house, transparency and ornamental painter, plumber and colourman, advertised in the New South Wales Calendar and Directory for 1833 as a 'House & Ship Painter, Plumber and Glazier’ with premises at the Jamison Street corner of George Street, Sydney, adding that he did 'Writing, Gilding/Transparencies, Sign, Scene and all kinds of Ornamental Painting’. He also provided water closets, pumps, lead, window glass, paints and varnishes. His advertisements, illustrated primarily with water closets and other plumbing fixtures, had an artist’s palette and brushes at its head. Engraved by Wilson , it was presumably after Paterson’s drawing, as was his billhead (also engraved by Wilson) featuring a cupid sitting on a box labelled 'Glass’ and painting a sign listing Peterson’s expertise.
No other ornamental work is recorded and Peterson apparently worked mainly as a plumber and glazier. For about a year from December 1834 he was employed from time to time at James Bowman’s mansion, Lyndhurst, at the Glebe above Blackwattle Bay, glazing and fixing windows, installing a water-pump, downpipes and lead flashing for the house designed by John Verge. His firm also painted the woodwork and ironwork on the house and outbuildings. Such work proved profitable enough to allow Peterson to commission Verge to design two town-houses for him, still extant as 39 and 41 Lower Fort Street. In 1838 he leased his business premises and sold his stock and goodwill to a rival firm, Martyn & Combes, in order to set up as an international trader, purchasing and building ships to trade goods with New Zealand in particular. When the economic boom began to collapse in 1840 so did Peterson. He was declared bankrupt in 1841 and lost his Sydney buildings. Although returning to painting, plumbing and glazing (from rented premises at the depressed southern end of George Street), he appears never to have recovered; he served a brief prison term for debt in 1843.
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
