Convict-made brick with an 'T' stamped at the edge of one face

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Type
Convict bricks
Date
1788
Place
New South Wales, Australia
Materials
Clay
Collection
David Westcott collection no. 4
Accession number
2002.0020.0004

Description

Convict brick with a "T" stamp at the edge of one face.

About the collection

This collection consists of five convict bricks that were purchased at public auction. The vendor is a private collector who advised that at least two of the bricks are from the Windsor/Richmond area of New South Wales. The convict era has long been of interest to historians but ordinary Australians have often been less than willing to embrace their convict origins. The shame of convict ancestry has only recently been replaced by pride. It is perhaps partly due to this shame that little material culture from the convict period remains. Convict-made bricks, because of their very nature, are among these few surviving objects. They provide a link to the earliest days of the British settlement of Australia.

Read live from the Museum's Collection API (12/11/2026, 4:58:13 am). Record last updated by the Museum 2025-02-17. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.