Summary

The ironmongery & hardware business known as D. & W. Chandler was established in 1876 by John Chandler, a Ballarat carrier, who "hung up his shingle on a 20ft by 30ft shop at the corner of Brunswick and Greeves Streets, Fitzroy." The business became a registered private company as D. & W. Chandler Pty. Ltd. in 1912, and a public company under the name D. & W. Chandler Ltd., in 1922, with a nominal capital of £500,000. Stock in trade rose from £100 in 1876 to £136,000 by 1936, with the increase in staff over the same period being from 2 to almost 500.

The company's first illustrated mail order catalogue was published in 1889, with 2,000 copies of a 60-page booklet being printed. By 1935, the annual catalogue had grown to180 pages with a print run of 40,000, with copies being found in "a very large majority of Victorian farm and station homes".

Title

'D. & W. CHANDLER GENERAL HARDWARE CATALOGUE.'

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