Sparrow Collection

John Mallitte House, Muritai Road, Milford. This shot of the exterior of the Mallitte House, illuminated at night, is one of the many Sparrow images that appeared in Home and Building. The house was designed by the Group Architects, and featured in an article entitled "From a crowd to a game of darts", in November, 1955.

There are several groups of negatives documenting the workers and products of Crown Lynn Potteries, taken for the parent company Amalgamated Brick and Pipe or Ceramco, or for the advertising agency J. Inglis Wright. The firm was very successful throughout the decades when S.I.P. was active, and the scale of their production can be seen in images such as this one, of women packing finished cups.

1. These two images are from a selection of photographs taken for Dominion Breweries in 1946-7, and show the versatility of the Sparrow output. The vats are in the brew house at the Waitemata Brewery, Great South Road, Otahuhu.

2. The marketing image of a tankard of beer with the silhouette of a man in a hat highlights the photographers' abilities with the most ordinary of products.

Some of the images are useful not only for documenting the history of particular businesses, but also for preserving a record of the design and style of their premises, including window dressing, sign-writing, interiors and fittings, as demonstrated in this photograph of a Milne and Choyce department store window at night.