• Title
  Figuratively speaking / cartoon by Tom Glover
• Creator
  Tom Glover
• Call number
  V/364
  
• Level of description
  fonds
• Date
  
  before 7 August 1929
• Type of material
  Graphic Materials, Drawings
• Reference code
  9659162
• Physical Description
  1 drawing - pen and ink - visible image 40 x 45 cm, in mount 49 x 54 cm
  
• ADMINISTRATIVE/ BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
  
  Berlei Limted was founded by Frederick Richard Burley. On 25 August 1910, Frederick bought a controlling interest in E. Gover & Co., a small women’s undergarment firm in Sydney and together with his brother Frank, established a separate wholesale company called Unique Corsets Ltd in 1911. In 1917, the name ‘Berlei’ was trademarked and in 1919 Unique Corsets formally changed its name to Berlei Ltd. The company took a progressive approach to business and marketing and played a major role in producing women’s underwear that fitted the shape of the body.
  
  In 1926, in collaboration with physiologists in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sydney, Berlei undertook the National Census of Women’s Measurements, an anthropometric study of 7,000 Australian women. Twenty three different measurements were taken from each woman, tabulated and the results analysed. This lead to the development of the Berlei five figure type classification scheme and Figure Type Indicator, a chart to enable a fitter to determine a client’s measurements. This indicator device was sent out to retailers who would take the customer's exact measurements and then use them to classify the woman's figure for product selection.
  
  English-born Thomas Ellis Glover (1891-1938) moved to New Zealand as a child and by his early twenties was working as a cartoonist, court reporter and journalist. He worked as the staff artist for the Bulletin until 1928 before getting a job as the political cartoonist for The Sun. He created children's comics for the Sunday Sun, notably 'Skeeter and His Magic Ring'. Glover died suddenly at his desk, aged 47, in 1938.
  
  References:
  Berlei Limited Archive - Underwear Design and Manufacture 2022, Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences, accessed 26 July2022, https://collection.maas.museum/object/329669
  "No venuses", The Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954), 6 August, 1929, 10, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article222961921
• Collection history
  By family descent from Frederick Richard Burley to grandchildren Richard Ames and Jennifer Thredgold
• Scope and Content
  This cartoon humorously documents the results of the 1926 National Census of Women’s Measurements, undertaken by Sydney based lingerie company Berlei Ltd. This was the first anthropometric survey of Australian women, and identified five body types, which are shown in the cartoon's exaggerated illustrations, 'big hips', 'too much embonpoint', 'short below the waist' and 'swing back'.
• Copying Conditions
  Out of copyright:
  Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
• Published Information
  The cartoon was published in The Sun, (Sydney, NSW), August 7, 1929, page 11, and based on an article published in The Sun, (Sydney, NSW) 6 August 1929, page 10 announcing the results of the 1926 National Census of Women's Measurements undertaken by Berlei Ltd.
• Description source
  
  Title from cartoon published in The Sun, (Sydney, NSW), August 7, 1929, page 11
• Signatures / Inscriptions
  
  Inscribed 'Cartoon published in Sydney's "Sun" on 7 August, 1929. Relating to an interview with Mr F.R. Burley on figure types' on mount.
• Date note
  
  Date of production (earliest 1928) based on time Glover started working for The Sun. Date of production (latest 7 August 1929) taken from inscription on mount and based on publication date of the cartoon in The Sun.
• Conservation note
  
  Cartoon was removed from frame for conservation reasons
• Subject
  Body size--Caricatures and cartoons.
  Women's clothing--Caricatures and cartoons.
  Clothing and dress measurements--Caricatures and cartoons.
  Berlei Limited
  Caricatures and cartoons--Australia.
  Australian wit and humor, Pictorial.
  
• Open Rosetta viewer
  IE20841955

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