Postcard of Massey-Harris 'WARWICK Q. DEPOT'

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Type: Postcards
Date: 1909
Materials: Card, Graphite, Ink
Collection: Horse and Agricultural Images and Advertising collection
Accession number: 2013.0003.0011

Description

An advertising postcard featuring a printed black and white photograph of some people, horses and horse drawn farm machinary in front of a building. The building features painted signage including 'MASSEY-HARRIS/... / FARM MACHINERY'. The postcard has printed text at the bottom left that reads 'WARWICK Q. DEPOT'. The reverse of the postcard has a block of text headed 'Massey-Harris Co.Ltd' and features a ruler showing inches in golden ink along the left side. The words 'THE GOLDEN RULE...' appear above the ruler. A handwritten pencil annotation in the upper left corner reads 'JL119.14'.

About the collection

The Horse and Agricultural Images and Advertising collection brings together paper items and a tin sign from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It comprises 14 postcards advertising Massey-Harris farm machinery agents; an embossed sign advertising the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company; 3 postcards of Leura by photographer A.G. Fowler; a postcard of an Australian Produce Stand at a show in Wolverton (United Kingdom); and a painting by Frank P. Mahony, 'Trotters at Randwick'. The collection demonstrates the centrality of agriculture to Australia and the crucial role of horses within and around this industry. Australia's international connections are shown through the Australian Produce Stand postcard, advertising postcards and tin sign. They indicate a shift in demand to agricultural equipment from North America, considered better suited to Australian conditions than those from Britain. At the same time, the produce stand postcard reveals Australia's ongoing reliance on the United Kingdom as a source of migrants and market for produce. Horses feature in most of the items in this collection: they pull the agricultural machinery, are a form of transport and are used in leisure pursuits.

Read live from the Museum's Collection API (12/11/2026, 5:44:32 am). Record last updated by the Museum 2025-02-24. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.