Historical information

Sarah Coventry Pty. Ltd. was a North American jewellery company that was established in 1949 by the Stuart family as part of Emmons Jewelry, Inc. It began operations in England and Australia in 1968, and in Australia it moved from Carlton in Melbourne to Wodonga in 1969. The premises were originally on High St. in Wodonga, but a new warehouse was built in Melbourne Rd. later in 1969.

It was a direct selling jewellery business using a party-plan model similar to Tupperware and Avon. The sales reps or 'Hostesses' were provided with jewellery samples in demonstration kits, which they displayed at jewellery parties in their homes. The designs for jewellery such as brooches, necklaces, earrings, chokers and bracelets were purchased from freelance designers and jewellery manufacturers rather than in-house designers.

In 1979 Sarah Coventry Pty. Ltd. in Wodonga was bought by three Australian businessmen, including Wodonga local Jim Sawyer, and continued to sell jewellery under the name "Sargem Pty. Ltd”, for several more years in the 1980s.

Significance

The colour booklet for Sarah Coventry Pty. Ltd. recruitment awards for jewellery sales has local significance as part of the decentralised commercial development of regional centres such as Wodonga in NE Victoria. As part of the Sarah Coventry collection, the booklet has national and international significance from the perspective of social and economic developments for women after World War II. The direct selling party-plan business model Sarah Coventry was based on is also considered the first of its kind for jewellery.

Physical description

Colour booklet with the awards that sales reps or "hostesses" for Sarah Coventry jewellery could earn dated to 1971. Twelve pages of colour photos of the different types of awards, with colour drawings and the text in black. The colour photo on the front cover of the booklet appears to show the front steps to the Sarah Coventry warehouse in Wodonga, built in 1969.