POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

Tobacco tin used by A E Smith

Object No. 2005/27/1

Arthur Edward Smith is widely regarded as being Australia's finest violin maker. Smith had learned his art in England working in the music business of CW Jeffreys in Maldon repairing and making instruments. Prior to this he had worked as a draftsman for the firm, HE Bentall also in Maldon. Arriving in Melbourne in 1909, and briefly establishing a business there, he then briefly travelled to San Francisco but by 1913 was back in Australia, this time in Sydney where he established a business in partnership with Carl Rothammer, who appears to have left Sydney shortly afterwards to set up his own business in San Francisco, USA. Smith's Sydney business is notable for not only the fine instruments that came out of it but also the number of fine makers that worked there at various times during its existence. One of the first was William Paszek who joined in 1914 but later left for a solo career. Several years later in 1918 Charles Clarke also joined the business eventually leaving in the late 1940s. During the 1920s two of Smith's most gifted employees joined as boys - William Dolphin, who by 1927 or 1928 had left the firm to establish himself in Melbourne and Lloyd Adams, who later left Australia carrying on a successful career in the USA. Other workers included Charles Newham, Arthur Patton, Ivan Kolsch, Sid Vyse, Ron Cragg, Phillip Burgess, Cedric Clarke and Harry Vatiliotis. Smith's reputation was known internationally and his instruments were owned by some of the world's greatest violinists such as Yehudi Menuhin, David Oistrakh and Isaac Stern. During World War II Smith and others developed a string making machine to supply Australian musicians with locally made strings. Prior to this strings were imported from Germany but this ceased at the commencement of the war. His business lasted until the late 1960s and Smith died in 1978 at the age of 98. Few everyday personal items relating to Smith apart from instruments, photos and letters are to be found in public collections. This tobacco tin was originally owned by his uncle and later given to Smith who kept it on or near his workbench.