Goldsmith and orchardist who was born in England and probably did not practise as a goldsmith for some years. John Gresswell with his wife Henrietta, sailed out to the Swan River Colony in 1831 in the Jolly Rambler, a small trading vessel that he jointly owned with his partner, W. H. Harris. He opened a tavern as well as taking up agricultural land on Rottnest and other places. He later worked from his residence in Mount Street, which had commercial gardens stretching down to the river with arbours where patrons could come and sit. Here he also engaged in mercantile and other endeavours. Gresswell was a goldsmith of consummate skill, as a ledger for 1829-74 in the collection of the Royal Western Australian Historical Society attests. This details his London clients, numbering among them Storr & Mortimer who had a Royal Warrant.
The techniques he undertook were extensive, including engraving, filigree and cantille work. He mounted Chinese scent bottles, and set miniatures and pebbles as brooches, a 'standard gold embossed snake bracelet with large carbuncle garnet upon the head and ruby eyes 'was made, and a 'spider web brooch with a garnet centre’. For a Mr Mainwaring he set twenty-four emeralds in a coloured and chased-gold nautilus-shell pin. For Messrs. Payne & Sons, he mounted pink topaz and half-pearls in a gold-screw filigree clasp, and coloured gold for a necklace with Georgian chain festoons. For Storr & Mortimer he mounted Florentine mosaics as necklace clasps. Records of local work are sketchy. In 1832 he repaired a silver fork and an enamel and pearl brooch for Mr Stone, and a carnelian ring for a Mr Heaven. The next entry in this ledger is for 1874 when he made work for Henry Seeligson, an emancipist jeweller in St George’s Terrace. Gresswell was active until late in life but apparently only in a minor way. His major interest was in being a landowner. At present no work made by him has been identified, but English-made pieces that once belonged to Capel Brockman, née Bussell, are in a style Gresswell had been accustomed to making. Gresswell died, 'much revered’, in Perth in 1882 aged eighty-four. As a man of property he appears to have concentrated on his orchards and gardens, and his house on Mt Eliza. Whether this was by choice or from lack of opportunity in the goldsmithing field it is difficult to tell, but given the desire by many of the early settlers to acquire property and through it a rise in social status, it would seem logical that it was mostly by choice.
- Writers:
- Erickson, Dorothy (Dr)
- Date written:
- 2011
- Last updated:
- 2011
