AUSTRALIAN TRENCH ART SOUVENIR FROM LEVENSONS PITT ST SYDNEY
HISTORY
Levenson's Radio
226 Pitt Street, and 86a Pitt Street, Sydney
They were in existence from the 1920s to at least the late 1960s. They had a large mail-order business. It was largely a family run business headed by Joe Levenson. Levensons was noted for being a retailer of Australian made and imported radios with some bearing the Levensons brand.
Airplane ashtrays collectors occasionally come across an e-Bay auction for an ashtray modelled in the shape of Australia.
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Most originated from the estate of some US or UK serviceman who had been stationed down-under in the 1940s. Typically, they are heavily engraved with the names of key Australian towns and cities, while some feature a kangaroo as well, engraved in outline with the chrome in the body rubbed back to expose the bare metal. Each is surmounted by a P-38 Lightning or perhaps a kangaroo figurine. On the underside of the Australia ashtray is inscribed “Levenson’s Radio 226 Pitt St. Sydney”.
Australia seems to be a bountiful source of airplane ashtrays dating from the war period – cast, finished and engraved with details such as flaps and cockpit, then chrome-plated – in other words, the bye-products of factory production rather than models produced in the field from whatever materials came to hand – i.e. true trench art.
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Certainly, there are numerically far more cast English and American cast airplane ashtray models dating from the war to be found on e-Bay, but Australian-sourced models make up a significant proportion of the offerings each month, which raises some interesting questions about their manufacture, because Australia was far from being one of the world’s heavily industrialised economies in the mid-20th century.
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Why did Australians make these models and why, and how did they get onto the market in the first place? This is a study which both interests and frustrates me because the evidence is scanty, but undoubtedly, Levenson’s Radio played a part. This business is one of only two which have currently been identified as a source for Australian airplane ashtrays in the 1940s.
Even 70 years ago, Levenson’s Radio emporium, at 226 Pitt St – then, just as now, right in Sydney’s shopping heartland – must have seemed like a glorious throwback to an earlier age of retailing. Today’s consumer-savvy observer, stumbling across their full-page ads in back issues of Radio & Hobbies in Australia magazine, might conclude it was rather like some wonderful hybrid of Santa’s Cave and the Shanghai No. 1 Department Store, rather than a sober commercial establishment.
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ITEM DESCRIPTION
This brass vase was made from a 18 pounder shell and is dated 1917. The handle is in the shape of a Kangaroo. On the base of the vase amongst the numerous issue stamps there is an engraving that reads 'From Levensons Radio 226 Pitt St Sydney'. This is only the second piece of Trench Art/souvenir that I have had from Levensons who obviously saw the opportunity to make some money from Trench Art souvenirs during and after WW2.
This vase highlights Australian pride by displaying the Kangaroo handle during WW2 and after when the troops came back, It also shows the ability of an Australian retailer to diversify their sales during what must have been difficult times.