Item HT 30693 Sausage Meat Chopper Model - A. E. Quelch, circa 1875

Summary

Model of a circa 1875 sausage meat chopper, made by Albert Ernest Quelch. The date of the model is unknown. It was donated to the museum by his son, Sydney James Quelch, in May 1947.

Albert Ernest Quelch was a master butcher operating as Quelch's Butchery in Hanover Street, Windsor, Melbourne. It is possible that he is the same Albert Quelch who won the Mayor's Prize at the Prahran State Schools competition in 1882 for 'best mechanical design' for his model of a railway station (Telegraph, St Kilda, Prahran and South Yarra Guardian, 30 December 1882, p.5). In 1909 Quelch's Butchery boasted that 'all small goods turned out from their establishment are free from preservatives of any kind. This means that, unlike many other tradesmen, the firm undertakes to supply fresh and wholesome goods - for goods which contain no preservative must of necessity be fresh. Messrs. Quelch Bros, already bear a high reputation for guaranteed farm-fed bacon and ham, corn beef and ox tongues, genuine pork sausages, etc.' (Prahran Telegraph, 24 April 1909, p. 4)

Albert Ernest Quelch died on 15 March 1947.

Physical Description

Model is mounted on a dark brown polished wooden block. Large handwheel on one side rotates a drum beneath the working table on which there is a metal pan. A pulley mounted overhead operates the up and down motion of the chopping blades in the pan via a belt (missing) that would have been attached to the large flywheel connected to the handwheel. Maker's plate on the front of the model frame. Yellow card tag with handwritten text is attached with twine.