Homes with servants often used a bell system to summon assistance. A tug on a pull cord in a room of the house would ring a bell on an indicator board in the servants' quarters.
Each room had its own separate bell so the servant knew in which room their assistance was required.
In later electrical versions, like the one pictured below, a push button replaced the bell pull and shutters replaced bells on the room indicator board (an open shutter indicated which room was calling).
The label for this artefact indicates it came from a house that once stood at 27 Royal Tce, a house originally owned by Max Mendershausen.
Recently, I set out to find more about Max Mendershausen and his Royal Tce home.
Max Mendershausen succeeded Dunedin tobacconist Carl Steinhoff, who announced his retirement in November 1871.
When an Otago Daily Times reporter paid a visit to the business in 1875, he found Mr Mendershausen using a mixture of Nelson and American tobacco to produce the first New Zealand-made snuff (powdered tobacco).
The Royal Tce house, which would be home to Max and his wife Susan Louise Mendershausen for more than a decade, was built about 1878.
While information on the employing of servants at No 27 is lacking, a long-serving employee of Mendershausen's shop hit the headlines in 1889 when he committed suicide by shooting himself.
After the death of his wife in 1890, Max Mendershausen left Dunedin.
The house was sold to Willam Lawrence Simpson, whose wife periodically advertised for servants in local newspapers in the years immediately preceding World War 1.
Max Mendershausen died in Berlin, Germany, in 1909 in his 86th year.
Peter Read is a curator at Toitu Otago Settlers Museum.
