Dressing Room
Welcome to the Dressing Room. In the Victorian era, it was common for men to have separate spaces within the house. These rooms included the library, a dressing room, and a drawing or smoking room. A feature in Newstead House’s gentleman’s dressing room is the exquisite wooden sleigh bed with Dutch marquetry inlay in floral design, c1820.
Bankruptcy and insolvency
The Harrises mortgaged Newstead for £10,000 to Toowoomba businessman James Taylor in 1874. Around this time George also invested in gold, tin, and silver mining, losing a great deal of J & G Harris’ stock when these ventures did poorly. By 1876, J & G Harris had gained a £300,000 debt in London and filed for insolvency. This led to the brothers’ parting ways and George establishing his own business under the name George Harris & Co in September 1876.
With the Harrises unable to pay the mortgage, Newstead transferred to James Taylor. The Harris family continued to rent the house from Taylor, who subdivided the land and sold it at auction in 1878 and 1888, until there were just four and half acres left around the house.
The above auction notice appeared in The Brisbane Courier on 18 April 1890, signalling the Harris’ vacation from Newstead after 27 years.
The auction on 22 April 1890 included all household possessions, contents of the outbuildings, farm animals, and even the family pets.
There can be little doubt that losing Newstead in such a public way affected the Harrises. George Harris also became ill soon after vacating Newstead and died on 28 March 1891 at the property they had moved to in North Quay. Jane lived for a further 26 years.
What was in this room?
Scroll through the 1890 auction catalogue below to find out what was in this room.
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3 Adjacent Rooms
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