Headquarters Sydney Type of business Private | Founded 1884 | |
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Industry Marketing and importing Key people John Shorter Snr (founder), Arthur Shorter, John Shorter Jnr and Lulu Shorter | ||
John Shorter Pty Ltd, commonly known as Shorters, was an Australian manufacturers’ importing agency company, best known as the Australasian agent for the British ceramics firms Royal Doulton and Mintons. John Shorter Pty Ltd remained the Doulton agents in Australia until 1979, when Royal Doulton Australia was established. The family and business were, through two generations, major donors to the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences in Sydney.
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Headquarters
Shorter House at 193–195 Clarence Street, Sydney, was completed in 1938 at a cost of £26,000. The building has a frontage of 40 feet and a depth of 83 feet and is of reinforced concrete faced in warm coloured textured brick. On opening, the company occupied the basement, fourth, fifth and sixth floors. The Building was designed by Robertson, Marks and McCreadie.
Shorter family
John Shorter was born in Staffordshire, England, in 1853 and came to Sydney in 1879 to install the Doulton display in the Garden Palace for the Sydney International Exhibition. He died on 30 January 1942.
He married his New South Wales-born wife Emily Jane Shorter, née Butler, in 1883. She was an artist and bore Shorter seven children.
Their first son, Arthur Shorter, was in born 1884 and was educated at Newington College (1898–1900). He worked for the family company and became a trustee of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences in Sydney. He died in 1957.
Their first daughter, Lucie Emilie "Lulu" Shorter, was born in 1887 and was educated at the Wesleyan Ladies’ College and became a china-painter and designer. The Powerhouse Museum have her work in its collection and the National Gallery of Australia hold her designs in pen-and-ink. She died aged 102 in 1989, having never married.
Second son, John Austin Butler Shorter was born in 1889 and after schooling at Newington College served in World War I. He was a director of Shorters and died in 1982.
Four more daughters were born in the next eight years: Constance in 1891; Elsie in 1893; Dorothy In 1895; and Elaine in 1903.