Historical information
These items are a collection of paints etc for those artists wanting to produce lustroleum and crystoleum works of art in the late 19th century and early 20th century. These works of art using lustroleum and crystoleum which were mainly metallic paints, were produced on a variety of surfaces, including glass, wood, tapestry, china and ivory.
Significance
These items have no known provenance but it is known that lustroleum and crystoleum painting were popular pastimes with women in Warrnambool in the late 19th century. There are several records of women advertising classes in lustroleum and crystoleum painting in the 1880s and 90s in Warrnambool. One was these was Annie Newcombe, an art teacher who offered classes at her studio in Timor Street in 1884.
Physical description
This is a metal tin with a metal catch and a hinged lid. The tin contains 10 items - four glass bottles of Lustroleum, one glass bottle of gold paint, one glass bottle of purple metallic paint, one tube of green paint, one china bowl with a lip for pouring, one dish to hold paint with a broken base and one small dish for holding paint. There is also a sheet of paper containing information on the Crystoleum Company of London advertising that they supplied photographs, price list for classes, silk frames and crystal glasses.
Inscriptions & markings
On bottles: ‘Lustroleum Registered’ ; ‘H. Bessemer, Gold Paint’, ‘Purple’,
On tube: ‘Winsor & Newton, Chrome Green, Vert Anglais, London England’
