Theo Lorenz

Theodore “Theo” Lorenz was a German-born lapidarist and opal cutter at Lightning Ridge. Born on 24 July 1866 at Bremen, Germany, Theo was the son of Lucie and Nicholas Lorenz. He migrated to Australia and married Mary Ann O’Brien in Victoria in 1891. They had two children.

Lorenz was recognised as a highly skilled opal cutter. He worked at the Nettleton settlement on the Three Mile Flat into the 1920s, where he cut opal using horizontal wheels driven by hand crank. Despite the crudity of his equipment, he was considered an expert, producing quality finished stones and making his own opal jewellery. He is noted as having taught Harold Frazer how to cut opal.

He was employed as a cook at the Imperial Hotel, he was a member of the New Town Cricket Team in 1914 and attended cricketers’ dinners between 1912 and 1921. Theo Lorenz lived on the far eastern end of Morilla Street, now the town centre of Lightning Ridge, roughly where the Westpac bank now stands.

Theo Lorenz was one of the first opal buyers to buy opal by the carat, adapting to the new methodology of opal pricing that remains in place today. In March 1911 he sold his black opal and jewellery shop in Sydney to E. F. Murphy, effectively swapping positions with Murphy, who had previously been one of the most active buyers one the Lightning Ridge field.

Among the possessions Lorenz sold to Murphy in the sale of his opal and jewellery business was a painting of the SMS Moewe (or Möwe), a Habicht class steam and sail ship. Moewe was a small German gunboat that helped establish German control in Togoland (now Togo and Ghana) and Kamerun (now Cameroon), served in East Africa during the Abushiri revolt, then became a survey ship mapping German Pacific territories, including areas around New Guinea. Murphy did not care much for the painting and was happy to move it along to a new home in 1916.

Court records also show that Lorenz was, at one time, prosecuted for operating as a second-hand dealer without a licence.

Theo Lorenz died in Sydney on 16 August 1955, aged 89.

Article: Research by Russell Gawthorpe and Leisa Carney, edited by Russell Gawthorpe. LRHS research compiled by Len Cram and Barbara Moritz. Sources: ‘Australian Turquoise’, Evening News, 2 February 1903, p. 5; ‘Buying Precious Stones - Second Hand Dealer Fined’, Evening News, 20 April 1907, p. 7; ‘A Diamond Ring - And a Course of Music Lessons - Artist Prosecutes Opera Singer - A Charge that Failed’, Evening News, 7 July 1908, p. 5; ‘A Painting of the Moewe Possessed by Sydneyite’, Sunday Times, 6 February 1916, p. 9; Lightning Ridge - The Home of the Black Opal: Unique to the World, Gan Bruce, 1983, p. 60; A Journey With Colour: A History of Lightning Ridge Opal 1873-2003, Len Cram, 2003, p. 307.