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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Shangas, post: 38715, member: 360&quot;]I got back from a country-town antiques fair yesterday with a beautiful antique writing slope. I&#039;ve done extensive research, and the stuff I&#039;ve found has blown me away.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s what I bought:</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/q89/p417x417/10943790_1554371118154702_3564092656092963360_n.jpg?oh=9ef176805aeb78f59b9a55c99920b527&amp;oe=55212F89&amp;__gda__=1432118598_f16f40643b61ac08e9144c41e65f041f" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/t31.0-8/10917930_1554371111488036_1094084374670635783_o.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://scontent-b-hkg.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/10414428_1554371114821369_1761155626823085105_n.jpg?oh=058e3e1763788879718abcde5c1360aa&amp;oe=556CF9D3" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/t31.0-8/10866065_1554371168154697_1073125129676466562_o.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t31.0-8/10947457_1554371171488030_8564626423350457818_o.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://scontent-a-hkg.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/10472088_1554371188154695_2727908912533423634_n.jpg?oh=dceb3030f71df3498ad9193d6d7cae5b&amp;oe=552B96E0" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>The box itself is unremarkable. I need to find ink-bottles for it. And then I need to find a key for it. Should be fairly easy to do. But during cleaning all the gunk off it, I saw this:</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://scontent-b-hkg.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/p417x417/10513345_1554643438127470_3821795356400910073_n.jpg?oh=53afc009330320beb70f4b693960aced&amp;oe=5520A4EE" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>It says:</p><p><br /></p><p><b>&quot;Tyalla</b></p><p><b>Toorak</b></p><p><b>July 14th,</b></p><p><b>1882&quot;</b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p>What&#039;s this!? A date and an address??</p><p><br /></p><p>OK, now I know how old the box is. Roughly. 1880-1882 approx.</p><p><br /></p><p>I now know there&#039;s an address. Tyalla, Toorak.</p><p><br /></p><p>Toorak is THE most expensive suburb in Melbourne, Australia. Where I live.</p><p><br /></p><p>What is &#039;Tyalla&#039;? I reasoned it had to be a house. Some grand estate. Turns out, I was right. This is Tyalla, as painted in 1882:</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/10952559_1554625654795915_5615428891312790801_n.jpg?oh=3af5562f816b42bbeb3da6b4f6be90d5&amp;oe=552B39C6&amp;__gda__=1432114582_b158281cdc78a217200154d32cf22ba9" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Heyington Place, Toorak is like the Melbourne Equivalent of Park Avenue in Manhattan. It has all these rich old Victorian mansions and everything. So I had to find out more!</p><p><br /></p><p>I discovered that Tyalla was owned by William Gibson. A Scottish immigrant born in 1842 (Glasgow), and who migrated to Australia in the 1870s or thereabouts. He set himself up in business with Mr. Francis Foy, establishing what would eventually become a chain of department stores called Foy &amp; Gibson (closed 1967).</p><p><br /></p><p>Gibson himself died 5th of November, 1918. He was pre-deceased by his sister (1903), one son who died in WWI (1917), and another who died in England (1918). He was survived by his other sons and daughters (and there were a lot of them!!).</p><p><br /></p><p>His house, Tyalla, was sold in 1922, for 21,000 pounds! His fortune and estate, when he died in 1918, was valued at over a million pounds!!</p><p><br /></p><p>His company was taken over by his grandson, and the Gibsons continued to run Foy &amp; Gibson until the business folded in the late 1960s.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is so thrilling to find out...</p><p><br /></p><p>...And all from a country antiques fair...!!</p><p><br /></p><p>Was William Gibson the owner of this box? I consider it highly likely. As a prominent local businessman, I could imagine him needing a box like this to store all his papers during his travels around Australia, visiting the various outlets and stores. It&#039;s now my mission to try and restore this box to some semblance of originality.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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