File:StateLibQld 1 136834 Chairs designed and built by Ed. Rosenstengel, Brisbane, 1946.jpg

Sir Leslie Orme Wilson, former Governor of Queensland, who acted as Chairman of the Red Cross Appeal Committee during the war period, and Lady Wilson, former President of the Division, photographed at Government House. The Wilsons are pictured just prior to their departure overseas, with their Rosenstengel chairs. The chairs were presented to them by Red Cross workers throughout Queensland. Lady. Wilson is sitting in one of the chairs which is a replica of the one beside which Sir Leslie Orme Wilson is standing. (Description supplied with photograph). The chairs are made from Queensland maple and covered in pin weave fabric by A.H. Lee of Birkenhead, England. Edmund Rosenstengel (1887-1962) was born in Toowoomba. He learnt his trade as a cabinet-maker apprenticed to the business of Rosenstengel & Kleimeyer. He was later to work in Sydney, Auckland, Vancouver and Grand Rapids (USA), as well as in England and Europe, before returning to Toowoomba in 1911. In 1922 he came to Brisbane and commenced business on his own account in Fortitude Valley, where he was to remain until his retirement in 1958. His work was distinguished by the use of Queensland timbers, particularly Queensland maple and silky oak, together with elaborate carving and marquetry inlay. His best known public commissions include the invitation to furnish a bedroom at Government House, Brisbane, for the visit of the Duke of Gloucester in 1934, and a jewel case intended for the (then) Duchess of York. (Information taken from: K. Fahy and A. Simpson, Australian furniture: Pictorial history and dictionary 1788-1938, 1998.).