© Ken Hawley Collection Trust - K.1849
Angus & Coote is an Australian jewellery, watch, and giftware chain, which was founded in Sydney in 1895. The original owners were William Angus, a watchmaker, and Edmund James Coote, a working jeweller. After Angus’s death in 1902, Coote became the sole proprietor. By 1918, the firm’s showrooms flanked both sides of the Royal Arcade at George Street, Sydney. The firm was involved in both manufacturing and retailing. Besides jewellery, which was usually Australian-made, the firm sold holloware, electroplated and sterling silverware, and cutlery. In the early twentieth century, the silverware was largely American and British, with cutlery imported from Sheffield. In the late 1920s, Angus & Coote developed a range of finely-crafted table silverware, relying on Atkins Bros (presumably the Sheffield firm of that name) for technical assistance and holloware blanks (Cavill, 1988)1.
In 1952, Angus & Coote was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange as a public company. In that year, Sheffield exports of cutlery to Australia began to decline markedly, due to the imposition of higher Australian import tariffs. The decline was later accelerated by competition from Far Eastern cutlery suppliers. By the 1970s, Angus & Coote had a chain of retail stores around the country. However, in 2006, when the firm was struggling, the Coote family sold out to New Zealand-based rival James Pascoe.
1Source: Kenneth Cavill, ‘The Silverware of Angus & Coote, Sutton Electroplate Company, and Perfection Plate’, Australiana (August 1988).