The documentation on Queensland’s colonial cabinetmakers is sparse indeed and obscured further by the general lack of identifying marks. One of the significant cabinetmakers of the period is Joshua Ebenston whose name is associated with a suite of furniture made for the Deuchar property, 'Glengallan’ just outside Warwick. A press clipping of 1868, just before the house and its contents was released to the admiration of colonial society records:
It is satisfactory to know that our beautiful indigenous timbers are coming into favour for cabinet work. We had the pleasure yesterday of inspecting Mr. Ebenston’s, Queen-street, a drawing and dining-room suite of furniture, of Queensland woods and Brisbane manufacture and made to order for Mr. John Deschar [sic], Glengallan station, Darling Downs. It is no exaggeration to say that the two suites surpass in strength, beauty and substantiality, anything we have yet seen imported, and we understand the cost will not exceed the imported goods of the same class . . . It is satisfactory to find that our leading colonists are at last becoming alive to the advantages which our local cabinet makers and upholsterers are able to offer them ( The Brisbane Courier , 1868).
The notice goes on to describe very closely the chiffonier that was made for the drawing-room which is now in the collection of the Warwick Historical Society collection and which has a 'Glengallan’ provenance. The quality of the cabinet making is obvious in the illustration in Fahy and Simpson’s Nineteenth Century Australian Furniture , David Ell, Sydney, 1985, plate 152 (although it was not then attributed to Ebenston). Surprisingly, although the drawing room is shown in documentary photographs from the 1890s in the collection of the John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland and features lightly scaled/built and rattan cane furniture, the chiffonier is not shown.
Of the dining-room suite, it says: '[It] is of choice cedar, and is equally good in manufacture, although not so elaborate or ornamental in appearance as the drawing-room furniture.’ The 'Glengallan’ provenance establishes the Queensland connection of the 'Sidebard’ in the Queensland Art Gallery Collection (described in the entry of Matthew Fern) which is reinforced by the locks being stamped with the name of a Brisbane based firm of ironmongers 'Brookes & Company’ which was active in the late nineteenth century – specifically the style 'W. & B. Brookes’ was only used in the period 1866-68. More importantly the carved decoration, with such national symbols as an emu and kangaroo, dates it to this same period and has been attributed to Matthew Fern (qv). Notable also is the fact that these are the only two items currently attributed to Ebenston.
Joshua Ebenston (his name being Anglicised from Ebenstein) was born on the Channel Island of Guernsey c.1835. He arrived in Brisbane on the ship 'Lady McDonald’ in 1856 when his profession was listed as gardener. He married Martha Hall McNab in Brisbane on 25 November 1861 and in the succeeding years fathered five children.
Advertisements in the Moreton Bay Courier in November 1861 reveal that he was an 'undertaker, cabinet maker and turner’ with premises in Albert Street and that he was 'late A. Slaughter’. He may have trained with Slaughter but there appears to be no earlier listing under this name. He probably took over from Slaughter by 1860 as he is listed in the index of furniture-makers in Fahy and Simpson’s major publication Nineteenth Century Australian Furniture (1985) as having premises in Albert Street in 1865 (one of eleven cabinetmakers recorded in Pugh’s Almanac for that year) and in Queen Street, 1867-70.
He continued to be involved as an undertaker, the usual business associated with cabinetmakers throughout the Australian colonies, as Ebenston and his rival in Ipswich, George Dowden, advertised for tenders for performing funerals in 1866 ( The Brisbane Courier , 1866). It appeared to be a reasonably profitable part of his business as he defended himself against the accusation of burying paupers of all denominations in the Presbyterian section of the cemetery and provided receipts to the Editor ( The Brisbane Courier , 9 October 1866) in his defence. It was later noted that he provided upholstery for the offices of Queensland’s public service ( The Brisbane Courier , 1871).
On 10 January 1877 he died at the asylum at Woogaroo.
- Writers:
- Cooke, Glenn R.
Note: Research Curator, Queensland Heritage, Queensland Art Gallery.
- Date written:
- 1995
- Last updated:
- 2011
