Historical information

Mayor Harkness is best known for abolishing liquor from the Town Hall and replacing the Mayor's Ball with a Monster Sunday School Picnic for children which took place in Ravenswood in 1883 and was attended by 15,000 people.
Abraham Harkness arrived in Victoria in 1857 aged 28. He was initially successful in his search for gold and after a return trip to England in 1862 returned to Bendigo where he opened a general store and then a foundry manufacturing mining machinery.
He stood for council from in 1880 and was elected a further eight times over the next twenty years. Cr Harkness served as Mayor in 1882, 1897 and 1898. His son Andrew became Mayor in 1908-09. Abraham Harkness married Jane Elizabeth Noble in Bendigo in1864 and together they had six sons and five daughters. Abraham died in 1912 and Jane in 1927.
This elegant silver service was gifted to Mrs Harkness by her husband the Mayor in remembrance of the event and then gifted back to the City.

Physical description

Four piece Victorian tea and coffee silver service consisting of tall coffee pot, tea pot, two handled covered sugar basin and covered cream jug.
Oval, chamfered shaped base tapering at top. Bodies are decorated with foliate decoration and central finial entwined with cartouche which holds either the Bendigo Coat of Arms, or the entwined initials J E H except the large coffee pot which has engraved dedication to Mayoress Harkness instead of the Coat of Arms. Insulated handles on pots.
0432.1 Coffee pot
0432.2 Teapot
0432.3 Sugar Pot
0432.4 Cream Jug

Inscriptions & markings

Stamped back top left of each part and inside lids - Makers Mark: Martin, Hall & Co (Richard Martin & Ebenezer Hall). Hallmarks; (Lion) sterling silver, (Panther head) London Assay Office, (Women's head in left profile) duty paid, (A)1876 on coffee pot, (G) 1882 on other three pieces.