Search results for 'Les Carlisle'

The Paris Exposition Universelle, the Suez Canal and a Gold Sphinx Brooch

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...

Queensland to a T Collection and Exhibition, State Library of Queensland

Prodigious Australiana contributor Glenn R. Cooke is well known through his professional interests in Queensland art, decorative arts and social history. But that does not define Glenn; he loves ballroom dancing and gardens, as well as pursuing a sideline in collecting artefacts relating to his home stat...

H.A. Nielsen, Art Cabinet Maker, of Port Douglas, North Queensland

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. ...

1950s souvenir jewellery and art with Indigenous motifs

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...

Early school samplers from Van Diemen’s Land

As part of their education in useful arts, schoolgirls sewed their own individual samplers, which are also important indicators of progress in educational methods and reach. The format is fairly standard, with the letters of the alphabet in either or both lower and upper case and basic numbers, plus the gi...

Thomas Griffiths' book box construction

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...

A presentation casket with carving by John K. Blogg, 1915

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...

Contributing to Australiana

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...

Trevor John Kennedy AM 24.6.1942 – 28.11.2021

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...

Through the looking glass – identifying W. H. Rocke & Co’s second Melbourne International Exhibition 1880 drawing-room cabinet

Objects and art shown at international exhibitions always attract a premium. Often, they really were ‘showpieces’, specially made to demonstrate the maker’s skills, ability and cutting-edge design. Three room suites of W. H. Rocke’s furniture displayed at the prestigious Melbourne International Exhibiti...

Jack and Achilles: a classical source for Benjamin Duterrau’s Native taking a Kangaroo?

Artists in early Australia were usually trained in Britain and Europe in the Classical tradition going back to ancient Greece and Rome. David Hansen explores the possibility that, in the composition of his paintings created in Van Diemen’s Land, Benjamin Duterrau was influenced by Renaissance and Classical mo...

Peter Walker Fine Art Writing Award 2021

Peter Walker Fine Art established our annual Writing Award in 1999 to encourage writing for Australiana. At that time Australiana was a 32-page magazine, stapled, with three to five articles and a few black-and-white illustrations per issue. Twenty-two years on, the award has achieved its objectives. The Austra...

Book Reviews

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...

Victoria’s earliest potteries

Greg Hill’s new research, using contemporary newspapers and other resources now easily available on Trove, has found a raft of previously unknown potteries operating in Victoria in the 19th century. These push back the dates of Victorian pottery manufacture into the 1840s. Many examples of these wares however...

‘Angels in the Studio’ in Western Australia part 3: Passing through

Continuing our story of the women artists working in Western Australia before World War I, we will now turn to three ‘Angels’ who came, saw and conquered, but did not stay. They were all single, peripatetic, somewhat bohemian and left their mark in several societies. Marie Anne Tuck (1866–1947); Florence ...

The 2020 Peter Walker Fine Arts Writing Award: Judge’s Report

The annual Peter Walker Fine Art Writing Award, established to encourage authors to write for Australiana, has now operated for more than 20 years. As readers and researchers, we all benefit from Peter Walker’s continuing interest and support but, as the 2020 judge for the award, it seems to me that the task ...

Update from the President

I trust all members enjoyed a wonderful festive season and new year with family and friends. Who would have thought at this time last year that 2020 would present us with the challenges that it did? Hopefully 2021 will prove to be more the ‘norm’. As I write this, regional COVID outbreaks appear to have bee...

Much more than an E

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...

Angels in the Studio in Western Australia

Continuing our story of the women artists who worked in Western Australia,1 we examine the careers of those who exhibited in the Paris and Glasgow international exhibitions at the turn of the century – when Western Australia was in the midst of a Gold Rush. While Lady Forrest’s work was exhibited in a separ...

Feedback

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...

Tasmanian Magnificence part 2

British and Irish emigrant craftsmen working in early colonial New South Wales and Tasmania brought with them the Classical Revival style, with its sweeping curves and carved decoration. This elegant furniture, mostly in cedar, and inspired by the re-discovery of ancient civilisations, has many admirers. Bob Fr...

Carl Ewald, ‘Gluepot’ Graetz of Graetztown, South Australia

German settlers in South Australia, notably in the Barossa and to a lesser extent in other parts of Australia, introduced a furniture style based on the rural carpentry traditions of their native lands, rather than the more common styles seen in Australia derived from British cabinetmaking. David Bedford and Ri...

A Cook discovery

Exactly 250 years ago, HMB Endeavour commanded by Lt James Cook was the first British ship to sight the east coast of Australia, then known as the Great South Land or Terra Australis Incognita. As one of the most important exploration milestones in Australia’s history, it now seems to be passing largely unnot...

Angels in the Studio’ in Western Australia: the precursors

Dr Dorothy Erickson begins a new series of articles on Western Australian art, exploring the production and themes adopted by women artists in the 19th century, and putting their work into its social and artistic context.

An early Australian mourning brooch

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...

Robert Dowling, the elusive cabinetmaker of O'Brien's Bridge, Van Diemen's Land

David Bedford has researched the life and work of Tasmanian cabinetmaker Richard Dowling (c 1820/1822–1867), little documented till now. He presents new discoveries about Dowling’s life and suggests why Dowling’s story has been so elusive. Evidence has emerged, and examples of his work found, which show t...

The founding years of Harvey School pottery 1916-1922: completing the story

Australiana is often defined by the combination of local materials, local motifs and local skills to create art that is distinctively and recognisably Australian. The Harvey School of pottery making, which flourished at the Central Technical College in Brisbane from 1916 for more than thirty years is one of the...

Charles Rodius, convict artist

Charles Rodius began his prolific art career in Paris and London. Convicted of thefts in 1829, he was transported to Sydney, where the convict artist produced landscapes, portraits of leading Sydney settlers as well as notable portraits of Aboriginal people, many translated into lithographs. Rodius had a good s...

Book Review: Vanessa Finney, Transformations

Vanessa Finney, Transformations: Harriet and Helena Scott, colonial Sydney’s finest natural history painters. New South Publishing, 2018, ISBN 9781742235806, 220 pages

Forty years of collecting: a love affair with Australiana

David Bedford and Jennifer Stuerzl reflect on the pleasures of 40 years of collecting Australiana. Jennifer is a practising artist, painter, print and artist’s book maker and curates international print shows. David was trained as a botanist and became Director of the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens before ...

Captain Molly's table

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...

Australian goldsmiths' marks: the records of the Australian Assay Office

When you are dealing with precious metals, you want to know that what you have is what it is claimed to be. European countries instituted hallmarking systems to verify this, some of them operating for over 700 years. Silver expert Jolyon Warwick James discusses how Australia had its own hallmarking system, but ...

And to beautify his house": Lyon, Cottier & Co.'s ecclesiastical window glass and decoration during the 1870s'

Sydney stained glass artists Lyon Cottier & Co. carried out many commissions in public, private and religious buildings in their 50 years of activity from 1873 to 1924. Prominent architects chose their work for Sydney’s GPO, Government House and Parliament House. Religious services were an important and frequ...

Scrimshaw - art of the mariner: the Colin Thomas collection

Colin Thomas, the inaugural chairman of the Tasmanian Chapter of the Australiana Society, has assembled a significant collection of scrimshaw, mostly of Tasmanian origin, which reflects Tasmania’s early prosperity as a result of maritime industries. In the first of these articles, Scott Carlin gives the backg...

A tribute to John Houstone

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...

W. J. Williams: art decorator of Ayers House, North Terrace, Adelaide

At a heritage conference in Adelaide in 2015, Dr Donald Ellsmore attributed the superb interior decoration at Adelaide’s Ayers House and Gawler’s Para Para in South Australia to the Sydney decorating firm of Lyon, Cottier & Co. and their employee Charles Gow, purely on speculation. Till now, his opinion has...

Alice Maud Golley, a remote wood carver

In her postgraduate research into South Australian wood carvers centred on the Adelaide School of Design, Jodie Vandepeer came upon the strange story of Maud Golley (later known by her married name, Maud Baillie), a self-taught carver from remote Wedge Island, with no connection to the School. Her works exist o...

J & A Campi: looking glass manufacturers, glass bevellers, wood carvers, frame makers and gilders, Melbourne 1853-1900

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...

Dr John White FLS, Surgeon-General of NSW: a portrait by Thomas Watling

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, ...

Madame Bourdic's little plate

In the 19th century, many artists trained in Europe came to Australia, where the strange new land often impacted on how they saw the world and what they depicted. French china painter Madame Bourdic did not succumb to the Australian environment. She continued to paint china in the academic tradition she had lea...

Moreton Bay pearls in Australian jewellery

Australian colonial artists sought to use local materials and to appropriate local motifs in their artworks for several reasons: to reflect the Australian origin of their work, to distinguish it from the art of other nations, and to foster a stronger sense of connection with the country. Moreton Bay pearls are ...

Exhibition Review: Colony; Australia 1770-1861

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...

Peter Walker Fine Art Writing Award 2017 judge's report

The Peter Walker Fine Art Writing Award is an annual award which has been generously sponsored by Peter Walker Fine Art of Walkerville, South Australia since 1999. Peter Walker is a valued member and longstanding supporter of the Australiana Society. The Society is most grateful for his continued interest in it...

Kevin Fahy Annual Lecture 2018: Tasmaniana

Firstly thank you to Jim and the Society Committee for demonstrating the faith you have in me to deliver what I regard as this most important lecture. We all owe the late Kevin Fahy a significant debt for the time that he took researching, collecting and preserving Australia’s heritage, particularly in the bo...

Book review: Judith White, ‘Culture Heist. Art versus Money’

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

Mr Head's brass tray

Years ago I bought a brass tray with gum leaves on it. I turned it over and saw that the maker had incised on the back “Hand Made R. Head Cremorne”. At the time, the name meant nothing to me. Then I found another one, without a maker’s name, but in the Arts & Crafts style and with similar features: the sa...

A message from the President

In October this year, the Australiana Society will turn 40, and I am very pleased to announce that we will be recognising this important milestone in a number of different ways. However it is worthwhile remembering that when the Society was founded in 1978 there was very limited interest in Australian decorativ...

Tribute: G W K (Ken) Cavill, 1922-2017

The passing of Emeritus Professor Ken Cavill on 25 August 2017 at the age of 95 should not go unnoticed. Many newer members will not be familiar with Ken, who was the foremost researcher in the field of Australian silver and gold of the early 20th century, which he also collected. His articles appear in Austral...

Book review: Robert La Nauze, ‘Made to Order. George Thwaites and Sons, colonial cabinet makers'

The first study into our furniture history appears to be by John Earnshaw, a retired engineer. The name ‘W. Beatton’ stamped on an old cedar chiffonier aroused his curiosity. Earnshaw investigated further and produced a slim book, Early Sydney Cabinetmakers, in 1971 which resulted in devotees, students, his...

Book review: Jennifer Sanders (ed), ‘Collecting for the Nation, The Australiana Fund'.

... Tamie Fraser was one of the first to realise the same could be done here to reflect our own culture and history. In 1978, she encouraged the establishment of The Australiana Fund (not to be confused with the Australiana Society, established in the same year), with the aim of lending appropriate examples of ...