Australiana, Vol 47 no 2, May 2025

What an outstanding success the 2024 national tour of Victoria was! Victorian branch chair Robert Stevens and his team did an absolutely fantastic job in every regard. From venue selection, menu selection, to negotiating the best possible deal with all providers, nothing more could possibly have been wished for. On behalf of the board and those who had the great privilege to attend the first ever Australiana Society national tour of Victoria, a huge thank you to Robert and all involved does not seem enough. Tour and Victorian branch member Graham Stanley provides an insight into the tour later in this magazine. Thank you for this Graham. The Society’s Evolution The Victorian tour demonstrated the wisdom of the former Sydney committee in creating state branches, initially in Tasmania followed by Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and NSW. This decision has enabled the Society to grow, following amendments to the constitution. Immediate past president Dr Jim Bertouch in particular must take credit for his leadership in this regard....

The Peter Crossing Collection in Sydney recently acquired a set of engravings now identified as very early proof pulls made in London for Joseph Banks’s unpublished Plantarum omnium detectarum Terrarum maris au∫tralis de∫criptiones & figurae (Descriptions & illustrations of all the plants discovered in the lands of the Southern Sea). Professor David Mabberley compares it, the only set in private hands, to other extant sets; it is unique in that some of the engravings bear annotations likely by Banks and/or Daniel Solander, while 20 of the 32 pulls are unrepresented in other collections.

Acanthus leaves have been used as decoration in buildings, furniture and pottery since the birth of western architecture. They were often a decorative feature on Australia’s early Neo-Classical furniture until the advent of Australian themes towards the end of the 19th century. Bob Fredman discusses the use of acanthus motifs by Australian artisans and concludes with some information about an interesting piece of pottery.

The fashion for emu eggs for decorative purposes gained momentum through the latter part of the 19th century as Australia approached Federation. As aligned to Australian identity as the emu is, it may come as a surprise to discover that emu eggs attracted Japanese artisans who expressed their artistry in innovative ways. Two emu eggs decorated specifically for Japanese audiences in Japan, and others by a Japanese carver living in Australia, provide very different scenarios for examination of this art form. Japanese scholar Dr Jennifer Harris looks into the differing treatments of this typically Australian material by Japanese artists, both in Japan and Australia.

Frederick II of Sicily made contact with the Kurdish al-Malik Muhammad al-Kamil in 1217, a year before he became Sultan of Egypt. Over the next 20 years, the two rulers communicated regularly, exchanging letters, books and rare and exotic animals. One exotic gift the Sultan sent Frederick was a Sulphur-crested or Yellow-crested Cockatoo. A written description and four sketches of this parrot survive in a 13th-century Latin manuscript in the Vatican Library. These images reveal that Australasian cockatoos were present in the Middle East and that one reached medieval Europe about 1240.

Once again, the task of judging the Peter Walker Fine Arts Writing Award has proved challenging. The challenge comes from the diversity of well-researched, well-illustrated articles. Inevitably the short list for the Award will come from the longer articles but the interest of the magazine comes as much from the mix of short and long articles as it does from the longer pieces. Often the short items add detail or fill gaps in existing scholarship about well-known makers, or form part of an exchange between collectors and scholars.

Frequent contributor to Australiana and former curator at the Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), Glenn R Cooke, died in January. Australiana editor John Wade encapsulates Glenn’s immense influence, drawing on the orations at his memorial in Brisbane organised by Dr Judith McKay. While Glenn was recognised for his collecting and his generosity, he was admired most for his mentoring and inspiring dozens of early career curators and collectors.

The Australiana Society’s first national tour of Victoria from 20 to 24 March was a huge success. The tour got off to an unusual start at Gary and Genevieve Morgan’s Gallery, with our host Gary Morgan addressing us on a large screen from his hospital bed...

William and Mabel Blamire Young collaborated in many of their artistic and other endeavours, yet she was overshadowed and her work has been largely unrecognised. Dr Andrew Montana investigates her contribution, especially to the Arts and Crafts Movement in Victoria, with the help of their descendants.