Historical information

This little slate notebook was given by Webb Brothers to their customers as an advertising tool. The Webb Brothers Company a large manufacturing firm in Lava Street, Warrnambool, making windmills, dairying utensils, steam boilers, and oil engines. They were also engineers, brassfounders and wholesale tinsmiths and plumbers. Motor car work became a speciality in the 1920s. In 1921 they opened a branch of their business in Melbourne (Bayswater) and the name of the firm became Presha Engineering Company.

Significance

This notebook is of some interest as it was provided by Webb Brothers, an important company in Warrnambool in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It is also an example of the advertising techniques used by business houses at that time and an interesting example of the use of a slate pencil and slate pages as a recording mechanism.

Physical description

This is a brown leather notebook with three pages of slate material making eight spaces for recording notes. Notes recorded in slate can be rubbed out and the space used again. The slate pencil container is on the side of the notebook but the pencil is missing. The cover is mottled with creamy-yellow lines. The pages are edged in red and there is scribble on some pages.

Inscriptions & markings

Front page of notebook: ‘Before purchasing talk to Webb Bros. & Co., Windmill Makers, Engineers, Ironworkers etc. Lava Street, Warrnambool ‘Phone 27, Made in Germany’
Scribble on first page ‘Wanted known’