Hall Stand, 1864,1886
Henry Tomlinson
William Kerr Thomson
Samuel Renwick
Cast iron, marble
Height: 221.0cm

This hall stand is an English design of 1864 by Henry Tomlinson of the Bath's Foundry, Rotterdam, Yorkshire. However leading Melbourne Iron merchants, James Mc Ewan and Co imported the basic structure. They changed the applied decoration from cherubs and European motifs to Australian motifs such as Aboriginal heads encircled by ferns, trophies of game, fish and native weapons, a cockatoo, a kookaburra, fern trees and pairs of emus and kangaroos.

The Australian ornamented parts were registered in 1886 by William Kerr Thomson and Samuel Renwick (trading as James Mc Ewan and Co.) under the Colonial Copyright Act of 1869. This antipodean modification was based on the rise of Australian nationalism in the late nineteenth century. During this time there was an increased taste and demand for items decorated with images symbolising Australia such as Australian flora and fauna. Several examples of this hall stand are in public collections.