection of the work of South Australian silversmiths. agsa.sa.gov.au