Advertisements and household budgets in late 19th-century Australia: evidence and inference practice test

What can advertising reveal about household choices, and what remains unknown? Read the evidence notes, then answer six questions about commercial purpose, price comparisons and the records needed to reconstruct a budget.

How to use this test

Read both evidence notes before selecting one answer per question. The notes are paraphrases of identified modern sources discussing historical catalogues; they are not invented advertisements or household accounts. All questions can be answered from the notes and the stated research situations. The practice threshold is 80%.

The geographical focus is Sydney and the retailer’s country market in New South Wales. These examples do not establish spending patterns for Australia as a whole.

Evidence note A: reaching household customers

Museums of History NSW identifies an Anthony Hordern & Sons catalogue dated 1894, held under reference TC 658.871 HOR/94. Its account explains that the Sydney firm’s general catalogues helped it reach country customers through mail order. This documents a commercial channel for offering goods, rather than a record of any particular family’s purchases. Source: Anthony Hordern & Sons.

Evidence note B: comparing tableware prices

In her 2005 study, Penny Crook compares White Granite and Double Line tableware advertised by Anthony Hordern & Sons in 1894. Double Line complete services cost more than corresponding White Granite services, but several individual pieces cost less; the soup tureen cost more. The comparison concerns advertised prices, not a household spending diary. It cautions against assuming that the price difference between complete sets applies equally to their component pieces. Source: Quality, Cost and Value: Key Concepts for an Interpretive Assemblage Analysis, discussion accompanying Table 2.

From an advertisement to a household budget

An advertised price is a starting point for investigating a purchase. To reconstruct a particular household’s budget, seek evidence of income, rent, food, fuel, clothing, debts and other obligations for the same period. Check whether any quoted purchase price includes delivery and whether a transaction was actually completed. These are research questions, not claims that such records survive for the customers discussed here.

A catalogue alone cannot establish how often an item was bought, who used it, or whether a household could afford it. Missing purchase evidence leaves those matters unresolved.

For further practice, see Reading Australian household inventories from the 19th century.

Sources

Evidence note A describes catalogues intended to reach country customers. Which inference is best supported? Every country household bought the goods illustrated.
The retailer sought customers beyond its immediate Sydney neighbourhood.
Country households spent the same amount as Sydney households.
In evidence note B, some individual pieces cost less within the more expensive complete service. What follows? The price ranking of complete services cannot safely be applied to every individual piece.
Every piece in the more expensive service must have been better made.
Households always saved money by buying complete services.
A researcher wants to estimate how much a particular household could spare for tableware in 1894. Which additional evidence would be most useful? A larger illustration of the advertised tableware.
The number of products in the catalogue, without any household records.
Dated records of that household's income, regular expenses and debts, together with relevant purchase prices.
Which discovery would most directly support the claim that a named household actually bought an advertised item? Another advertisement showing the same item.
A dated receipt identifying the household, item and amount paid.
A catalogue statement that the item offered good value.
Why would these Sydney retailer examples be insufficient to establish a typical budget for all Australian households in the late 19th century? They provide no representative sample of household incomes and spending across different places and circumstances.
Commercial sources contain no usable historical evidence.
A surviving catalogue proves that all households had access to its goods.
Evidence note B paraphrases a 2005 study of an 1894 catalogue. How should you describe the evidence used in this test? A verbatim statement from an 1894 household diary.
A complete transcription of the original catalogue.
A modern researcher's analysis of historical commercial material, presented here as a paraphrase.