Julius Schomburgk lifts Australian flora silver work to elite level, with Henry Steiner, Joachim Wendt, in Adelaide

A bracelet by silversmith Julius Schomburgk , a younger brother of Richard Schomburgk.
A gift from Miss Jane Peacock (1945) to the Art Gallery of South Australia

Julius, a younger brother of Adelaide Botanic Garden's curator Richard Schomburgk, was among the Germans who raised silver/gold smithing and watch making in Adelaide to an elite level – with Australian floral motifs.

Arriving from Prussia in 1850, Julius Schomburgk was soon reputed for his silver smithing and design. Committed to Victorian naturalism, his motifs featured Australian flora and fauna with figures of Aborigines.

A candelabrum by Schomburgk was presented in 1861 to John Ridley who didn’t take a patent on his agricultural reaping machine that helped South Australia out of its financial troubles in the 1840s.

Schomburgk also sold pieces through the Rundle Street, Adelaide, shops of fellow Germans Henry Steiner and Joachim Wendt.

Steiner, among those attracted by the 1850s gold rush, was, also an elite silversmith patronised by governors and was exhibited across Australia and overseas. Steiner’s designs also favoured Australian flora and fauna and Aboriginal figures.

Steiner, ran a successful enterprise until his wife and two children died in the typhoid outbreak of 1883 when he sold his business to employee August Brunkhorst and returned to Germany.

Joachim Wendt, who arrived in 1854, soon established himself as a well known and prize-winning watchmaker, gold and silver smith and jeweller.

Wendt was in the syndicate that built the Adelaide Arcade, Freemason Hall in Flinders Street and, with August Helling, in a 60,000 acres Mallee scrub development. Wendt was also involved in mining and was director of several South Australian companies, including the Lyndoch Valley Mining Company.