Search results for 'John Short'

Vol 46 no 4, November 2024
John Wilson Carey and his ‘Queensland’ cabinet timbers
By David Bedford   |   November 2024   |   Vol 46 no 4




Scottish-born immigrant cabinetmaker John Wilson Carey (1829–1902) made two exceptional items of Queensland
cabinetwork in the 1870s which still exist today. His skilful use of many different Queensland timber veneers makes them
cabinetmaking tours de force. ...

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Vol 46 no 4, November 2024
John Wilson Carey, cabinetmaker and saw-miller
By Yvonne Barber   |   November 2024   |   Vol 46 no 4




While David Bedford has analysed two extant examples of veneered Queensland desks made by J W Carey, Yvonne Barber
provides biographical information about this man devoted to the Queensland timber industry, who remarked that ‘taking a
man like him from his business was li...

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Vol 46 no 3, August 2024
Phillis Seal, a remarkable woman
By Carol Bacon   |   August 2024   |   Vol 46 no 3

On the death of her husband Charles in Hobart in 1852, Phillis Seal (1807–1877) became the first woman to own and run a whaling fleet. Buffeted by falling prices for whale oil and labour shortages due to the gold rushes, Phillis eventually sold her ships and retired to live near her eldest son at Ballarat in ...

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Vol 46 no 1, Feb 2024
President’s update
By Colin Thomas   |   February 2024   |   Vol 46 no 1

I trust all members had an enjoyable festive season with family and friends, and took the opportunity to relax. During this period of relaxation, you may well have spent some time reading Australiana and the book so generously donated regarding John Mitchell Cantle, Australia’s first native-born orn...

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Vol 46 no 1, Feb 2024
Castlemaine’s Portrait of the Duchess of York
By John Wade   |   February 2024   |   Vol 46 no 1

The Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth) visited Australia to open our new Commonwealth Parliament in Canberra in 1927. On their royal tour, the Duke and Duchess briefly stopped at Castlemaine station in April 1927, met by an enthusiastic crowd.

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Vol 46 no 1, Feb 2024
Book Reviews
By    |   February 2024   |   Vol 46 no 1

BOOK REVIEW BY WARWICK OAKMAN
Mark R. Cabouret, Out From The Shadows
John Mitchell Cantle 1849 – 1919 Australia’s First Native Born Ornithological Draughtsman.
The Australiana Society Inc, Bondi Junction, NSW, 2023. Soft cover,
175 pages, 683 colour & sepi...

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Vol 45 no 3, Aug 2023
Book Review: Ron Radford, John Glover. Patterdale Farm and the Revelation of the Australian Landscape
By Scott Carlin   |   August 2023   |   Vol 45 no 3

Leading colonial artist? Or leading early 19th-century British artist working in the colony of Van Diemen’s Land? Clearly the latter. Ron Radford, John Glover, Patterdale Farm and the Revelation of the Australian Landscape reveals how John Glover (1767–1849), a leading artist...

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Vol 45 no 1, Feb 2023
An Itinerant Australian Colonial Billiard Table
By John Wade   |   February 2023   |   Vol 45 no 1

The National Museum of Australia in Canberra has purchased an Australian billiard table, carved in high relief with multiple panels of scenes of colonial life, and its matching marking board. Its price of $1,100,000 sets a new record for a piece of Australian furniture. The NMA is not known for collecting Austr...

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Vol 45 no 1, Feb 2023
Adelaide House, Alice Springs: an outback house museum
By Judith McKay   |   February 2023   |   Vol 45 no 1

Curator Judith McKay focuses on a unique house museum in the Northern Territory, originally planned in 1920 by the Rev. John Flynn of Flying Doctor fame as a model outback hospital. Its most remarkable feature was a passive ventilation system designed to cool the building on the Coolgardie safe princ...

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Vol 45 no 1, Feb 2023
Spanish Craftsmen at New Norcia Abbey in Western Australia part 2: John Casellas
By Dorothy Erickson   |   February 2023   |   Vol 45 no 1

Spanish monks established the Benedictine mission at New Norcia in Western Australia in 1846. Following on from her article last year on Isidro Oriol,1 Dr Dorothy Erickson concludes her series on the Spanish craftsmen who worked on buildings and furniture for the monastic community. Here she examines...

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Vol 44 no 4, Nov 2022
The Paris Exposition Universelle, the Suez Canal and a Gold Sphinx Brooch
By John Hawkins   |   November 2022   |   Vol 44 no 4

November 2022 marks the centenary of the discovery of the virtually intact tomb of King Tutankhamun, who reigned from about 1332 to 1323 BC. The pharaoh’s burial goods created a worldwide sensation focussed on ancient Egypt, which has long fascinated Europeans, partly because of its Biblical connections and p...

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Vol 44 no 4, Nov 2022
H.A. Nielsen, Art Cabinet Maker, of Port Douglas, North Queensland
By John Wade   |   November 2022   |   Vol 44 no 4

Many colonial woodworkers, often trained in Britain or Europe, came to Australia and discovered the vast variety of native timbers suitable for carving or for making furniture and timber articles. Jewellery ‘book boxes’ made from several contrasting North Queensland timbers and bearing the stamp of ‘H.A. ...

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Vol 44 no 3, Aug 2022
An American in the East
By John Wade   |   August 2022   |   Vol 44 no 3

In America as in England, tea drinking became highly fashionable in the 18th century. The duty imposed on tea imported into Britain’s North American colonies became a catalyst for revolution, highlighted by the Boston Tea Partyin 1773. Many discrete meetings of revolutionaries were fuelled by nothing more inc...

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Vol 44 no 3, Aug 2022
1950s souvenir jewellery and art with Indigenous motifs
By Christine Erratt   |   August 2022   |   Vol 44 no 3

Finding more examples of the silver brooch with Indigenous motifs that she discussed in our May issue, Christine Erratt delved further into their history. In the National Archives of Australia, Christine uncovered the 1954 design registration applications.
Six different designs, of which five were inspired b...

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Vol 44 no 3, Aug 2022
Thomas Griffiths, a Queensland woodworker
By John Wade   |   August 2022   |   Vol 44 no 3

Thomas Griffiths (1856–1943), a Welsh blacksmith and wheelwright, emigrated to Queensland to start a new life as a ‘skilled migrant’, at first clinging to his old profession in the Ipswich area. When the Queensland railway network was expanding, he saw a new business opportunity and opened a sawmill at Wy...

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Vol 44 no 2, May 2022
Australiana Society Sydney Basin Tour, March 2022
By Peter Crawshaw   |   May 2022   |   Vol 44 no 2

Numbers were limited on the NSW Branch’s recent successful tour of the Sydney Basin, so one of the organisers, Peter Crawshaw, reports on it for members who were not able to take part in person, especially those who live outside Sydney. Colonial furniture collector Bob Fredman was honoured to be asked to give...

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Vol 44 no 2, May 2022
King Albert’s ‘Birthday Book’
By John Wade   |   May 2022   |   Vol 44 no 2

After Albert I King of the Belgians refused safe passage to Kaiser Wilhelm’s troops to attack France, Germany invaded neutral Belgium on 4 August 1914. Britain, bound by an 1839 treaty to support Belgium’s neutrality, declared war on Germany the same day. Australian Prime Minister Joseph Cook offered his go...

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Vol 44 no 2, May 2022
A presentation casket with carving by John K. Blogg, 1915
By Sarah Guest   |   May 2022   |   Vol 44 no 2

The box seen here shows the superb carving of John Kendrick Blogg, a successful and entrepreneurial industrial chemist who was born in 1851 in Canada, settled in the Surrey Hills region of Victoria in 1877 and died in 1936. His day job involved making perfumes and extracting essential oils. Family legend has it...

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Vol 44 no 2, May 2022
Contributing to Australiana
By John Wade   |   May 2022   |   Vol 44 no 2

The Australiana Society aims to support ‘researching, preserving and collecting Australia’s heritage’. As our readers have a range of interests and live in different states, so we try to cater to all interests and regions. However, we rely on what you submit. Everyone is welcome to submit articles for con...

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Vol 44 no 2, May 2022
Photographing your Collection
By John Wade & David Bedford   |   May 2022   |   Vol 44 no 2

There are sound reasons why you should have good photographs of items in your collection, whether as a record, for research, for publication, for sale and for insurance.

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Vol 44 no 1, February 2022
Book reviews
By    |   February 2022   |   Vol 44 no 1

JOURNAL REVIEW BY DR ROSS JOHNSTON, Queensland History Journal, vol. 24, no. 11, November 2021, (Journal of The Royal Historical Society of Queensland); BOOK REVIEW BY DR LINDA YOUNG, Fringe, Frog & Tassel: The Arts of the Trimmings-Maker in Interior Decoration. By Annabel Westman; BOOK REVIEW BY DR DAVID BEDF...

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Vol 44 no 1, February 2022
Trevor John Kennedy AM 24.6.1942 – 28.11.2021
By Lesley Garrett, Anne Schofield & John Hawkins   |   February 2022   |   Vol 44 no 1

Lesley Garrett, a long-standing family friend, fondly recalls Trevor Kennedy's life and passion for collecting, amassing the most important collection of Australian decorative arts ever assembled... Anne Schofield, the source of much of the spectacular jewellery acquired for his collection, has her own distinct...

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Vol 44 no 1, February 2022
Henning Rathjen: Victorian art potter 1948–1968
By Anne Johnson & Anthony Armstrong   |   February 2022   |   Vol 44 no 1

In the aftermath of World War II, many commercial potteries were established in Australia to satisfy the market disrupted by hostilities, particularly for Japanese and European imports. While some of these new commercial potteries were established by immigrants from war-ravaged Europe, Henning Alfred Rathjen (1...

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Vol 44 no 1, February 2022
John Glover through the Claude Glass
By Glynnis Stevenson   |   February 2022   |   Vol 44 no 1

English painter John Glover once owned two Italian landscapes by the French painter known as Claude Lorrain. Claude's work prompted artists and tourists to view landscape in terms of art, so they would often look at 'Picturesque' scenery reflected in a tinted convex mirror known as a ‘Claude glass’, simulat...

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Vol 43 no 4, November 2021
Australiana Society tours 2021: Bathurst Heritage Weekend
By John Wade & Yvonne Barber   |   November 2021   |   Vol 43 no 4

Postponed several times due to Covid-19 restrictions, our plans for a visit to Bathurst in the NSW Central Tablelands, lands of the Wiradyuri Nation, finally came to fruition from 30 April to 2 May 2021, with the maximum
50 participants from five states taking part. Others were unable to attend for fear of not...

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Vol 43 no 4, November 2021
‘Royal memories of Canberra’; repatriating the Duke of Gloucester’s 1946 collection Scenes of Canberra by John Eldershaw
By Sam Nichols   |   November 2021   |   Vol 43 no 4

John Roy Eldershaw (1892–1973) was a landscape artist who worked primarily in watercolours. During his lifetime, he
was proclaimed to be ‘destined to leave unmistakable footprints in the sands of time’. In 1973 Sir Erik Langker, the arts administrator and influential member of
the Sydney arts establishm...

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Vol 43 no 4, November 2021
Meshach Stevens, artist, painter and tradesman
By Robert Stevens   |   November 2021   |   Vol 43 no 4

Between arriving in Hobart Town as a convict on 3 August 1831 and the last evidence of his residing in Van Diemen’s Land in 1847, Meshach Stevens painted a very competent copy of a famous print after William John Huggins titled Northern Whale Fishery, published in London in 1829 (plate 1).1 For almost ...

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Vol 43 no 3, August 2021
Book Reviews
By    |   August 2021   |   Vol 43 no 3

BOOK REVIEW BY ANNE-MARIE VAN DE VEN Gavin Fry, Havekes Painter, Sculptor, Ceramicist, Beagle Press, Canberra 2020. Hardcover, 168 pp, 32.5 x 27.5 cm, ISBN 987-0-947349-63-9, RRP $99. 
BOOK REVIEW BY PETER LANE Justin Gare, Donald Leslie Johnson and Donald Langmead, Colonial Vision Adelaide Kingston &am...

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Vol 43 no 3, August 2021
Allen Duckworth, woodworker and native timbers crusader
By Yvonne Barber & John Wade   |   August 2021   |   Vol 43 no 3

In the preceding article, David Bedford identified four Australian manufacturers of cribbage boards: Grose Manufacturing Co of Brisbane; Clipsal, a brand name of Gerard Industries in Adelaide; John Sands & Co, founded in Sydney as Sands & Kenny in 1851; and Crown Mulga made by A.W.G. Davey & Sons Lt...

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Vol 43 no 2, May 2021
Feedback
By John Wade   |   May 2021   |   Vol 43 no 2

Robert Stevens, in ‘William Paul Dowling: artist, artist-photographer and photographer’ in our November 2020 issue, and using information provided by Irish genealogist Dr Paul MacCotter, suggested that Dowling may have possibly been the ‘William Dowling’ baptised 26 December 1822 at St Mary’s Roman Ca...

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Vol 43 no 2, May 2021
James Whitesides’ chairs for the Parliament of Tasmania
By John Short   |   May 2021   |   Vol 43 no 2

The cabinet maker James Whitesides (c 1803–1890) arrived in Hobart from Ireland in 1832. He came to the colony with established woodworking skills and in the company of fellow artisans William Hamilton and John McLoughlin. The three opened business premises as Hamilton & Co in Argyle Street, but in Octobe...

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Vol 43 no 2, May 2021
German wood carvers in Tasmania
By John Wade   |   May 2021   |   Vol 43 no 2

In the 1930s, Henry McPherson, a former Clerk of the House of Assembly, told this story about William Peter Briggs, an employee of Whitesides, and the 1856 Governor’s (now President’s) Chair... This story is apocryphal. Though we normally think foremost of German immigration to South Australia, a German shi...

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Vol 43 no 1, February 2021
Much more than an E
By David Hansen   |   February 2021   |   Vol 43 no 1

The State Library of New South Wales recently purchased a rare original ornithological watercolour by Elizabeth Gould (1804–1841), formerly in the collection of the late James Fairfax AC. This adds to the collection of manuscript letters and other original materials the Library has acquired relating to this i...

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Vol 43 no 1, February 2021
The Goulds in Tasmania
By John Wade   |   February 2021   |   Vol 43 no 1

In 1832, John Gould produced A Century of birds from the Himalaya Mountains, the plates ‘drawn from nature and on stone by E. Gould’, and five years later, five volumes on the birds of Europe with 448 lithographic plates, most by Elizabeth Gould with 68 by Edward Lear. The bird specimens his brothers- in-la...

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Vol 43 no 1, February 2021
Feedback
By John Wade   |   February 2021   |   Vol 43 no 1

Many people help create each issue of Australiana: authors, editor, photographers, owners of items, designer, expert readers, proof-readers and other talented individuals and institutions. Once we publish, each story is pretty much set in stone, so we try to check our research, facts and conclusions first. We c...

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Vol 42 no 3, August 2020
Rayner Hoff – sculptor for the 1st AIF and World War I
By John Ramsland   |   August 2020   |   Vol 42 no 3

Historian and biographer John Ramsland surveys the permanent World War I memorials designed by Manx-born sculptor Rayner Hoff (1894–1937), constructed in Dubbo (1925), Adelaide (1927–30) and culminating in his work with architect Bruce Dellit in the Anzac Memorial in Hyde Park, Sydney (1931–34).

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Vol 42 no 3, August 2020
An early Australian mourning brooch
By Gregory Street   |   August 2020   |   Vol 42 no 3

A gold mourning brooch to commemorate the passing of John Hillas in 1847 at Bannaby (or Bunnaby) near Taralga in southern tablelands of NSW is typical of the early Victorian era and many similar pieces come up for sale today (plates 1-2)1. Black enamel surrounds a central glass-covered locket that most likely w...

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Vol 42 no 2, May 2020
Hunting for Mr. Beauchamp
By John Wade   |   May 2020   |   Vol 42 no 2

Among many contributions to the first "Virtual Show and Tell" was a portrait of a young boy. The owner asked who the artist might be, so the compilers flicked it to me to ask whom we should consult. It turned out to be a fascinating research project, and I want to share the process with readers.

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Vol 42 no 2, May 2020
At Home' at Clairville: a Tasmanian Branch event
By Scott Carlin   |   May 2020   |   Vol 42 no 2

On a beautiful summer’s afternoon, 85 members from Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Hobart and northern Tasmania attended the Tasmanian Branch’s 2020 opening event, an ‘At Home’ at Clairville (plate 1) near Evandale, courtesy of the owners, Michael McWilliams and Robert Henley (plates 2-3). The event on 22 ...

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Vol 41 no 4, Nov 2019
Captain Molly's table
By Dorothy Erickson   |   November 2019   |   Vol 41 no 4

This is the tale of a table and desk, the first an historic table made by a master craftsman who as an apprentice is reputed to have made one of Queen Victoria’s wedding presents as well as a chair presented to the Queen of Spain. This man made our table in Western Australia from native jarrah for a well-know...

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Vol 41 no 4, Nov 2019
Australiana Society annual report 2018
By Jim Bertouch & George Lawrence   |   November 2019   |   Vol 41 no 4

As you all know we are in our 40th year and will finish our celebrations with a three-day symposium on 18–21 October 2019 at the State Library of NSW. This is going to be a very big and significant event. We have more than 25 confirmed speakers and very many different areas of Australiana will be covered in t...

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Vol 41 no 3, Aug 2019
An exhibition quality display case veneered with an ornate Australian timber
By David Bedford   |   August 2019   |   Vol 41 no 3

This two-height cabinet (plate 1) has a capped, ogee-shaped cornice above, two glazed, veneer-bordered upper doors and two veneered panel doors below flanked by columns (plate 2), standing on a plinth. Its known provenance, as reported to me, is that it was found in Strathfield, Sydney, in the 1970s. Antique de...

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Vol 41 no 1, Feb 2019
A tribute to John Houstone
By John Wade   |   February 2019   |   Vol 41 no 1

David Scott Mitchell (1836 –1907) had a private income which allowed him to pursue his collecting and become the greatest Australiana collector. About a century after British settlement, Mitchell identified the need to collect Australiana that was, at the time, rapidly disappearing. His collection of somewher...

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Vol 40 no 4, Nov 2018
Book review: Christine Erratt, Ceremonial Maces of Australian Universities
By John Wade   |   November 2018   |   Vol 40 no 4

Christine Erratt, Ceremonial maces of Australian universities. Parker Press, Sydney 2018. 56 pages, 138 colour images, perfect bound 230 x 190 mm. ISBN 978 0 646 989235

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Vol 40 no 4, Nov 2018
J & A Campi: looking glass manufacturers, glass bevellers, wood carvers, frame makers and gilders, Melbourne 1853-1900
By John Hawkins   |   November 2018   |   Vol 40 no 4

John Hawkins has a particular interest in regional and ethnic diversity, as his articles on the influence of Scottish, Irish, European and American traditions on furniture and silver demonstrate. Here he looks at a group of Northern Italian-born craftsmen who established a mirror-making business in Melbourne in...

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Vol 40 no 3, Aug 2018
Dr John White FLS, Surgeon-General of NSW: a portrait by Thomas Watling
By E. Charles Nelson   |   August 2018   |   Vol 40 no 3

John White was born at Drumaran, County Fermanagh in north-western Ireland about 1756 – not England as is sometimes claimed.1 He entered the Royal Navy as a surgeon’s mate in 1778 and rose to naval surgeon; in this capacity he was appointed to serve as surgeon on the transport Charlotte in the First Fleet, ...

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Vol 40 no 3, Aug 2018
Edmund Edgar alias Bult
By Robert Stevens   |   August 2018   |   Vol 40 no 3

Edmund Edgar Bult (alias Edmund Edgar, c 1804–after 1852), a talented and respectable young London engraver cum cat burglar, ransacked the house of a young lady, only to be apprehended by a police constable while making his getaway. HRH Frederick Duke of York was among those who supported a plea for clemency,...

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Vol 40 no 3, Aug 2018
Exhibition Review: Colony; Australia 1770-1861
By John Hawkins   |   August 2018   |   Vol 40 no 3

The NGV touted its landmark 2018 exhibition Colony as “drawing from public and private collections across the country, Colony: Australia 1770–1861 brings together the most important examples of art and design produced during this period.”1 Although the show has over 600 exhibits, John Hawkins claims the s...

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Vol 40 no 2, May 2018
Of frogs, gold bracelets, opals, ladies and queens
By John Hawkins   |   May 2018   |   Vol 40 no 2

John Hawkins speculates about the origin of a massive gold bracelet with cast and chased decoration, mounted with polished Queensland boulder opal, and its possible connections with the colourful discoverers and promoters of late 19th century and early 20th century Queensland opals.

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Vol 40 no 2, May 2018
Book review: Judith White, ‘Culture Heist. Art versus Money’
By John Wade   |   May 2018   |   Vol 40 no 2

udith White, Culture Heist. Art versus Money, Brandl & Schlesinger, Sydney 2017. Paperback 246 pp

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The Australiana Society acknowledges Australia’s First Nations Peoples – the First Australians – as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of this land and gives respect to the Elders – past and present – and through them to all Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.