There is but a small group of furniture identified to Queensland’s Colonial period. Some furniture, made in Ipswich in the early 1850s has been securely attributed to George Dowden because of attached paper labels. That furniture, except for the sideboard recently acquired by the Ipswich Art Gallery, is quite basic in its form and of interest only because of its early date. The other identified examples of the colonial cabinetmaker’s art are much more sophisticated. As these pieces were made for special occasions, they share a common characteristic in that they are not marked and have been identified by documentary sources.
A cedar sideboard, provenanced to 'Glengallan’ outside Warwick and made by Joshua Ebenston (qv) in the Queensland Art Gallery Collection, is commanding in scale being two metres high and almost two and a half metres wide but of greater interest is the remarkable quality and detailing of the carving with neo-Rocco scrolls, fruit, flowers and Australia’s heraldic animals, a kangaroo and an emu, embellishing the back board. It is difficult enough to extract information of Australia’s colonial cabinet-makers without trying to extract information of the individual workers. The exception is in the case of the journeyman wood-carvers whose individual styles can be traced through the products of several individual cabinet-making workshops.
Although the carver of the 'Glengallan’ sideboard is not identified in the press reports of the opening of the property the carved details bear many stylistic similarities to the chiffonier in the collection of the Warwick Historical Society (Illustrated Fahy and Simpson 'Nineteenth Century Australian Furniture’, David Ell, Sydney, 1985, colour plate XIII and plate 512). More significantly, the carved mask in the centre of the backboard is very similar to the two masks carved on the legs of the davenport made by John Wilson Carey in 1873 which is in the collection of the Women’s Historical Society, 'Miegunyah’, Bowen Terrace, Brisbane. The trusses were of 'plum-tree, and the manner in which they are carved reflects great credit on Mr Fern, George Street’ ( The Queenslander , 1873). This davenport is also illustrated in Fahy and Simpson 'Nineteenth Century Australian Furniture’ (Colour plate X and plate 515).
The sideboard exhibited by John Carey in the Sydney International Exhibition in 1888 (and now in a private collection in Toowoomba) also has remarkably similar details of carving to the two pieces with the 'Glengallan’ provenance, so it is possible also to attribute the carving of this group to Matthew Fern. The highly regarded display by cabinetmakers Foster and Kelk in the 1891 Queensland National Agricultural and Industrial Association also included 'Another fine specimen of colonial work by this firm was a bedroom suite made of Bunya Bunya pine. It is beautifully carved, the work having been done by Mr. Matthew Fern.’ This suite also carried off a first prize ( The Queenslander , 1891).
The identification of these examples of exceptional carving enables us to establish a career for this journeyman carver over three decades. As it is highly unlikely that there would be more than wood carver with the requisite skills in a colony of some 15000 people a parlour setting in a Queensland indigenous timber yellow-wood (Rhodosphaera rhodanthema) from the estate of Richard Pollock, a gold-mining entrepreneur from Gympie (now in the collection of the Royal Queensland Historical Society) and the Speaker’s Chair in Queensland’s Parliament House may also be given to the hand of Matthew Fern.
In 1888 Fern was also listed as a fret-cutter which suggests that the elaborately pierced cabinet doors for the Glengallan chiffonier is also his work (Stringer, 1982).
Matthew Fern was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1831 and clearly the training he had there brought out his superb skills in carving. He married Jane née McIvor in Glasgow in 1860 and migrated to Brisbane four years later. He quickly established himself amongst the cabinet makers of Brisbane as the work he performed for Joshua Ebenston in 1868 is prior to his first notation in directories in 1874-76 – he is recorded as being in George Street. Subsequently he was recorded at Adelaide Street (1877-83), 152 Albert Street (1881-92) and finally across the Brisbane River in Hope Street, South Brisbane (1893-95). At that time his exceptional skills were sufficiently recognised to enable him to be appointed the first instructor of wood carving in the art department at the Brisbane Technical College in 1895. He was appointed during the tenure of Richard Godfrey Rivers expressly to pass on his skills to apprentices in the trades – the work of his students was included at the annual distribution of prizes at the College for 1895 ( The Brisbane Courier , 1896, p. 6) but died within three years.
He died 23rd December 1898 at his residence, Hope-street, South Brisbane, and was buried the following day at the Toowoong Cemetery leaving behind his wife, two sons James and Matthew and some exceptional examples of Queensland furniture.
- Writers:
- Cooke, Glenn R.
Note: Research Curator Queensland Heritage, Queensland Art Gallery.
- Date written:
- 2011
- Last updated:
- 2011
