CALL FOR INFORMATION – Tasmanian Shell Necklaces

SNRN (Shell Necklace Research Network) is seeking information from within the Tasmanian community and further afield in regard to:

1. Any information at all in regard to 19th Century colonial and early 20th Century shell necklace making in Tasmania;

2. To complement the information available in regard to ABORIGINAL makers, the SNRN is looking for information about NON-ABORIGINAL makers in Tasmania such as:

• Arthur Robert Butterfield – watchmaker, jeweller and optician at 51 Elizabeth Street, Hobart circa 1898 – click here for more information;
  
• Mrs Mary Maria Martin (MM The Senior & nee Alexander of L’ton) and specifically information about her Factory(?) at 65 Cascade Road, Hobart – 1875 … shop(?) at 75 Collins Street Hobart from about 1906 until 1908 – her husband Thomas Daniel was reported ass being a tanner? ... M M Martin (MM The Senior) died 1924 aged 79
• Frederick Charles Martin (MM’s son) who it seems ran a branch factory in Honolulu, Hawaii – dates unknown;
• J J Martin (Joseph John & MM’s son) was a jeweller at 83 Collins Street Hobart and possibly in Zeehan at sometime;
• 'Bertie' J May, travel goods and souvenir manufacturer (jewellery & shell necklaces?) – Hobart cica 1946, 1948
• Mary May Martin (MM The Younger) and Ellen Martin who in 1927 were trading as M M Martin & Co, shell manufacturers – Mary May Martin (MM The Younger) died – 13 Nov. 1933, aged 51 – Ellen Ida Martin died in August 1969 and seems Ida had continued to trade until 1948 and possibly into the 1950s;
• Miss Stewart who had a jewellery shop on Brisbane St. in Launceston and it seems she traded in shell necklaces into the 1950s along with other businesses on or near Brisbane St.
  

3. To identifying collectors and collections of shell necklaces in Tasmania and elsewhere outside the TMAG, QVMAG and other public collections throughout Australia.

Very little is known about the people making shell necklaces in Tasmania in the 19th C and early 20th C and less is known about their necklace making. However, it seems that given the scale of production that these makers seemed to be involved in, Tasmanian shell necklaces coming to light at auctions, estate clearances and more recently on eBAY, are quite likely to have been made by a non-Aboriginal maker – 1880 – 1950s(?).

Interesting Information:

• It seems that shell necklaces made in Tasmania/Hobart were marketed internationally(?) as “Hobart Necklaces” – possibly this was the basis of ‘The Martin Family’s enterprise??
• The ‘maireneer’ shells (misunderstood as mariner of seaman connections) are being described as that on eBay currently and somewhat surprisingly. They have been known as that in the wider Tasmanian community for about 10 years but not so widely. However, it is a word that has never lost its currency in the Aboriginal community;
  
• It seems that some people in Tasmania made shell necklaces on their "summer holidays at the coast on wet and windy days” in the 1950s and conceivably before that too – and maybe since?
• Shell necklaces are quintessential exemplars of ‘TASMANIANA’ along with Huon Pine, Tasmanian Tigers, etc.
• It was thought that Tasmaniana included “apple seed necklaces” (some even considered the possibility of Aboriginal people making them) BUT it turns out that there are NO APPLE SEED NECKLACES, rather they are IPIL SEED ( the seed of a kind of tropical acacia) necklaces and made in the Philippines – many of which were imported into Tasmania as “hippy beads” (?) in the 1970s. ... click here for more information
  

Any information confirming information above OR information to the contrary would be welcomed by the network.

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Contact information – eMail: shellnecklaces@7250.net