Further Miscellaneous

Lot 3490    Session 11 (9.30am Thursday)    Further Miscellaneous

Estimate $500
Bid at live.noble.com.au
SOLD $470

F LASSETTER & COY LD, Sydney, seal, oval brass company seal bearing the company's name around the trademark 'A1' above an Imperial crown, attached to a black enamelled turned and shaped handle. Extremely fine and rare.

F Lassetter & Coy Ld came into existence when Frederic Lassetter took charge of L Iredale and Co in 1863 and changed the name. The firm became one of Sydney's largest universal providers selling everything from steam engines to groceries. It had premises in George Street which occupied most of the western block between Market and King Streets and also warehouses in Clarence and York Streets as well as Surry Hills and in 1910 employed about 1,000 workers. Frederic died in 1911 and his son, Henry, became Managing Director. Henry had an illustrious military career and as a Lieutenant Colonel he led the New South Wales Mounted Rifles detachment to England for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee and headed the colonial escort for the procession. He also commanded the Second New South Wales Mounted Rifles in the Boer War, was mentioned in dispatches and honoured with a Companion of the Order of the Bath. Previously he served on the Soudan Expedition 1884-1885. He left Sydney in 1915 to take command of a territorial brigade. It was in this year that his son, Frederick, who was recovering from a war wound along with his mother were passengers on the RMS Lusitania when it was torpedoed and sunk. They both survived. After creditable war service Henry Lassetter was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in January 1917 and later that year was promoted to Brigadier-General. After demobilisation in 1920 he lived in England for a few years returning to Sydney in 1924. He developed complications after an appendicitis operation and died in 1926. He was buried at Sydney's South Head Cemetery in a 'semi-military' funeral attended by the Royal Australian Artillery Band, military and business representatives and about 600 personnel from the Lassetter company. In this same year, F Lassetter & Coy Ld ceased to exist when its entire stock was acquired by its main rival, Anthony Hordern & Sons.