Installation view of 1001 Remarkable Objects at the Powerhouse Sydney, featuring a glass panel painted for Sydney signwriters Althouse & Geiger c 1900 and a lyrebird chair based on a design by Lucien Henry c 1890. Photograph Zan Wimberley.
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Thank you to members who attended the 2023 AGM in person and via Zoom. From my perspective it was great to catch up with members and present the 45th AGM of our wonderful Society. A copy of my President’s Report is included in this magazine as is the Financial Report.
Recycling ain’t what it used to be. Launceston clock and watch experts Graham and Sallie Mulligan came across a tapestry footstool which their sharp eyes recognised as comprising re-used parts of an old clock. Further investigation revealed that the parts came from a significant wall clock which had been retailed in Launceston by clockmaker James Barclay between his arrival in 1834 and his death in 1845.
Leo Schofield describes his first (and last!) gig as chair of the curatorium which devised the current exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum in Ultimo in Sydney, the first major and kaleidoscopic show of objects from the Museum’s holdings since 1988. It has proved exceptionally popular. Here he chronicles how it evolved.
The earliest known free-standing, full-length sculpture created in Australia is a highly detailed sandstone statue of a well-dressed colonial gentleman, urinating. Functionally plumbed, this statue is as extraordinary as it is enigmatic. Chris Tassell speculates on who might have commissioned it, who made it, when it was made, who it represents, and why it was made.
British artist Robert Ponsonby Staples was a casual visitor to Australia with his father Sir Nathaniel Staples, sailing on the first voyage outwards of the SS Orient in November-December 1880. After a month in Sydney, the pair departed on SS Orient’s return voyage in January 1881. When the ship was moored off Adelaide in early February, R P Staples executed what Peter Walker describes as one of the first plein-air Impressionist works painted in Australia, Off Adelaide, 1880.
European immigrant William Milner was a little-known entrepreneur who established a porcelain manufacturing business after arriving in Melbourne in 1911. The porcelain industry was largely driven by a massive need for electrical insulators, and, as COVID-19 has demonstrated today, a local industry was essential to guarantee supply. Milner expanded into table wares, decorative items and sculpture, establishing substantial ceramic workshops in Victoria and later Queensland, which continued to be managed by family members after his death in Ipswich in 1942. Some of Victoria’s best known art potters such as Merric Boyd, Hatton Beck and William Ricketts experimented with porcelain. This story is abridged from a chapter of Greg Hill’s new book presenting his detailed research into Australian porcelain and its makers.
Jewellers in colonial Australia, often lured by the gold rushes, came from various parts of Britain and Europe, arriving already having served their apprenticeships. Teaghan Hall tells the story of several members of the Hutton family, who initially came to the colonial Victorian gold fields towns of Daylesford and later Ballarat. They established jewellery and watchmaking businesses catering to the local markets, and which thrived for almost a century.
Vida Lahey is a well-regarded Queensland artist who exhibited in 33 solo exhibitions beginning in 1902. More recent interest in women artists rekindled interest in her works. Glenn Cooke reveals a project to document Lahey’s output and seeks the help of collectors in this task.
... The 2023 financial year has proven to be another great year for the Society. With the disaster that was COVID-
19 behind us, your board got to work at a national and state level to deliver enhanced opportunities to benefit members. Events included the annual national tour in March 2023 to Canberra and environs led by NSW branch chair Robert Hannan, assisted by our national secretary Peter Crawshaw and NSW committee member Gail Darby. This was the first occasion the national tour had visited the ACT and members who attended experienced a wonderful time of learning and fellowship. Special thanks are extended to Robert, Peter and Gail for their skill in arranging an event which was of the highest standard and ran very smoothly...
