Object
Production date
1937-1950
Country
England
State/Province
Staffordshire
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Object detail
Description
Dinner plate, earthenware, cream glaze with royal blue transfer ornament around the rim, maker's label underneath. Made for Rowes Cafe in Brisbane.
Classification
DOMESTIC EQUIPMENT Food & Drink Consumption Crockery plate, dinner
Production date
1937-1950
Production place
Measurements
Dia.254 mm
Media/Materials description
Ceramic
Signature/Marks
PROPERTY OF \ Rowes Café \ BRISBANE
DUNN BENNETT & CO. LTD, \ BURSLEM, \ ENGLAND.
DUNN BENNETT & CO. LTD, \ BURSLEM, \ ENGLAND.
History and use
This plate is an example of the specific ceramic tableware produced in Staffordshire, England for the highly successful Rowes Café in Brisbane which operated at 235 Edward Street from 1903 into the 1960s. Large dining establishments often had ceramic tableware produced using designs specifically recognisable as belonging to the venue. Other fragments of vessels with this distinctive pattern have been recovered from archaeological excavations undertaken at one of Brisbane’s earliest landfill dump sites at Dutton Park, now the site of the Eleanor Schonell Bridge.
The Rowes Café was originally situated in Queen Street and operated by Minna Rowe. In 1903, when her son William Effy took the lease on the 1885-built Rowes Building she moved her catering operations there. By 1909 the establishment had a ground floor dining room with seating for 380 guests. The café was a popular and well-known Brisbane establishment for more than 60 years, hosting afternoon teas, luncheons, dinners and private functions. It also provided musical entertainment and had an attached garden in which to escape from the ‘crush and bustle of crowded streets into a cool and pleasant retreat’ (Brisbane Courier 22 December 1905).
In 1958 part of the original café was converted to an arcade of shops. The name Rowe is still recognisable today in the original Rowes Building which housed the café and in Rowes Arcade, the shopping arcade at the same location.
Uploaded to the Web 27 May 2011.
The Rowes Café was originally situated in Queen Street and operated by Minna Rowe. In 1903, when her son William Effy took the lease on the 1885-built Rowes Building she moved her catering operations there. By 1909 the establishment had a ground floor dining room with seating for 380 guests. The café was a popular and well-known Brisbane establishment for more than 60 years, hosting afternoon teas, luncheons, dinners and private functions. It also provided musical entertainment and had an attached garden in which to escape from the ‘crush and bustle of crowded streets into a cool and pleasant retreat’ (Brisbane Courier 22 December 1905).
In 1958 part of the original café was converted to an arcade of shops. The name Rowe is still recognisable today in the original Rowes Building which housed the café and in Rowes Arcade, the shopping arcade at the same location.
Uploaded to the Web 27 May 2011.
Associated person
Registration number
H1629
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