26 | T H E B A R OSSA MAG // HI STORY
Last century storekeepers were often
challenged as to what complimentary
gift to offer their customers at Christmas
for another year of their loyalty. monthly calendar dates. This pressed
cardboard style was particularly popular
with Tanunda business F.G.C. Wallent,
who issued them until the 1960s.
Calendars were the most popular
Christmas giveaway, a tradition still
practiced by some traders. My earliest
local calendar was produced for Payne &
Tucker, General Storekeepers at Sedan
in 1902. Free calendars were collected
in earnest by some local families. On
several occasions I have found multiple
calendars of the same year - rolled up
unused and still surviving 90 years later. A variety of practical items were given
to customers last century. Notebooks,
pencils, rulers, thermometers, bottle
openers, fans, nickel plated trays -
all had a business name and town
embossed or printed onto the object,
which advertised the business.
Some calendars were three dimensional
works of art, made in Germany from
pressed cardboard; with tiny tear off
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I’m sure retailers were keen to see which
business gave the best gift. In 1933, A.
Simpson & Son in Adelaide took orders
state-wide to manufacture tin flour
sifters as Christmas gifts. I’m sure there
was some dismay amongst retailers
WORDS BY LUKE ROTHE
because so many of the same flour
sifters appeared that year, including
local stores Bachmann (Greenock),
Schluter (Truro), Muttons (Angaston)
and Garretts (Sedan).
Most giveaways were made from
cheaper materials of pressed tin, wood
or cardboard. P.G.F. Klose, Carrier
of Tanunda, must have had a good
year when he distributed his wooden
cased clocks with a German wind up
movement.
Often the gifts represented a business’s
activities, such as a car cleaning
cloth from Jaensch’s Service Station,
Nuriootpa; or a shoe horn stamped
J.H.A. Schultz, Boot Store, Tanunda.
Sometimes the items were quite obscure,
with Graetz’s butcher shop in Nuriootpa
giving nail clippers in the 1970’s.
The tradition of Christmas gifts for loyal
customers seems to have ended about
1980, when the Nuriootpa Co-op Store
stopped offering members their annual
tea towel.
However a lasting legacy of gifts can still
appear at local garage sales and auctions,
advertising businesses that have been
closed for decades. The simple words
‘With Compliments’ attest to the
Christmas cheer and generosity of past
Barossa traders.
2 styles
no gap
Nuriootpa
39 Murray St
8562 3777
With Compliments