W. Bartleet & Sons fishing tackle display box
Date1887-1890
Object number00055442
NameDidactic display box
MediumTimber, glass, metals, hemp, silk, paper, leather, ink, gold
DimensionsOverall: 1345 × 1375 × 187 mm
ClassificationsDecorative and folk art
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum Collection gift from Christine Fraser
DescriptionA decorative glass-fronted timber display box of fishing tackle made by W Bartleet & Sons, Redditch, England. It features an array of recreational and industrial fishing tackle including hooks, flies, lures, lines, harpoons, hooks, chain and needle palms, arranged in taxonomic groups.
All groups are identified with paper Bartleet 'Archer' trademark labels adhered to the backing board. Amidst this mass of hooks and detailed metal flies sit eight gold medals awarded to W Bartleet & Sons for first prize and first order of merit at the various late 19th century trade exhibitions around the colonies where Bartleet's decorative and promotional works were displayed - the Adelaide Jubilee International Exhibition of 1887, the Centennial International exhibition in Melbourne, 1888 and the 1888 Sydney International Exhibition.
HistoryThis display box of fishing tackle includes all manner of gear from hooks and the smallest of flies for personal recreational and river use to the comparatively crude shapes of the industrial scale steel harpoons and chained hooks for hunting sharks in the harbour and off the coastline. A symbol of the importance of fishing to the early colony of Sydney.
Originally crafted in Redditch England by prominent needle manufacturer W Bartleet & Sons, this display box was exhibited in the commemorative international trade exhibitions held around the colony in the late 1880s. It boasted of the prowess of manufacture in the range of fishing equipment on offer, the gold medals of exhibition wins taking pride of place. Afterwards it was displayed for some years in the oyster rooms and fishing tackle and bait business of immigrant Danish sailor Frederick Christensen in George St, the Rocks, Sydney.
Christensen’s premises would have been a busy focal point for mercantile life with ships, crews, passengers, wharf workers, merchants, traders and travellers coming and going all day, every day. All needed feeding and supplies.
From 1875 Christensen appears in Sands directories as an oyster dealer and fishmonger, among 25 in the city’s streets. When Christensen established his business in the early 1870s the new fish market had opened at Woolloomooloo Bay, and he maintained a close commercial relationship with it. He owned boats and advertised hauls of fresh prawns, ‘prawns alive’ and bait frequently in the Sydney Morning Herald.
In 1890 Christensen’s of 151 George St North was named as the place to go for specialised equipment and proper hooks for shark fishing in ‘A day’s sharking at Sydney heads’ in The Illustrated Sydney News. Described as ‘A sport for Emperors’ the party caught species including blue pointer, grey nurse and tiger sharks with hook, harpoon and lance. In the 1880s day-tripper saltwater fishing parties for shark and snapper were growing in popularity and Christensen was involved in such excursions, selling tickets, Bartleet hooks and tackle, and the bait. A true one-stop-shop.
SignificanceThe fishing display box was displayed by Frederick Christensen, a Danish able seaman who established a fishing tackle supply business to which he added oyster supper rooms in the 1880s, feeding the community of locals and visiting sailors. His rooms were in Sussex Street and in the 1880s in the hub of maritime commerce, George Street the Rocks. This work was displayed in his rooms and has strong local significance to the history of the Rocks and colonial Sydney as an artefact of fishing, leisure and industry, and feeding the growing population. 
O Mustad & Sön
1945 - 1999
