Saltbush Bill sent me the photos.  I will let him tell the history on it.

That is obviously a very poor copy of a CC Harding & Sons oven. There were quite a few made and I believe they were made by the workers of the Hasco Foundry in Ballarat. My understanding is Hasco made some ovens for Sovereign Hill a couple of times over the years so they would have obviously had the use of the original Harding patterns.

The last time they cast ovens for Sovereign Hill was a few years ago when Billmans stopped making the ovens for them. I got a lid that was made by them and it is of the same poor casting with the horrible mould brush marks showing in the castings.

The methods used to cast these copies are completely different to the way Hardings cast their ovens. Notice how the handle is cast, the solid ears and cylindrical shaped legs.

Most of these copies had different names or wording cast on the lids. I have photos of a number of them in my files.

In recent times a mate of mine got ripped off with one of them and the bloke selling it knew very well it wasn't a genuine Harding. .

The oven above is most definately a copy!

Jeff

Changed the name.