H. L. Vosz was an Adelaide, South Australia business, for a time Australia's largest supplier of paints and glass, the earliest progenitor of Dulux paints, and became the prosperous glass merchant A. E. Clarkson Ltd. The company was founded in a modest way by a painter, plumber and glazier of more than usual business acumen, who unwittingly became the name behind many of the stained glass windows in South Australian churches and public buildings.
Heinrich Ludwig Vosz (3 May 1812 – 9 March 1886), was born in Hanover in humble circumstances, and when quite young moved with his parents to Hamburg, where he had to work for a living from age 12. At 15 he was apprenticed to a carpenter and eventually was able to set up in business on his account. He was doing well until the European revolutions of 1848, which destroyed his business, leaving him bankrupt. He emigrated to South Australia aboard Alfred with his wife and two young sons arriving in December 1848. He started work as a joiner in Ackland Street (now that part of Frome Street between Grenfell and Wakefield streets) and was naturalized in August 1849. [1] In 1848 he was selling furniture and in 1849 had a timber yard in partnership with C. E. Berthau. Then came the discovery of gold in Victoria, and in 1851 he joined the rush to the diggings.
He returned with enough money to set up in business as painter, glazier and paperhanger, and in 1853 opened a retail store at 82 (renumbered c. 1890 as 88) Rundle Street, selling window glass, paints, and wallpaper. [2] The business prospered and he was able to repay, with interest, his creditors back in Germany. The Hamburg Reform of February 1860 published an article noting his integrity, entitled Ein braver Mann. [3]
Vosz maintained an active interest in current events but apart from a few years (1860–1862) as City Councillor, played no active part in public affairs. He died after several years of intense suffering from neuralgia, which no medical treatment could alleviate, [4] and was buried at the West Terrace Cemetery without ostentation, by Rev. J. Crawford Woods. [5] His business had become the largest of its kind in Australia; his wife and sons had predeceased him [6] and much of his considerable fortune was left to local charities, including £2,000 for the Home for Incurables. [7] Other charities to benefit were The Orphan Home, the Royal Institution for the Blind, the Fund of Benevolence of the Grand Lodge of Freemasons of South Australia, the Benevolent Fund of the Irish Constitution of Freemasons of South Australia, the Adelaide Children's Hospital, and the Cottage Homes. [8]
Vosz was married to Friederike Dorothea Sophie Vosz, possibly née Hoerber [10] ( – 3 June 1875); they had two sons, both born in Germany:
By Vosz's will, ownership of the business passed to his employees who, through their trustees, sold the business to Johann Heinrich Nicholaus "Henry" Schmidt and Theodore J. C. Hantke (1835–1912), [12] [13] both of whom previously held executive positions in the company.
Schmidt became insolvent in 1894 as a result of his purchase of a large share of the company and inability to realise on property which had lost value. [14] He retired from the partnership and sold his share to businessman Alfred Wilkinson (1863–1922). [15]
In 1904, [12] when the business was registered as a Company, he stepped down as manager to take a position on the board of directors. [16] A. E. Clarkson, who joined the company in 1890, was elected manager and secretary. [17]
In 1899 a leadlight and stained glass department was added, which by the 1920s employed 26 staff and two artist/designers. [18] Adelaide's churches were the high-profile end of the market, but much of their business would have been in advertising windows and mirrors for hotels, and decorative windows and panels for more affluent home-owners.
By 1900 the business owned the area bounded by Rundle Street, Charles Street and Fisher Place, as well as stables and yards on Gilles Street, and also occupied several warehouse on Maclaren Wharf, Port Adelaide. Paints and calcimines, were manufactured at Rundle Street, mirrors were silvered and bevelled, stained glass painted and fired by J. F. Williams and his staff, leadlight windows built up, and plate glass cut and curved. Besides glass of every description, the showroom had a range of gas and electric lighting and heating fittings on display. [19]
The company became H. L. Vosz Ltd in 1901. In 1904 the firm was incorporated with a nominal capital of £50,000. [20] One of the company's first decisions was to divest itself of its building and contracting work, and concentrate on retail. Many of the workers and apprentices who lost their jobs prospered as independent contractors. [21]
Around January 1907 manufacture of paints was transferred to purpose-built facilities at Lipson Street, Port Adelaide, and much new equipment brought in. [22] Even so, their Rundle Street showrooms, office and glass workshops were seriously overcrowded, and in July 1908 a new building was opened at 124–126 Rundle Street, alongside the Plough and Harrow Hotel (twenty years later demolished and replaced with the Richmond Hotel) and almost directly opposite the Adelaide Arcade. The shop boasted all the latest decorative styles and innovations in display and efficiency, such as the Lamson cash carriers, and a network of telephones connecting the various offices and workshops. A wide stairway led to the first floor, where displays of lighting and lavatory fittings, leaded lights, stained glass, and other window styles were shown to best effect against the large southern window. Around the walls were displayed church windows and racks with thousands of sample rolls of wallpaper. The basement carried a large stock of plumbers' requirements. Another city block was purchased to house the mirror surfacing and bevelling factory, glass store and cutting workshop. [22]
The name of the company was changed to "Clarkson Limited" at an extraordinary general meeting in August 1915, [23] at a time of heightened antipathy to Germanic names. Albert Ernest Clarkson (10 April 1876 – 26 April 1936) [24] was a majority shareholder in the company and its first manager and secretary. He led the company for some 40 years. [25]
In 1912 the Australasian United Paint Company, Limited. was formed with an office in Lipson Street, Port Adelaide and capital £100,000 to take over the paint business of H. L. Vosz Ltd. as a going concern. Its first directors were George Henry Prosser, Albert Ernest Clarkson, James Montague Sandy, Robert Cochrane, and Robert S. Exton. [26]
In December 1932, Clarkson's remodelled the Kithers Buildings at 135–139 Rundle Street, leaving the facade, and this became the new Clarkson's showrooms. [27]
In 1908 the company had purchased property on the north side of Grenfell Street (146–156) alongside the Hotel Grenfell (later Boar's Head) east of Hindmarsh Square, where they later established a Bulk Store, Trade Depot, [28] and offices. [29] In 1958 their Head Office was relocated to 150 Grenfell Street, and featured a 90 feet (27 m) window. The company moved out of plumbing and much of the retail market and in 1958 sold the Rundle Street building to the Commonwealth Bank.
Two windows in the nave of St Peter's Cathedral were installed by the Vosz company, but were from the London firm of Charles Eamer Kempe. One memorializes Dean Marryat and the other, contributed by the children of the church, is a representation of St Hilda. [58]
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