Sydney Morning Herald, 7 June 1913:
It was with pleasure that one noted the designers had frequently chosen our own Australian flowers, leaves, and berries, which seem so admirably adapted for brass work, woodcarving, stencilling, or embossing leather … Mrs. Soderberg’s brass work always calls for admiration … on [her] brass trays and vases, geebungs, lillipilli, gum leaves, and berries form most effective designs.
Elizabeth Söderberg came to Australia from Denmark in 1906. For the next 16 years her metalwork featured prominently in exhibitions of arts and crafts in Sydney.
Söderberg’s preference for Australian motifs was shared with many artists of her day, such as South Australian Gertrude Rushton, whose carved wooden settle, proudly bearing the date ‘1913’, is covered with kookaburras and gum leaves. The Rushton settle was also on show in Glorious Days.
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