The small township of Ross is south of Hokitika on New Zealand’s West Coast and is an old gold-mining settlement.
Ross is now a stop for tourists who come to look at the history of the area, walk the old gold-field paths, and experience gold-panning for themselves. It also has an op-shop, short for “opportunity shop, a colloquial name for a charity store. A recent visit to the store turned up a textile panel of horses and a rider, with a mid-century look. The panel is stiff with screenprinting ink, and has “A Greef design. Produced in England by Warner and Sons” along the selvedge. Some sleuthing has revealed an interesting story that links three continents together.
In 1933, Greeff Fabrics was founded in the United States by Theodore ‘Teddy’ Greeff. Initially the company worked with Warner and Sons to distribute British designs to the American market but by the 1950s Greef was producing its own printed fabrics. In 1955 six Greef designs were printed in the UK, a reversal of the companies’ initial way of working. In 1964 Greef Fabrics (UK) was established and was run by Warner and Sons.
The Dick Van Dyke Show was an iconic American 1960s sitcom that featured Dick Van Dyke playing Rob Petrie, Mary Tyler Moore playing his wife, Laura, and their young son, Richie (Larry Matthews). In their fictional living room there was a picture behind the sofa and it turns out that this picture was not a painting but a textile. In fact, as this article on Facebook explains, it was a panel from the same textile that was in the op-shop in Ross, although the latter was British-made.
The original print is a repeat of two panels on a Greek theme, one with horses going left, and a rider, and another below it with the horses facing right, with a rider and a runner. The two panels are separated by a decorative border, missing in the op-shop piece but present in the the picture on the Petrie’s wall. The piece in the Petrie’s living room is almost the same as the one in the op-shop, horses prancing left, except for those decorative borders.
Of course this panel has now been added to the textile collection at the Regent Theatre in Māwhera Greymouth. Who knew that it was a part of an important story and interesting history. It is intriguing as to how it ended up in a charity shop in the little township of Ross on the West Coast of Aotearoa!
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