Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum and Village
Container - Glass Bottle, W T Rawleigh, 1920s
... rawleigh's furniture polish...label of Rawleigh's Furniture Polish... ocean road bottle rawleigh's furniture polish furniture polish ...
W.T. Rawleigh's & Co. manufactured various household products in a factory in Collins Place, Melbourne, between 1930 and 1935. The W.T. Rawleigh Company was an American company started by William Rawleigh in 1889. The company expanded to both Canada and Australia with the Rawleigh company specialising in medicines, remedies, food additives, cleaning products and toiletries. Due to increased demand, Rawleigh’s required a larger factory and thus built the factory in Dawson Street Brunswick Victoria and by 1950 the factory had been extended to include 98,000 square feet of floor space. The Brunswick factory ceased production in the late 1970s and manufacturing was moved to New South Wales. During the peak of production, more than 200 people were employed in the Brunswick factory and several independent sale representatives sold their products door-to-door
throughout the country. The ‘Rawleigh’s man’ was a regular door-to-door salesman of inter war and post-war suburban Melbourne. Rawleigh’s products are still in production today.A significant item as it gives a snapshot into domestic life and social norms of the pre and post war period in Melbourne and throughout Australia and New Zealand. The item demonstrates how selling house hold products door to door was pioneered in Australia by the Rawleigh’s company in the early 1900s and is still in existence today.Bottle, glass, narrow neck rectangular base with metal screw top.label of Rawleigh's Furniture Polishflagstaff hill, warrnambool, flagstaff hill maritime museum, shipwreck coast, flagstaff hill maritime village, great ocean road, bottle, rawleigh's furniture polish, furniture polish, rawleigh's, cleaning