Buy a PDF or print copy of Australiana for $40, including postage. Print issues are subject to availability. Issues older than 5 years are available to download for free.
Become a member of the
You will automatically become a subscriber to the Australiana journal, and receive four issues every year, as well as exclusive access to events and benefits.
Scottish immigrant David Reid was a plumber and gasfitter who worked in Sydney’s inner western suburb of Newtown. He enriched his life by taking up painting and etching, mostly of pastoral scenes, and by participating in the life of the artistic community.
On 6 February 2012, Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her Diamond Jubilee, the 60th anniversary of her accession. This milestone has afforded an examination of her life and reign, and has revived interest in the Royal Family at large, including Britain’s longest reigning monarch, Queen Victoria. Queensland – one of the two Australian colonies named after her – presented gifts to the Queen for her Golden Jubilee in 1887 and Diamond Jubilee in 1897.
The Wallis album is closely linked to the two chests through Captain James Wallis (1785?–1858). Wallis, appointed commandant of the Newcastle penal settlement by Macquarie in 1816, had the Macquarie chest made as a parting gift for Governor Macquarie around 1818. It is possible that Wallis, who retired from the army in 1826 as a Major, put together the album in the 1840s, when he retired to the Isle of Man. Many of the drawings and paintings in the album were the basis for decorating the panels on the two chests. The Library bought the album in October 2011, after it was discovered in the miscellaneous possessions of a deceased estate consigned to auction in Canada.
In his new book Convict and Free: The Master Furniture-makers of Early New South Wales, David Kelly presents well-researched biographies of dozens of previously little-known cabinetmakers. Tasmanian and NSW cabinet-maker, undertaker and upholsterer Joseph Baronet Bridekirk is just one of them. His story is documented in the book, and abridged here for reasons of space.
I am very pleased to announce that the Australiana Society would like to invite submissions from institutions to assist in the acquisition of an object or objects of Australiana.
London being London, many wonderful and stimulating exhibitions were on when we visited in September – October 2013. They are worth recording here to remind us of the importance of mounting exhibitions aimed at stimulating the audience rather than pandering to a market.
The construction of the complex and difficult-to-make oval cedar case for the Woodstock Challenge Cup (plate 1) illustrated in my article “Essie Jenyns and her Australian Terriers” has prompted me to wonder how and why it came into being. Recently I purchased for my reference library a complete set of the Bulletin of the Society of Ornamental Turners (SOT).2 In Bulletin vol 25, no 125, September 2011, there is an article on surviving Birch twin-mandrel lathes, giving as an example the Wood family and its Birch lathe.
Collectors and Australiana Society members Graham and Elizabeth Cocks will be remembered by a collection of Arts and Crafts jewellery, generously given by their daughters to the Art Gallery of South Australia and the Powerhouse Museum.
As the daughter of a botanist, botanical artist and writer for whom species and genera have been named, and currently researching the women artists of Western Australia, I was really interested to review what looked to be a lovely book. The attractive layout designed by Kathryn Wright has numerous illustrations interspersed with a selection of photographs of von Mueller and the women.
The Neville Cayleys – father and son – are a curious case. Both were prolific, and are well represented in the market. The most recent iteration of the Australian Art Sales Digest (www. aasd.com.au) lists 605 works by Neville Henry Cayley and 572 works by Neville William Cayley sold at auction since the 1970s. This is more than artists like Conrad Martens or Tom Roberts. Market backing for the Cayleys is consistent, but not spirited. The highest price for Neville Henry, realised at auction in August 2013, is $23,600, while Neville William has reached $15,000.
