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Migrant craftsman
creates export trophy
(Extract
from "Overseas Trading" February 1979.)
An Italian-born
Melbourne manufacturing jeweller created from gold and silver a symbolic
export trophy, mounted on Western Australian iron stone, which will be
presented to winners of the Governor-General’s Award for Export
Excellence.
The Governor-General,
Sir Zelman Cowen, will make the inaugural presentations of the award at
the National Export Conference in the Lakeside International Hotel,
Canberra, on 19 February.
Details will appear in
the next issue of Overseas Trading.
Three winners will be
presented with the trophies, coinciding with the launching of the Export
Consciousness program.
The designer and
craftsman of the trophy is Mr. George Andolfi of the Melbourne suburb of
East Bentleigh.
He and his wife migrated to Australia nine years ago from Mestre, near
Venice, and set up a business making jewellery and specialising in
exclusive designs for jewellery wholesalers.
He suggested the design
of the trophy to officials of the Department of Trade and Resources.
It consists of a globe of the world with a map of Australia
superimposed to symbolise Australia’s role as an exporter to world
markets.
The trophy is made from
overlapping leaves of sterling sliver whose inside surfaces are plated
with gold to give an interesting colour contrast.
The map of Australia is made from 9 carat yellow gold and the
three-and-a-half inches high globe is set on a stem of 9carat white gold
supported on a base of Tiger Iron Stone mounted on a one-inch high round
base of sterling silver.
Mr. Andolfi this month
said he could not estimate the total number of hours it took to complete
the trophy.
He said: “A special
commission such as this presents many novel problems, but when you see
the finished article it makes it all worthwhile.”
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