Item SH 940554 Inkwell Desk Set - Duperite, Tortoiseshell Pattern, Australia, circa 1930s

Summary

Bakelite stand, for inkwell and pen set, used by Olga Cavedon (nee Andreetta) when she was a primary school student at St George's Catholic School in Carlton in the 1930s. Olga came to Australia from the province of Vicenza in 1926, when she was 18 months old, with her mother and sister. Her father had migrated a few years earlier, he was a tailor of well renown in Carlton. The family lived in Grattan Street Carlton, in a house still occupied by the family.

Olga married Giovanni Cavedon in 1948. The Cavedon's were tobacco farming pioneers of the Ovens Valley area during the 1930s.

It was maufactured by Moulded Products (Australasia) Ltd (later known as Nylex), who marketed plastic products under the 'Duperite' brandname from the 1930s. 'Duperite' was made from a moulded thiourea-formaldehyde resin powder, originally developed the British Cyanide Company in 1928, also known as 'Beetle' powder.

Physical Description

Tortoiseshell patterned bakelite stand with two ink wells and two pens.