CUSHION, DUN- COLOURED, MULTI-COLOURED FLORAL EMBROIDERY

Embroidery worked in cotton, silk and woollen thread. Presumably the handiwork of Miss Gertrude Lipfert. Miss Gertrude Lipfert lived in the family home at 270 York Street, Subiaco until her death in 1989. Daughter of Otto Lipfert, taxidermist at WA Museum. Otto Lipfert was born in Germany in 1864. He trained and worked there as a furrier, but he developed a keen interest in nature and the animal species that were exciting Europeans in Australia. On hearing there was no taxidermist in Western Australia he migrated in 1892, making the voyage in a British ship so that he could learn English on the way.

In 1894 he became the first taxidermist to work for the Western Australian Museum. He made his first collecting trip—to the Abrolhos Islands—that spring.

Lipfert was naturalised in 1900. In 1902 he married German-born Anna Struck at the German club in Perth. The couple built a house at 270 York St (formerly Gibney Street), Subiaco, where members of the Lipfert family lived until 1989. Two daughters: Gertrude and Elsa.