Jackie Howe's Engraved Wolseley Shearing Handpiece

The Jackie Howe mechanical shears. This engraved Wolseley shearing handpiece was presented to and used for many years by the legendary 'Gun' shearer Jackie Howe (1861 - 1920). Pastoralist and inventor Frederick York Wolseley (1837 - 1899) first patented a sheep shearing machine in 1877, and established the Wolseley sheep Shearing machine Company 10 years later. Through the late 1880s and early 1890s the new Wolseley equipment was widely adopted throughout Australia and New Zealand, and had an extraordinary impact on shearing tallies. In April 1892, the Warwick Examiner and Times reported that 'All the big stations are erecting machines out here,' noting that on 'Barcaldine Downs' '51 men in 6 weeks and 3 days shore 190,324 sheep; and on Tuesday last, in 8 1/2 hours' work 50 men shore 7,700 sheep or an average of 154 sheep per man. Jack Howe (a Warwick boy) was ringer with 236 sheep.' (1) While Howe's total does not compare with his phenomenal (and still unbroken) hand-shears record of 321 fleeces in one day, it is nevertheless a most impressive achievement, and was recognised with the award of a gold medal for 'The highest tally with / Shearing Machines / Season, 1892.' (This medal - together with another for hand shearing - was sold at Sotheby's Australia, 27 May 2008, lot 137 for $360,000.) the Wolseley Company evidently saw publicity advantage in Howe's prowess on the boards, presenting him with a personalised handpiece in 1893. (2) This important, unique industrial-historical artefact has combined associations: with a great labour folk hero and a Company whose technological innovation revolutionised wool production in Australia. Inscription reads Presented to Jack Howe by the Wolsley S.S.M.Co January 1893 (1) 'Local and General News', the Warwick Examiner and Times, Warwick, 30 April 1892, p. 2 (2) the gift May indeed have been a form of inducement; in January 1893 there was circulating in the backblocks 'A rumor that Jack Howe had been offered, by the Wolseley Shearing machine Company. £12 a week and expenses to work two hours a day at the Chicago Exhibition.' ('notes and Comments', the Western Champion and General Advertiser for the central-Western Districts, Barcaldine, 10 January 1893, p. 1)