Wood – Reflections in Glass

And the rise and fall of Regal Mulga Wood Products Pty. Ltd.

I love mulga wood. I have a small collection of mulga wood objects, but my most recent acquisition is the most impressive.
It is a turned vase of an unusual design, not the usual urn shape, it stands exactly 12 inches (30cm) tall and weighs 1lb 15.5 oz (893gm).

It came to me with the usual condition issues of vintage mulga wood items; loss to the bark at the base, a small crack from shrinkage and most of the original nitrocellulose lacquer was missing and what was left was yellowed, brittle and came off in my hand.
Because of this it was in the 50% off rack at the op-shop I found it in, and it was mine for the princely sum of $3.

Unfortunately, I neglected to take a photo of it in its original condition (I was too excited, and started work on it as soon as I brought it home), but the photo above shows it in it’s current refinished state.
I scraped off the very brittle remains of the old lacquer, gave the surface a very light clean with fine steel wool and a few coats of shellac (nitrocellulose lacquer is now all but obsolete, but the more traditional shellac is still available), and after cutting back with some steel wool a final coat of wax polish.

The manufacturer’s decal was still on the bottom, though the “mulga” part had been removed by some old sticky tape by the time I got it.
My research was able to date this piece rather precisely, thanks to newspaper articles on Trove.

Daily Commercial News and Shipping List (Sydney, NSW : 1891 – 1954), Wednesday 24 July 1935, page 4

Regal Mulga Wood Products Pty. Ltd. was registered in Victoria on the 10th of July, 1935 in Melbourne.
They seemed to make the usual range of Mulga wood products such as bookends, pen and ink stands, desk calendars, vases, clocks and other novelties.
There are only a handful of advertisements (none illustrated) in newspapers during the preceding year for Regal Mulga products, most of them are Christmas gift lists.

Less than three years after being established, on the 5th of February 1938, their factory at 571 Little Bourke St, Melbourne was damaged in a fire, destroying a quantity of timber, with a responding fire car colliding with a car.

Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 – 1954), Monday 7 February 1938, page 12

The report for the fire lists the address for Regal at William St. This is incorrect, as classified ads for wood turners list the address as 571 Little Bourke st.

On the 30th of March 1938, a new factory at 214a Park St was registered with the South Melbourne Council, the move was evidently planned before the fire occurred as they had been advertising for an electrician to quote for wiring the South Melbourne factory a month before the fire.
It is unclear whether they managed to re-start production at the South Melbourne factory as by August 1938 the company was in liquidation.
It does not seem that the Regal Mulga brand was used again after this.