1. Half gallon measure inscribed 'C.E. Trevenar' on side. Inscribed 'H 2' inscribed on handle. T. Swainson and Son Makers, Dulwich Hill.
2.One pint measure. Inscribed 'Sunrise 1 pint FF & 1 CO K01F04 1q8 ho h2 j4 k6 18 b1'.
3. Half pint. Inscribed 'Sunrise 1/2 pint a92 e6 f8 k6 14c ho h2 j1/8 b1',Provenance and SignifcanceThese milk vendors were owned and used by the Samuel family.
In 2006, donor Collen Darracott (nee Samuel) recalled -
'I was only a wee nipper, not yet going to school, but I can still remember when the milkman used to pull up in his open back truck with canopy over to protect the milk, toot the horn, and we, along with the neighbours, would run out to collect our fresh milk for the day. The milkman's truck would be loaded with large, steel milk cans filled with rich, creamy milk straight from the farmers dairy - no such thing as pasteurising then.
'Mum would take her ceramic jug out - the one with the painted pansies - and the milkman would fill it from the big cans with the dipper. He used several sized measuring dippers - 1/2 pint, 1 pint and 1/2 gallon (4 pints) and he'd fill Mum's jug with however much she required for that day. Mum would out that fresh milk into our icebox - no fridges then either - where the cream would rise to the top, oh so yummy on our morning porridge.
By the time I went to school, the milkman's truck, along with his rattling cans and milk dippers, had become a thing of the past. Our milk was now delivered to our door at the crack of dawn in 1 pint bottles with red foil tops. Mum would leave her requirement in empty bottles on the front porch along with the money (yes you could leave the money and no one would take it, except the person for whom it was intended), and the milkman would exchange them for full ones.
How things change: the milkman we used to greet out the front had now become the faceless clanking of bottles in the early hours of the morning, before the sub rose to spoil the milk - that's if we were awake to hear him.
Alas, the humble milkman is no more. Today's milk is delivered to the supermarkets in cartons and plastic bottles; pasteurised, homogenised and impersonalised. I feel for the children of today as they no longer experience the social gathering on the front footpath while we waited for our milk; all gone along with that jolly personable being that was our milkman.'DonorDarracott, Colleen
CHARACTERISTICS
MaterialTin with soldered jointsDimensions16cm x 17cm , 10cm x 11cm, 8cm x 9cm
