R A Fredman

In several Australiana articles John Hawkins identified the influence of traditional regional British styles in Australian colonial furniture. Germanic traditions in some South Australian and Queensland furniture are well known. Now Bob Fredman explores how we can identify Tasmanian furniture. Ideally, we would start by identifying pieces with Tasmanian maker's marks and extrapolate, but these are rare. Analysing specific pieces of furniture, admittedly of unproven origin, he hypothesises that several stylistic elements are typically Tasmanian. To test his theory, we encourage readers to submit evidence of marked pieces sharing these features, which may help us recognise furniture of Tasmanian manufacture (or not).

Most collectors of anything have a small table or two, useful to hold your tea, coffee or wine within reach while you relax in an old-fashioned easy chair. Avid collector Bob Fredman takes us through the several different styles made in Australia over a hundred years, and highlights the importance of the technical innovations and changes in materials in the 1930s.

Those of us with collections of brown furniture sometimes brighten up our display space with art, pottery or ceramics. Bob Fredman takes us through another option, decorative kerosene lamps, some of which were made in Australia. They are very interesting in their own right and when hung or placed in the right situation they can add some colour and character to a room.

Collector Bob Fredman relates a recent project – identifying, cleaning and restoring a nondescript terracotta garden urn,covered in house paint, with links to Brisbane and the early European settlers of the Sunshine Coast hinterland.

Acanthus leaves have been used as decoration in buildings, furniture and pottery since the birth of western architecture. They were often a decorative feature on Australia’s early Neo-Classical furniture until the advent of Australian themes towards the end of the 19th century. Bob Fredman discusses the use of acanthus motifs by Australian artisans and concludes with some information about an interesting piece of pottery.

We encourage lively, informed discussion about items of Australiana. Contributions to this magazine usually give the author’ s email address, so readers can initiate contact and give feedback. As a result of readers’ correspondence and questions, Bob Fredman has now modified some of the information he presented, and the conclusions he reached, about an early chest of drawers that featured in our issue of February 2024.

Bob Fredman brings some country humour to discussing the design inspiration of a chair discovered in Brisbane, made of Queensland timbers, which also displays Egyptian design elements. He suggest it was probably made in Queensland and inspired by the finding of Tutankhamun’s tomb at Luxor in 1922.

Bob Fredman suggests old picture frames as another area of affordable and rewarding collecting. As well as being potentially useful, these nostalgic items often have an interesting story to tell, as Bob demonstrates with these examples, all found in Queensland.

From the foundation of the colonies, local cabinetmakers experimented with using the wide range of native timbers. Bob Fredman discusses a chest of drawers, most likely made about 1900 in Bundaberg, Queensland and probably by a local cabinet maker of Germanic heritage, who liked to use contrasting timbers with unusual figure patterns.

When furniture or crib board collecting becomes too hard, because of either their cost or scarcity or both, the average Australiana collector can turn to drinks trays. They can turn to drinks too, but this article is just about the trays.

British and Irish emigrant craftsmen working in early colonial New South Wales and Tasmania brought with them the Classical Revival style, with its sweeping curves and carved decoration. This elegant furniture, mostly in cedar, and inspired by the re-discovery of ancient civilisations, has many admirers. Bob Fredman discusses how he re-covered a Tasmanian Classical Revival cedar sofa, and some of the difficult decisions he had to make in the process.

Since opening an art gallery last year that includes a display of early cedar furniture, Bob Fredman has been fascinated to see that the furniture strikes a strong chord with nearly all visitors. They unfailingly comment on it being beautiful, and especially take an interest when they find out it is all Australian. Keen to understand more of this phenomenon, here he attempts to provide an explanation. Hence it is not so much an exciting research paper as it is a compendium of facts, observations and thoughts.