This acquisition documents the craft of wicker work and the gradual development during the second half of the 19th century of an Australian wicker industry manufacturing furniture, baskets, perambulators and other household items. Its significance comes from its association with Ralph Gottliebsen's family company Gold Medal Wicker Works between 1867 and 1996.
Tiodor Gottliebsen emigrated from Germany in 1867 bringing with him his family's wicker making skills and tools and established a business making baskets, furniture and perambulators in Carlton, as part of a growing local industry. He also exhibited his work, winning a gold medal at the 1885 Melbourne Jubilee Exhibition for cane baby prams and furniture. His son Emil Gottliebsen (1879-1966) established a successful business in Norwood Adelaide and won a gold medal for wicker furniture at the 1910 South Australian Exhibition of Manufactures, Arts, Products and Industries. After winning this award Emil Gottliebsen renamed his firm Gold Medal Wicker Works.
Emil's sons, Lance, Norman, Paul and Ralph all worked in the wicker business. In the 1930s Ralph moved to Sydney where he continued to use the name Gold Medal Wicker Works. In 1965 Gottliebsen opened a new shop called Wicker Wonderland. The shop was presented as a showroom and family museum. Gottliebsen decorated the walls with tools, wicker work and photographs illustrating his company's long family history. In 1981, some of these items were incorporated into a display case in the new showroom. A sign proclaimed, 'We are the Oldest Wicker Works in Australia, since 1867 Look Here'. Ralph Gottliebsen's carefully constructed historical display case and photograph album are useful interpretative presentations of the family's business history. Importantly, they are also material evidence of his sense of identity, history and pride in his family's working heritage that extended back before his grandfather Tiodor emigrated from Germany.
Gottliebsen's emphasis on tradition and history in the Leichhardt shop was a clear statement of pride in an identity grounded in a long familial craft tradition. But it was also a marketing strategy. By proclaiming the longevity of the company and the two exhibition awards of 1885 and 1910, Gottliebsen was attempting to compete with the growing influx of cheap Asian imported wicker products.
The collection also documents the transfer of crafts and skills by European migrants to Australia in the nineteenth century.
Ralph Gottliebsen designed this showcase in about 1981 for display in his Wicker Wonderland shop in Leichhardt.
The display case was made by the professional conservator, Neville Corbett. Many of the contents date from earlier in the companies history.
Tiodor Gottliebsen (1850-1895) emigrated from Germany to Melbourne in 1867. He brought with him his family's wicker making skills and tools and established a business making baskets, furniture and perambulators in Carlton. The weaving of cane and grasses already had a long tradition in Australia. Aborigines were adept at the manufacture of baskets and fish traps. After colonisation, Europeans brought their own techniques with them. Cabbage palms around Sydney were extensively used for the manufacture of hats and possibly baskets. Use of indigenous reed and later locally planted exotic willow was common among English and German settlers in South Australia from the 1830s.
A fashionable and practical appreciation for cane and seagrass furniture developed in Australia from the 19th century to the 1960s. These materials were both comfortable in hot climates and adaptable to a range of domestic styles from exotic Orientalist, to colonial, Arts and Crafts and modernist. Large amounts of British and American furniture and prams were imported from the 1880s to the 1930s. The Wakefield Rattan Company from New York, later Heywood Brothers and Wakefield Co., was a also major supplier for the Australian market from the 1880s. The Leicester firm of Dryad exported their modern Arts and Crafts style furniture throughout the British Empire after 1907.
As a further response to local demand, an Australian wicker industry manufacturing furniture, baskets, perambulators and other household items developed gradually in the second half of the 19th century. Willow from Tasmania was used by some manufacturers of basketry. Cane, bamboo and seagrass were imported from China and South East Asia for furniture and prams. J. Lyle and Co. was established in Sydney in 1851 and their wicker furniture, baskets and prams were popular by the 1880s. Tamworth cabinet maker, L.C. Jeans, had diversified his production to include cane work products by the 1880s. H. Pearson of Adelaide was working with cane and wicker in the 1880s. Bridges Brothers were also making baskets in Tasmania in the 1880s.
In the course of establishing the local industry, Australian made wickerwork was regularly featured in colonial exhibitions. German immigrant and South Australian resident, Adolph Gustav Moeser, won an order of merit at the 1887 Adelaide Jubilee International Exhibition for cane chairs. The Dellit family of Melbourne displayed their work in the 1880 International Exhibition in Melbourne.
Tiodor Gottliebsen's business was part of this growing industry. He also exhibited his work, winning a gold medal at the 1885 Melbourne Jubilee Exhibition for cane baby prams and furniture. His son Emil Gottliebsen (1879-1966) established a successful business in Norwood Adelaide, counting among his customers the Governor of South Australia. He won a gold medal for wicker furniture at the 1910 South Australian Exhibition of Manufactures, Arts, Products and Industries. The original certificate for this award forms part of Ralph Gottliebsen's historical display case. After winning this award, Emil Gottliebsen renamed his firm Gold Medal Wicker Works and moved to the outer Melbourne suburb of Moonee Ponds. In 1920 he made a giant wicker floral basket which was presented to Dame Nellie Melba.
Emil's sons, Lance, Norman, Paul and Ralph (born 1910) all worked for their father before and after school. All eventually worked full time in the wicker business. In 1928 Norman and Ralph moved back to Adelaide and formed Gottliebsen Brothers Wicker Workers. In 1930 they moved to Regent Street Redfern, Sydney where Ralph took over from Norman. Norman apparently moved back to Melbourne to continue his father's business until the 1960s. The Moonee Ponds firm was closed down in the early 1970s.
In 1933 Ralph moved from Redfern to 78 Parramatta Road Stanmore and shortly after to 334 Parramatta Road Stanmore where he continued to use the name Gold Medal Wicker Works. The company made cane and seagrass furniture, prams and baskets. Over the following thirty years, Ralph worked here with various wicker workers including his brother Lance and Bernhard Sahm who would later become renowned as a potter. Sahm recalls that Gottliebsen was generally referred to as Joe by his colleagues. Gold Medal Wicker Works also specialised in commissions such as shop displays. In 1936 the firm produced a 12 foot wicker man for Gowings men's wear store. In the early 1950s Bernhard Sahm made a life size wicker bull for Mark Foys china display. Photos of both these appear in Ralph Gottliebsen's photo album.
In 1965 Gold Medal Wicker Works moved to 629 Parramatta Road Leichhardt. Gottliebsen called this shop the Wicker Wonderland. The shop was presented as a showroom and family museum. Gottliebsen decorated the walls with tools, wicker work and photographs illustrating his company's long family history. In 1981, some of these items were incorporated into a display case. A sign proclaimed, 'We are the Oldest Wicker Works in Australia, since 1867 Look Here'. From 1981 Ralph's stepson Noel Brew managed the business. Ralph did not retire until 1985. He died in 1996.
Gottliebsen's emphasis on tradition and history was a clear statement of pride in an identity grounded in a long familial craft tradition. But it was also a marketing strategy. By proclaiming the longevity of the company and the two exhibition awards of 1885 and 1910, Gottliebsen was attempting to compete with the growing influx of cheap Asian imported wicker products. Gold Medal Wicker Works advertising material from the period also emphasised the flimsiness of '95%' of imported products. The firm also began using modern materials such as 'Plasticane', a plastic cane product suitable for baskets and furniture.
Gottliebsen was particularly interested in marketing and business diversification. Under the pseudonym O.R. Scott, he wrote practical guide booklets and pamphlets on wicker work as a means of capitalising on the domestic craft market and fostering an interest in wicker products in the face of declining sales of locally produced wicker items. 'Cane furniture the easy way: how to make wicker furniture and furnishing for the home' was published by Central Press in the 1950s. 'Basketry the easy way: a visual instruction course for the novice and the advanced student' was published in 1959 and 1971 and recorded as a talking book for the Royal Blind Society of New South Wales in 1983. A copy of this recording is included on the blue file. 'Basketry step by step' was published in 1966 and 1969. Two pamphlets, 'Make Lovely Lampshades' and 'Cane Chair Weaving' are included in this collection.
Gottliebsen's other publications included guides to tax, law, business, published by Ure Smith and various popular works on Australian history published by K.G. Murray Publishing. '250 Ways to make a Profit' and 'You and the Law' are included on the blue file.
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