Historical information

The item is a glass writing desk set used at Carramar, the family home of Carl Axel Nobelius, who founded the Gembrook Nurseries. Gembrook Nurseries were a major employer in the area, shipping fruit and decorative tree species around Australia and internationally. Carramar was the largest private residence in the area with sixteen rooms in addition to staff accommodations. The Nobelus family entertained several famous or important guests there, including Dame Nellie Melba and the Governor of Victoria, Sir Reginald Talbot. The desk set is thought to have been a gift to Carl Axel Nobelius and his wife Emily on the anniversary of their wedding. The Gembrook Nurseries, informally known as the Nobelius Nurseries after the founder Carl Axel Nobelius, began with the purchase of sixty-three acres in 1886 and boomed in the 1890s due to opportunities provided by employment-promoting schemes to develop public parks and gardens and street shade by local and State Governments around Australia. Trees were sold to more than forty councils and Government organisations in the 1890s, including the Department of Agriculture, Lands Department and Victorian Railways. The need to transport nursery products by train via Ferntree Gully rather than by bullock dray to Narre Warren was a factor in the successful petition to develop what is now known as the Puffing Billy Railway.

Gembrook Nurseries had an indirect influence on the development of other farms and industries in the region. As a wholesale nursery with high sales volumes it was an important employer of local people. Peak season for employees was during the cooler months, during most farmers' off-season. This provided local farmers with a source of income while their own farms were becoming established.

The desk set appears to be in Art Deco style, which suggests that it was in use at Carramar later in Carl Axel Nobelius' life, prior to his death in 1921, as the style became most popular in the years after the First World War.

Carramar was the largest private residence in the area with sixteen rooms in addition to staff accommodations. A real estate listing from the sale of Carramar in 1941 indicates that it had five bedrooms, three reception areas, a large billiards room, two bathrooms, rooms for staff use and a separate six-room gardener's cottage as the home sat within extensive gardens. The Nobelus family entertained several famous or important guests there, including Dame Nellie Melba and the Governor of Victoria, Sir Reginald Talbot.

Significance

The item is significant due to its association with the estate of Carl Axel Nobelius, a horticulturist whose business activities at the Gembrook Nurseries contributed to both the social and infrastructure development of Emerald and surrounds and the distribution of several plant species internationally.

Physical description

The item is a glass plate on small metal legs. Arranged across the surface of the glass plate are a metal rack suitable for holding letters, a square glass bottle with a metal lid sitting in a square metal receptacle which may have been used for ink and two metal brackets suitable for holding a pen. The metal used is silver-toned.