Historical information

As this blotter came with a collection of dockets etc from the Warrnambool Club it is assumed that it was a blotter used at the Club. It comes from the firm of B.H.Altson, a tobacconist, probably a supplier of goods to the Warrnambool Club. Henry Altson, a tobacconist, built an eight-storeyed building in 1903 at the corner of Elizabeth and Collins Streets in Melbourne (on the site of the first brick building in Melbourne). Altson’s tobacconist shop occupied the prime corner position for many years. The Warrnambool Club was a gentlemen’s club established in Warrnambool in 1873 and the Warrnambool Club building in Kepler Street erected in 1877 and the Club still exist.

Significance

This blotter is of some interest as an example of the Melbourne firms patronized by the Warrnambool Club in 1924

Physical description

This is a piece of blotting paper advertising on one side the firm of B.H. Altson, Tobacconists, in Melbourne. It has a calendar for 1924. The printed material is black on a creamy-coloured surface. The blotting paper on the other side has been slightly used (blotted handwriting) There are also some handwritten figures scrawled across the advertisement, the meaning of which is not known.

Inscriptions & markings

‘B.H. Altson Pty Ltd, Tobacconists, Altson’s Corner, Collins Street, Melbourne, Telephone 2076, With Compliments’.