Missing Links
Who's been sitting in my chair
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Who's been sitting in my chair
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Every item in the Sydney Town Hall Collection has the potential to tell a story, and almost every item is linked to a significant person or event in the history of the city. Some items pose interesting questions about how they came to be in the collection, who might have presented them, or what their association is with Sydney. They are a source of fascination and part of the continuing curatorial research at Sydney Town Hall.
Take for instance, the velvet upholstered chair, embroidered
with the insignia of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, stamped with
the impressed mark of W Hands and Sons Pty Ltd, the letters ER
and the date 1953. On the top of the back rail of the chair is
a metal plate with the number 464. Records indicate that the chair,
believed to have been made for the Coronation of Her Majesty Queen
Elizabeth II, was presented by a Lord Fraser. Who was Lord Fraser?
Was he a guest at the Coronation? How did the chair come to the
Sydney Town Hall?
(Image: Chair, used at the coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Westminster Abbey, 1953 91-002)
A lock of hair
Arguably
the most fascinating item in The Sydney Town Hall Collection
is a
framed lock of hair alongside a hand written letter addressed
to Mrs D Jamieson in Stocksbridge, Edinburgh
My dear Madam,
… I came accidentally upon the enclosed in looking
through some of my papers. I had forgotten that I had promised
to send you what it contains. I do not set much value upon
such relics myself but if you consider it worth keeping as
a curiosity you may depend on its being genuine. I got it
from a lady whose brother was instructed with the despatches
to this country on mourning Bonaparte’s death and if
I mistake not she said that her brother (Major Crockal) had
himself cut the lock from the head of the illustrious dead – Mrs
J joins me in kindest regards to yourself, Miss B and Mr
J.
I am my dear Madam Yours and truly Ned Todd
Balerno 19 March 1940
Is this really a piece of Napoleon's hair? Was the
brother referred to in the letter Captain William Crokat,
who had been with the 20th Regiment from 1819 and attended
the post-mortem examination - and was believed to have made
a sketch of Napoleon on his death bed? And how did it come
to Sydney Town Hall ?
(Image: Letter and lock of hair reputed
to have been cut from Napoleon's head following his death
at Longwood
House on the island of St Helena in
1821 STHC 88-182) |
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Wear and tear
In the early 1970s,
two convict relics were sent to The Lord Mayor of Sydney
by the British Tourist Authority - a section of iron bar
or
railing and a piece of sandstone symbolic of the last piece
of dry land to have been stood on by convicts before embarking
on their long sea voyage to Australia. These items are thought
to have been part of storehouses and vaults on St Katherine's
Dock, London, below Tower Bridge, which are known to have
been built by convicts between 1827 and 1828 prior to their
departure. These relics had been in the possession of descendants
of the family of a convict, Jonathan Forward, whose fortunes
improved enough after serving his sentence in America, for
him to own St Katherine's Dock. Who was Jonathan
Forward? Why did these relics come to Australia?
(Image: Fragment of iron railing from
a vault, St Katherine's Dock, London , 1827-28
STHC 88-085) |
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