Daniel White Esq. Illuminated Presentation and Accomplishments

Daniel White Esq. hand-painted illuminated presentation, To Daniel White Esq. Dear Sir, In The Presence Of A Gathering Representing All Branches Of The Carriage Trade Of Victoria And On The Eve Of Your 81st Birthday, We Desire To Offer Our Congratulations And To Ask You To Accept This Address As An Expression Of The Very Great Esteem With Which You Are Held By The Trade With Whom You Have Been Hounourably Associated For Over Fifty Years, 18th Sept. 1915. Signed by Chairman William Burton, artwork by C.Kingsley-Smith. White was born in September 1834 at Roscrea, County Tipperary, Ireland. Following the death of his father to whom he was apprenticed as a blacksmith, White age seventeen and the eldest of seven children migrated to Melbourne with his mother and siblings in 1861. By 1868 White established his own carriage-building business in Swanston Street. The business grew rapidly and was known for the quality of it's carriages making regular appearances at international exhibitions and even made carriages for the King of Siam. With the arrival of the combustion engine White turned to making automobile bodies for imported chassis. White was a life member of the Coach and Waggon Builder's Association, and an office-bearer in the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce. In 1877 he had moved the motion that created a local chamber of manufactures, of which he was president (1883-84) and honorary treasurer for thirty-eight years. 45 x 33 cm