Robert and Joanna Barr Smith's 1883 splurge to furnish Adelaide homes starts 40-year link to Morris & Co. in London
Robert and Joanna Barr Smith at Auchendarroch in Mount Barker (top right) that they lavishly furnished, along with their Torrens Park mansion (at left), with purchases from Morris & Co. in London.
Adelaide’s wealthy Robert and Joanna Barr Smith became one of Morris & Co.’s largest and most important clients outside Britain in 1883 during their visit to London where Robert was setting up an office for Elder, Smith & Co.
The Barr Smiths had brought Auchendarroch, an old coaching inn at Mount Barker that they had young architect John Grainger (father of Percy) convert into a 30-room summer mansion. This was in addition to their gothic Torrens Park mansion.
The 1883 London visit allowed the Barr Smiths to browse the new shop of Morris & Co. started by William Morris to make and sell his furnishings with a medieval-inspired aesthetic and respect for handcrafting and traditional textile arts. The Barr Smiths, already prolific shoppers, chose “staggering” amounts of carpets, curtain fabrics, wallpaper, chintzes, furniture and glassware for their two Adelaide houses and started a four decades relationship with Morris & Co.. Embroidery kits were also bought by Joanna for her daughters, encouraging a love of needlework.
Like his parents, Tom Elder Barr Smith and his wife Mary Isobel (Molly) Barr Smith (née Mitchell) lavishly furnished their home – first Wairoa then Birksgate – from the catalogues of Morris & Company. Molly Barr Smith, an accomplished needlewoman who embroidered from Morris & Co. designs, passed on the love of stitch to her daughter Ursula Hayward. Tom’s sister Jean, who married Tom O’Halloran Giles, also used the firm to decorated her home.
The Barr Smith children and grandchildren continued purchasing from Morris & Company up until 1929. This patronage most likely encouraged other affluent families in Adelaide to follow on a less extravagant scale. George Brookman saw Morris’s work at first hand in England and commissioned his stained glass window for the Adelaide stock exchange. Tom Elder Barr Smith provided Morris & Co. chairs for the Adelaide Club.