Historical information
The name plate maker was used by a number of Nursery employees, contributing to intangible narratives of how stock at Nobelius Nursery was prepared for transport. It has a high interpretive capacity as an object associated with a tangible, physical process, presenting opportunities for understanding work practices at Nobelius Nursery and nurseries more generally.
Significance
No similar name plate maker was identified after contact with and/or searches of collections held at National Museum of Australia, Museum Victoria, the Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences or the Australian Garden History Society, Victoria Branch. It is a rare example of its type in Australia.
The name plate maker is of historic and social significance. It is associated with the Nobelius Nursery, the largest nursery in the southern hemisphere at its peak prior to WWI (Lyng 1927:75), where it was used from the early 1900s until at least the 1940s. The Nursery was renowned for its supply of plants and trees of high quality and reliability; the name plate maker was part of this process by providing imprinted metal labels that did not fade. The object therefore also demonstrates technological advances of the period. The object holds social significance to employees of Nobelius Nursery who used the machine for several decades to prepare stock for transport to clients.
Physical description
This name plate maker has a hollow hardwood rectangle body and stands on four decorative cast iron legs. It has a cast iron top and further cast iron detail on its front and sides. The top detail lists all numbers and letters to be used in the production of the labels (A-Z, 0-9, space, finish, start and - , ‘), and the front detail reads ‘THIS MACHINE IS SOLD FOR USE IN THE UNITED STATES ONLY. PATENTED NOV. 19 1901, NOV 19 1901, NOV 22 1904, JAN 31 1905 PAT. APPL’D FOR’. The side detail reads ‘PATENT APPLIED FOR’ The inside of the box contains the metal and wooden mechanisms for making embossed metal labels, which are produced inside and then come out the front once printed. Several metal labels remain sitting in the dispensing hollow. This machine is a Roovers ‘name plate’ maker or ‘nameplate’ machine, also known as an ‘embossing machine’ or as in the original patent application as a ‘die press’. It was manufactured from about 1895 by a firm called Roovers Bros Co., of New York, later known as Roovers Bros Inc. Carl Axel Nobelius imported this name plate machine from the USA, indicated by the plate of text at the front, between 1905 and 1915. It is likely that the machine was ordered directly from the manufacturer, as there is no record of the company having had distributors in Australia. The nameplate maker remained at the former nursery site throughout its changes in ownership, until it was donated to Emerald Museum in the 1970s.
This machine was used to create metal labels for tree stock at Nobelius Nursery to identify produce, which were otherwise difficult to distinguish as seedlings. According to Syd Jinette, Emerald Resident and ex-nursery worker who used this machine in the 1930s and 1940s, it was used at the nursery since the early 1900s until at least the 1940s, but continued to reside at the site after this time (oral history account held at Emerald Museum).
