Antique Brass Bell c1859 with makers mark: "G. Schwan Gawler place"

Gustave Hermann Franz Schwan was born in Germany in 1825 and arrived in South Australia on the ship "Pauline" in December 1849 from Bremen. A foundry business was established at Gawler place, Adelaide, by September, 1853, with fellow German migrant Frederick Berends. Gustave had married Johanna Wilhelmina Bertha Rodiger in July this same year, and the ever expanding family's residence became Divett Place.

Berends, who was later described as a "Mechanical Engineer", had arrived in South Australia aboard the "Princess Louise" from Hamburg in August 1849. Berends & Schwan traded just "3 doors from Rundle Street" at least to October 1858, when both Frederick and Gustave seem to have run into hard times and a series of legal actions. An advertisement in The South Australian Register, 12th November, 1853, page 1 stated: "Brass and Zinc Foundry. Berends & Schwan, Gawler-place, manufacturers of all kinds of brass works, water, stop, beer and spirit taps and washers, brass caps to patent axles, bell founders, turners in brass and iron, tool makers. Mathematical instruments made and repaired."

From late 1858 there is a change in the foundry name and Gustave appears to have continued the foundry as the sole proprietor. He advertises for a "steady and first-rate hand at the lathe" in December 1859, signing this "Wanted" advertisement as "G. Schwan, Gawler-place." This corresponds nicely with the maker marks on the antique brass bell in my possession, and is the likely date of manufacture given Gustave sold his business in October 1860.

As a precursor to the sale, Gustave lost a court action in May 1858 when he was found to have illegally recovered a lamp and it's unpaid-for bracket. He was also concurrently found guilty of using threatening language. The family lost an infant daughter, Amalia Frederika, in October 1859.

Gustave and his family moved north and were living at Gawler in March 1862, working in his in-laws family business, Rodiger & Co. of Murray Street. He was also a crack shot and won a medal at the ninth annual German Rifle Club festival in April 1862. Gustave Schwan remained an active member of the German community throughout his life and died of "paralysis" at East Terrace, Adelaide, on 12th January, 1877. He is buried along with his infant daughter at West Terrace Cemetery.

In sum, the research inspired by the antique brass bell illuminated the work of an unrecognized early Adelaide foundry and of a pioneering German family in SA.

Sources: NLA - Trove; Index of Marriages, State Archives; West Terrace Register.