These dishes document the retail activities of a suburban confectionary shop located in Mosman from 1929 to 1938. Their significance comes from their production and use as ice-cream sundae and banana split dessert dishes. They reveal the popularity of American-style food and drink, like sodas, sundaes and splits, in the 1930s, and the spread of American popular culture. The growth of a local market for these new food types fostered the development of Australian manufacturers of soda fountains, speciality glassware, ice-cream and soda related products.
Confectionary and soda shops were a feature of many Australian towns and suburbs by the 1920s. Since the 1800s coffee palaces, oyster saloons, tea rooms, restaurants and cafes had provided food and drink (often alcoholic), for all from the wealthy to the working person in search of a sixpenny cooked lunch. In the 1910s and 1920s, with temperance campaigns gathering momentum, the confectioner and soda shop represented an affordable, fashionable, refreshing and alcohol-free alternative for women, couples and families. As the precursor of the ubiquitous milk bar, they appeared in city centres and flourished in the many suburban shopping precincts erected in the building boom of the 1920s. Shops like Turner's, which offered consistent quality and service in clean and attractive premises, thrived.
While cafes and restaurants often evinced British or European influences, the soda shop also introduced Australians to modern American-inspired leisure foods such as ice-cream sundaes, banana splits and carbonated drinks, which often contained ice-cream and fruit syrups. As early as 1908, LP Williams opened the 'American Soda Fountain' shop on the Corso at Manly in Sydney. Australians had been exposed to aspects of American popular culture since the mid-1800s. Popular food and drink such as sodas and sundaes were an increasingly important part of this transfer.
In the early 19th century glassmaking changed from a craft to a factory-based process. Pressed, or moulded, glassware was made by adding molten glass to a plain or patterned metal mould. The glass was pressed into the mould using a plunger. A patterned plunger produced a pattern on the internal face of the glass. Moulds enabled manufacturers to produce limitless quantities of identical items.
These sundae or banana split dishes were made of pressed glass, by the Crown Crystal Glass Company of Waterloo, Sydney. Crown Crystal Glass were a major producer of commercial glassware for soda shops, restaurants, and milk bars. Glassware was made for specific purposes such as ice-cream sundae and banana split dishes, and parfait and milkshake glasses. The 1960 Crown Crystal Glass mould order catalogue (see object file A10082) features an identical dish as part of the Soda Fountain Range. It is labelled a banana split dish, model number 2940. This design is believe to have remained the same from the 1920s to the 1960s. These sundae dishes were used at Turner's Confectionary Shop between 1927 and 1938.
Australian Crystal Glass Limited was established in 1915 in Wyndham Street, Alexandria, New South Wales, making pressed and hand blown glass. By 1917 hand blowing had ceased and only pressed continued. From 1922 to April 1926 the company became 'Crystal Glass Ltd' and then in 1926 they amalgamated with Australian Glass Manufacturer's - Crown Glass Works and became known as The Crown Crystal Glass Works Co. Ltd (ref. M. Graham, Australian Glass of the 19th and early 20th Century, p.88). By 1932 The Crown Crystal Glass Co Ltd, was based at Waterloo, and their Trademark resembled that of a 'map of Australia'.
Turner's Confectionary Shop was located at 884 Military Road, Mosman. The shop opened in June 1927, when son Bryan was only 18 months old. Bryan Turner's earliest memory is of being carried into his parent's shop. In the 1920s and 1930s Military Road was a bustling retail area. The Turner's shop offered a mix of eat-in and take-away refreshments, such as ice-cream sundaes, sodas and milkshakes as well as cigarettes and tobacco, to local shoppers and day-trippers.
These sundae dishes were used at Turner's Confectionary Shop between 1927 and 1938. Bryan remembers ice-cream sundaes served in the dishes. Each dish would contain a scoop of Peters brand chocolate, vanilla and strawberry ice-cream, sprinkled with mixed nuts and the customer's choice of a Mynor brand syrup. A banana would often be placed beside the ice-cream. The ice-cream sundae was served with a long-stemmed spoon and wafer biscuits.
Bryan remembers the 'best quality' chocolates displayed at the shop counter and on shelves behind. Customers could buy a wrapped chocolate bar or a bag of confectionary weighed out on a counter scale. The counter housed the carbonator for the soda fountain. It sat next to the Nizer refrigeration unit, which kept the Peters ice-cream cold. The shop's six tables catered for morning and afternoon teas. Milk coffee made from coffee essence, ice-creams, ice-cream sundaes and sodas were also available. The occasional cooked evening meal was prepared for the usherettes from the local cinema, the Kinema Theatre.
Like many shop families the Turner's lived above their premises. At four years old Bryan was already helping to clean the windows and floors. On Sundays Bryan and his brother kept watch for policemen as his parents surreptitiously opened the shop, despite the ban on Sunday trading. The Turner's ran the shop with the help of two live-in female shop assistants. When Bryan was 12 his father left. His mother found it difficult to continue the business on her own, and six months later decided to sell. In May 1938 the business was sold to a Mr Lambert, and the family moved to Collaroy. Bryan's mother kept a small collection of items from the shop, including these three sundae dishes. The dishes were rarely used. Bryan kept the items until donating them to the Museum in 2004.
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