STOOL

Overview

Small, square, wooden stool. Four long, wooden, rectangular legs, attached to a square frame at the top. On top of the frame is attached a small, square, wooden block which creates a seat. The seat has a small, rectangular hole in the centre. Between the front and two side legs are three wooden rungs attached near the floor level. The rung between the two front legs is not squared off, appearing in the natural wood shape. The whole stool has a natural wood finish.

Historical information

Used at Fremantle Prison, possibly made in the Carpenters' workshop.

Details

Details

Registration number
cwa-org-89-1995.124
Item type
Material
Width
360 mm
Height or length
500 mm
Depth
265 mm
Contextual Information

Workshops were a necessary part of the Convict Establishment and were some of the first buildings constructed on site. The Carpenters Workshop was originally a wooden building at the front of the Prison until 1858, when it was moved next to the Blacksmith’s Shop at the south-eastern corner of the site. Whilst carpentry was regarded as a difficult skill to learn, and not many of the convicts were trained to work with wood, carpenters were essential in the new Establishment’s construction. Convicts were trained to lay the joists, floors and roof, and build the scaffolding required around the new Prison buildings. They also built the wooden portable houses used by road parties, wagons, trucks and coffins.

In the later years the Carpenters’ Shop was reputedly one of the most productive shops in the Prison. Apprenticeships were relatively easily to obtain, with prisoners serving four years or more. The apprentices who worked in the shop and demonstrated an aptitude for the job were eligible to apply. In the Carpenter’s Shop, along with an instructor, there would be several prisoner tradesmen, allowing the apprentices an opportunity to learn. The work varied from a regular production line of all the cell furniture used at Fremantle Prison, to the finer art of teak fittings for yachts and quality handmade furniture.

When Fremantle Prison closed in 1991 the Carpenters’ Shop was still a productive prison industry. The cell furniture in the Fremantle Prison Collection, made in the Carpenters’ Workshop, was left onsite when the Prison closed in 1991.

Primary significance criteria
Historic significance
Artistic or aesthetic significance
Scientific or research significance
Social or spiritual significance
Comparative significance criteria
Interpretive capacity
Object’s condition or completeness
Rare or representative
Well provenanced
Fremantle Prison

Fremantle Prison

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