John Ashwin & Co. design drawings for stained glass windows (chiefly by J. Radecki) and photographs, ca. 1915-1950s

fonds

ca. 1915-1950s

Graphic Materials, Design Drawings, Photographs

455801

170 drawings
14 photographs

John Ashwin & Co. was a stained-glass window firm based in Sydney, which designed numerous church and secular windows in Australia, primarily in NSW. Originally owned by Frederick Ashwin, the company was taken up by his brother John and its name changed when Frederick died in 1909. John Ashwin died in 1920 and John Radecki, who had been a partner in the firm and its chief designer, continued the business under the Ashwin name. Radecki died in 1955, and from then until 1961 his daughter, Winifred Siedlecky, ran the business. It was then bought by Martin van der Toorn, who had previously been employed by the company from 1951 to 1956.

John Radecki was born in 1865 in Russian Poland, and in 1882 migrated to Australia with his family, settling in Wollongong. In 1883 he went to Sydney, and in 1888 married Emma Saunders, the daughter of the family with whom he had boarded. He was naturalized as a citizen in 1904. In 1921 he remarried to Jean Hughes, his first wife having died two years earlier. He died in 1955 and was buried in Woronora cemetery.
Radecki began work for Frederick Ashwin in 1885, learning how to work with glass, and adding to the artistic education that he had received at art school in Poznan (Posen) and art classes in Sydney. His most notable independent projects for F. and J. Ashwin in Sydney are found in Christ Church St. Lawrence, the Commonwealth Bank building in Martin Place, and the Mitchell Library.

Reference:
Australian Dictionary of Biography Online. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/ (accessed June, 2009)

SERIES 1
John Ashwin & Co. drawings and watercolours for stained glass windows, ca. 1910-1950s / chiefly by J. Radecki

SERIES 2
John Ashwin & Co. photographs of stained glass windows, ca. 1930s-1948 ; Portrait of John Radecki, 1948 / by various photographers

Collection arranged and described by Eleanor Christofides, for the internship component of the Master of Museum Studies course, University of Sydney, June-July 2009

Access via appointment - Folders 6-9 only (Outsize folders)

Copyright status:: In copyright.