Charles Firnhaber skill turns South Australia's 19th Century minerals into stunning silver objects and jewellery
Examples of Charles Firnhaber's silver work. From left: 1850 Adelaide New Year Races cup made for George Selth Coppin; a brooch made of Barossa Valley gold and Burra malachite; The cup presented to Charles Bagot by Kapunda miners in 1859.
The artistry brought to South Australia by German silversmiths such as Charles Eduard Firnhaber coincided with the colony becoming birthplace the Australian mining industry with gold, silver and copper found.
Besides Australia’s first mine was at Glen Osmond in 1841, South Australia was known globally as “The copper kingdom” for copper deposits at Kapunda, Burra (producing 10% of world’s supply) and the copper triangle on the Yorke Peninsula. Australia’s first gold mine was at Castambul in the Adelaide Hills – with a big rush of 6,000 miners to the Barossa Valley in 1868.
Silversmiths such as Firhaber were primed to ply their skills to these metals. Born in Germany in 1805 and trained in the art of silversmithing and associated clock-making, jewellery and dentistry work, Firhaber was among South Australia’s earliest German settlers, arriving from Bremen on 1847.
He probably first worked for Adelaide jewellers George Griffin, established 1840, and definitely with John Henry Pace (1841). Both firms exploited the newly found South Australian silver ore deposits at Wheal Gawler mine in Glen Osmond.
By 1849, Firnhaber had his own business, C.E. Firnhaber, and was commissioned by prominent people and businesses to design and make presentation, civic and ecclesiastical silver objects. Among these was the first major commissioned silver item made in South Australia, made for Adelaide publican, race promoter, theatre manager and actor George Selth Coppin. Known informally as the “Coppin cup”, it was named after Coppin’s Royal Exchange Hotel and presented to the winner of the 1850 Adelaide New Year Races, the noted sportsman Charles Brown Fisher. In elegant German baroque revival form and fine craftsmanship. It’s inscribed: “Adelaide Races, 2ndJany, 1850, Royal Exchange Cup, presented by, Mr. George Coppin, and won by, Mr. Chas. Fisher’s B.G. Highflyer, Carrying 12 stone 3 Mile Heats”.
Firnhaber also made the silver cup presented to Charles Bagot, retiring in 1859, by Kapunda miners as thanks for his efforts for them while manager of the town’s copper mine and smelter. The cup had the main above-ground elements of the mine buildings intricately carved in miniature.
The South Australian Museum gained another piece of work by Firnhaber: a brooch featuring Barossa Valley gold and Burra malachite – anticipating the national colours of the green and gold.⠀
