Vol 41 no 2, May 2019
Vol 41 no 2, May 2019
Digitisation for Researchers
By Yvonne Barber   |   May 2019   |   Vol 41 no 2

At our request, Sydney researcher Yvonne Barber put down some thoughts to help you (and me) improve our knowledge and techniques for researching Australiana, using the November 2018 article on Adelaide painter and decorator W J Williams as an example.

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Vol 41 no 2, May 2019
Kingston’s vision: South Australia’s earliest and most enigmatic piece of colonial furniture

Three South Australian researchers explore the possible genesis and history of a massive red gum bookcase which came up at an Adelaide auction in 2017. Using a variety of evidence, sources and methods, they identify the bookcase as a very early piece of South Australian furniture and mount a case for who commis...

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Vol 41 no 2, May 2019
William Lamborn, gold rush jeweller in colonial Melbourne and his associations with Henry Leopold Wagner and Samuel Peck Woollett
By Jillian Dwyer   |   May 2019   |   Vol 41 no 2

Jillian Dwyer unravels the facts surrounding the place of William Lamborn in the triumvirate of Woollett, Wagner and Lamborn as Victorian gold rush jewellers, refines the dates of their operations, maps the emergence of Lamborn & Wagner as “one of the earliest firms of manufacturing jewellers in Australia,”...

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Vol 41 no 1, Feb 2019
Portrait of an artist: rediscovering Rose Blakemore
By Timothy Roberts   |   February 2019   |   Vol 41 no 1

Recently rediscovered information pertaining to the life of Australian painter and art teacher Rose Blakemore has enriched our understanding of four portrait miniatures in the Queensland Art Gallery’s collection.

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Vol 41 no 1, Feb 2019
Scrimshaw - art of the mariner: the Colin Thomas collection
By Scott Carlin   |   February 2019   |   Vol 41 no 1

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...

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Vol 41 no 1, Feb 2019
A table for the Asylum, New Norfolk
By Philip Reid   |   February 2019   |   Vol 41 no 1

You might easily pass by, without noticing, a basic item of furniture with little decoration or character, but a closer look can be revealing. Dr Philip Reid brings to life a small pine table, through a paper label pasted underneath, which reveals its maker, date, means of delivery and destination – the Hospi...

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Vol 41 no 1, Feb 2019
How to use protein glues
By Paul Gregson   |   February 2019   |   Vol 41 no 1

Furniture restorer Paul Gregson follows up Dr David Bedford’s article on “hide glue” in Australiana for November 2018 with some practical advice, although he suggests that a demonstration is more informative to understand the process.

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Vol 41 no 1, Feb 2019
Trust the women: women lead the way in preserving Queensland's heritage
By Judith McKay   |   February 2019   |   Vol 41 no 1

One of the first events organised by the Australiana Society’s Queensland Chapter was a visit to Miegunyah, the historic house museum owned and operated by the Queensland Women’s Historical Association in Bowen Hills, Brisbane for the past 50 years. For the visit in June 2018, local member Judith McKay acte...

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Vol 41 no 1, Feb 2019
Convict artist Frederick Strange ... the mystery deepens
By Robyn Lake   |   February 2019   |   Vol 41 no 1

In 2002, Therese Mulford and Robyn Lake co-authored an article on the shadowy painter Frederick Strange (c 1807-1873),1 best known as a painter of landscapes and portraits in Tasmania.2 Some of his works were recently showcased in an exhibition, The Enigmatic Mr Strange, at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gal...

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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
Mary Ives: transported for 14 years
By Megan Martin   |   November 2018   |   Vol 40 no 4

Megan Martin researches the historical background of an 1833 convict love taken, a rare example made for a female convict, and reveals a sad tale of migration and family separation that resonates today.

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Vol 40 no 4, Nov 2018
Book Review: With Heart & Hand. Art Pottery in Queensland 1900-1950
By Dr Grace Cochrane   |   November 2018   |   Vol 40 no 4

With Heart & Hand: art pottery in Queensland 1900–1950. Griffith University Art Museum, Brisbane, 2018. Standard edition $125, limited edition (with designer print)

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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
W. J. Williams: art decorator of Ayers House, North Terrace, Adelaide
By Andrew Montana   |   November 2018   |   Vol 40 no 4

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...

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Vol 40 no 4, Nov 2018
Thomas Wright, Geelong colonial silversmith and jeweller
By Geoff Laurenson   |   November 2018   |   Vol 40 no 4

Thomas Wright (c.1827–1912) may not be a well-known name today, but in early Geelong his shop was a mainstay. As with many other silversmiths and jewellers, little of his work survives, so his name rarely comes up in publications. The recent discovery of a Thomas Wright silver trowel in the Geelong Grammar Sc...

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Vol 40 no 4, Nov 2018
Alice Maud Golley, a remote wood carver
By Jodie Vandepeer   |   November 2018   |   Vol 40 no 4

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...

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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 4, Nov 2018
The Captain Cook silver statuette
By Yvonne Barber   |   November 2018   |   Vol 40 no 4

Lieutenant James Cook RN, commanding officer of HMB Endeavour, the renamed collier Earl of Pembroke, sailed on 26 August 1768 from England on a naval and scientific voyage to observe the Transit of Venus, collect natural history specimens and explore the east coast of New Holland. The 250th anniversary of the v...

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Vol 40 no 3, Aug 2018
Madame Bourdic's little plate
By Margaret Carlisle   |   August 2018   |   Vol 40 no 3

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...

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Vol 40 no 3, Aug 2018
Using hide glue to repair antique furniture
By David Bedford   |   August 2018   |   Vol 40 no 3

David Bedford cautions against using modern glues for antique furniture restoration, recommending instead that you stick with old-fashioned animal glues.

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Vol 40 no 3, Aug 2018
The South Australian Study Group
By Peter Lane   |   August 2018   |   Vol 40 no 3

NSW has always had the most Australiana Society members. Though Sydney has held Australiana Society events since 1978, only recently have ‘chapters’ been established in Tasmania and Queensland, with their own committees and developing their own programs. South Australia has a ‘study group’ and convenor ...

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Vol 40 no 3, Aug 2018
Vol 40 no 3, Aug 2018
Treasurer's Report
By George Lawrence   |   August 2018   |   Vol 40 no 3

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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
Moreton Bay pearls in Australian jewellery
By David Bedford   |   August 2018   |   Vol 40 no 3

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 ...

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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
Australiana Society gift to Sydney Jewish Museum
By Alan Landis   |   May 2018   |   Vol 40 no 2

The Australiana Society committee recently voted to make financial grants of up to $5,000 to museums to acquire Australian-related material that they could not otherwise obtain. The Sydney Jewish Museum situated in Darlinghurst, Sydney and celebrating its 25th year in 2018, was the successful applicant for the ...

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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
Kevin Fahy Annual Lecture 2018: Tasmaniana
By Colin Thomas   |   May 2018   |   Vol 40 no 2

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...

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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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Vol 40 no 2, May 2018
Book review: Glenda King, ‘Maude Poynter: painter and potter’
By Glenn R Cooke   |   May 2018   |   Vol 40 no 2

Glenda King, Maude Poynter: painter and potter. Tasmanian Chapter of the Australiana Society Inc., Hobart, 2018. Soft cover, 108 pages, plentiful colour and black and white illustrations. ISBN 978-0-646-98281- 6,

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Vol 40 no 2, May 2018
Peter Walker Fine Art Writing Award 2017 judge's report
By Elizabeth Ellis   |   May 2018   |   Vol 40 no 2

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...

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Vol 40 no 2, May 2018
Banks: the inside story
By Robert La Nauze   |   May 2018   |   Vol 40 no 2

The design and manufacture of a writing desk for the Bank of New Zealand, Dunedin (1879–83). We are familiar with immigrants trained in Britain or Europe coming to Australia and continuing their craft, or with Australian artists travelling to Europe to learn and expand their skills and ideas. Rarely have we l...

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Vol 40 no 2, May 2018
Australiana Society tour of Tasmania 2018
By Scott Carlin   |   May 2018   |   Vol 40 no 2

“Bring forty members to Tasmania to celebrate the Australiana Society’s 40th anniversary” was president Jim Bertouch’s brief. The new Tasmanian Chapter of the Australiana Society accordingly set to work under the leadership of chairman Colin Thomas to emulate the success of the Society’s 2015 Tasmania...

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Vol 40 no 1, Feb 2018
Tribute: John Rothwell (Ginger) Morris
By Peter Watts   |   February 2018   |   Vol 40 no 1

Peter Watts composed this tribute to John Morris, former director of the National Trust (NSW) and a former President of the Australiana Society. He outlines John’s substantial contribution to heritage conservation in NSW, where he and his allies took the fight up to bureaucrats and developers to preserve buil...

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Vol 40 no 1, Feb 2018
Book review: Peter Lane, ‘The Coin Cabinet'
By Bernie Begley   |   February 2018   |   Vol 40 no 1

If you think that a history of the numismatic collection held by the Art Gallery of South Australia would be a dry read of limited appeal, you are certainly in for a pleasant surprise with Peter Lane’s new book. It is a good read, full of life and interest.

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Vol 40 no 1, Feb 2018
A message from the President
By Jim Bertouch   |   February 2018   |   Vol 40 no 1

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...

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Vol 40 no 1, Feb 2018
Lewis John Godfrey in Australia
By Robert La Nauze   |   February 2018   |   Vol 40 no 1

Wood and stone carver Lewis John Godfrey contributed to the high end of the artistic spectrum displayed at the International and Intercolonial Exhibitions from the 1850s into the 20th century, and his stone carvings still grace many buildings in Dunedin, New Zealand. Immediately after finishing his London appre...

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Vol 40 no 1, Feb 2018
A Rats of Tobruk carved panel
By Peter Lane   |   February 2018   |   Vol 40 no 1

A Rats of Tobruk wood panel falls under the category of “trench art”: decorative objects made by soldiers, prisoners of war, or civilians that are directly linked to armed conflict or its consequences. This term is a misnomer as these objects were rarely, if ever made in the trenches. Many were made from sc...

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Vol 40 no 1, Feb 2018
A Queensland colonial egg inkstand returns home
By Kevin J Lambkin & Diane Byrne   |   February 2018   |   Vol 40 no 1

Prominent colonists or officials returning “home” were often presented with a memento to thank them for their achievements in Australia. These gifts often took the form of an object that was distinctly Australian in its design or materials. Many works have been forgotten or destroyed, so it is a gratifying ...

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Vol 40 no 1, Feb 2018
Rhodanthe, the Phar Lap of the coursing world
By John Hawkins   |   February 2018   |   Vol 40 no 1

Coursing has a history of over 150 years in Australia. In its heyday in Britain, the sport attracted the aristocracy and even royalty such as Prince Albert. In Australia, wealthy gentlemen bred, owned, traded and gambled on greyhounds. The most famous dogs were expensive, revered and the subject of portraits by...

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Vol 40 no 1, Feb 2018
2017 Kevin Fahy lecture: The Vaucluse House collection 1915-1970
By Megan Martin   |   February 2018   |   Vol 40 no 1

Vaucluse House has been in public ownership since 1910, initially managed by a government-appointed board of trustees as a public park and historical museum, and latterly managed as a house museum under the control of the Historic Houses Trust of NSW (now known as Sydney Living Museums). Megan Martin looks at t...

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Vol 40 no 1, Feb 2018
Mr Head's brass tray
By John Wade   |   February 2018   |   Vol 40 no 1

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...

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Vol 39 no 4, Nov 2017
Miguel Mackinlay: artistic success in London
By Dorothy Erickson   |   November 2017   |   Vol 39 no 4

Miguel Mackinlay (1894–1959) arrived in Western Australia as a child in 1906 and trained as an artist. He sailed for London in 1914 and was caught up fighting and sketching in the Great War. Dorothy Erickson concludes her three-part series on the painter who settled in England after the war and never returned...

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Vol 39 no 4, Nov 2017
Considerations on the psychology of collectors and collecting
By Mark R Cabouret   |   November 2017   |   Vol 39 no 4

Melbournian medical practitioner, ornithological art historian and collector Dr Mark Cabouret is well placed to set out some thoughts about the psychological aspects of collecting and distinguishes between ‘healthy’ and ‘unhealthy’ collecting. We hope this will stimulate some more contributions on the s...

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Vol 39 no 4, Nov 2017
Tribute: G W K (Ken) Cavill, 1922-2017
By John Wade   |   November 2017   |   Vol 39 no 4

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...

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Vol 39 no 4, Nov 2017
Fire insurance companies' fire marks in the Art Gallery of South Australia collection
By Peter Lane   |   November 2017   |   Vol 39 no 4

Few of us spend enough time cataloguing, photographing and managing our collections – subjects we will address in future issues. The Art Gallery of SA’s collection of “fire marks” put out by insurance companies has been in storage for over 70 years, but now they have been photographed, and catalogued by...

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Vol 39 no 4, Nov 2017
Book review: Robert La Nauze, ‘Made to Order. George Thwaites and Sons, colonial cabinet makers'
By Paul Gregson   |   November 2017   |   Vol 39 no 4

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...

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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.