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COLLECTIONSUniversity of Melbourne Issue 2, July 2008

University of M

elbourne C

ollections, Issue 2, July 2008

Front cover: Jan van de Velde II, ‘An antique gate’ (detail), plate 1 of part 1 of the series Sixty landscapes, 1616, etching, 13.3 x 20.0 cm, second state. Reg. no. 1959.3921. Gift of Dr J. Orde Poynton, 1959, Print Collection, Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne. The Jan van de Velde II etchings are among some 2,000 prints being rehoused in a conservation project generously funded by the Miegunyah Trust.

Back cover: Gérard de Nerval, Histoire de la reine du matin & de Soliman prince des génies, Hammersmith: Eragny Press, 1909. Special Collections, Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne. Detail of cover binding.

Cover photography: Lee McRae, Information Services

University of Melbourne CollectionsIssue 2, July 2008

University of Melbourne Collections succeedsUniversity of Melbourne Library Journal, publishedfrom 1993 to December 2005.

University of Melbourne Collections is produced bythe Cultural Collections Group and thePublications Team, Information Services Division,University of Melbourne.

Editor: Dr Belinda NemecAssistant editor: Stephanie JaehrlingDesign concept: 3 Deep DesignDesign implementation: Jacqueline Barnett

Advisory committee:Shane Cahill, Dr Alison Inglis, Robyn Krause-Hale, Michael Piggott, Associate Professor Robyn Sloggett

Published by the Information Services DivisionUniversity of Melbourne Victoria 3010 AustraliaTelephone (03) 8344 0269Email [email protected]

© The University of Melbourne 2008

ISSN 1835-6028 (Print)ISSN 1836-0408 (Online)

All material appearing in this publication iscopyright and cannot be reproduced without thewritten permission of the publisher and therelevant author.

The views expressed herein are those of individualsand not necessarily those of the University ofMelbourne.

Note to contributors: Contributions relating toone or more of the cultural collections of theUniversity of Melbourne are welcome. Please contact the editor, Belinda Nemec, on (03) 8344 0269 or [email protected]. For more information on the cultural collections seehttp://www.unimelb.edu.au/culturalcollections.

Additional copies of University of MelbourneCollections are available for $20 plus postage andhandling. Please contact the editor.

University of Melbourne Collections, Issue 2, July 2008 1

CONTENTS

Page 2 IntroductionWarren Bebbington

Chance, circumstance and follyLucinda Spencer

Page 11 Love in taxing timesJay Miller

Page 14 Lonely traveller in a transient worldKathleen Kiernan

Page 21 Dentistry in Australia before the First FleetHenry F. Atkinson

Page 24 The AXA Collection: Discovering the social value of business recordsChristine Kousidis and Helen McLaughlin

Page 28 Acquisitions: Eragny Press booksJacinta Fleming

Page 32 Conservation: The Laby X-ray spectrograph Dianne Whittle

Page 35 Review: Symposium on the care and conservation of Middle-Eastern manuscriptsClaire Patullo

Page 38 Cultural Treasures Days

Page 40 The provenance of a historic KoranDaria Fedewytsch-Dickson

Page 44 Mr de B*** and his airs of mysteryRichard Excell

Page 49 Collections news from across the University

University of Melbourne Collections, Issue 2, July 20082

The University’s cultural collectionshave been the centre of much activitysince the first issue of this magazineappeared in November last year. Aswell as providing their regularpersonalised service to students, staff,researchers and the wider community,our collection managers, curators,librarians and archivists have beenmanaging a major program ofcollections renewal, funded by theMiegunyah Trust. This has involvedcataloguing books and prints in theBaillieu Library Special Collections,medical rare books and journals, earthsciences and East Asian rare books,rare and historic maps, and herbariumeucalyptus and early specimens;upgrading the collection database forthe Henry Forman Atkinson DentalMuseum and conserving historicdental drawings; condition surveyingand conserving scientific instrumentsin the Physics Museum; and makingdigital preservation copies of cassettetapes in the University of MelbourneArchives. To share these and others ofthe University’s collections with boththe wider University community andthe public at large, the MiegunyahTrust has also funded an event—TheUniversity of Melbourne CulturalTreasures Days—to be held on the

Parkville campus from Thursday 18 toSunday 21 September 2008. Furtherdetails on the event are on pp. 38–39and you are most warmly invited tojoin us for exhibitions, special talks,guided tours, and family activities.

This year saw the introduction of the University’s new curriculum,known as the Melbourne Model. This curriculum is based on the beliefthat a well-rounded graduate needs abroad general education as well asspecialised training. Collections suchas ours have a role to play in both the liberal and vocational aspects ofuniversity life. Students who can drop into the campus art museum atlunchtime, walk past a colourfulmural or abstract sculpture on the way to a lecture, or listen in on asymposium celebrating the anni-versary of the birth of Percy Grainger,are richer for these experiences. On the other hand, medical studentsbenefit directly from examining thespecimens in their Faculty’s excellentanatomy and pathology museum;young historians can create originalwork by researching among theunique manuscript collections at theUniversity of Melbourne Archives;and botany students need a compre-hensive herbarium collection in order

IntroductionWarren Bebbington

Professor Warren Bebbington is Pro Vice-Chancellor (Global Relations) and also Professorof Music. He was Head then Dean of the Facultyof Music from 1991 to 2005. ProfessorBebbington is a graduate of the University ofMelbourne; Queens College, New York; and theGraduate School, City University of New York.He was also a Fulbright Scholar and WelsfordSmithers Scholar (1975–1976).

to identify the specimens they collectin the field. The University ofMelbourne provides all of these andmany other educational opportunitiesthrough its cultural collections.


Promoting public interest in anatomy,a profession notorious in the popularimagination for its mad surgeons andbody snatchers, was a relatively simpletask in the 19th century. Every weekexhibition halls, public museums andsideshows across Europe and Americawere crowded with people indulgingin a little ‘rational amusement’.Ranging from moderate to farcical inanatomical accuracy, these publicdisplays were among the few placeswhere, ideally in separate parties ofladies and gentlemen, the wonders ofthe human body were visible, throughlarge collections of wax anatomicalmodels. As a colonial outpost in 1861,Melbourne was even the location of apublic anatomical museum, two yearsbefore the establishment of theUniversity of Melbourne MedicalSchool.1

When Melbourne’s first professorof medicine, George Britton Halford(1824–1910), arrived at theUniversity in 1863, the collection hebrought with him to found theUniversity’s first medical museum wasof a more educational nature. Modelsused in medical education presentedthe body in a clinical context; beyondthe occasional presentation ofphysiological deformity—by whichanatomists were as enthralled as thepublic—the type of anatomical modelrequired for teaching differed in

content and style from those used forpublic amusement.2 Students wereexpected to learn from these materialsand despite the sensational aspects ofpublic amusement, the requirementsof medical schools created arespectable and profitable market inanatomical model-making.

This tradition of collecting wassustained at the University ofMelbourne well into the 20th century,enabling the Harry Brookes AllenMuseum of Anatomy and Pathologyto amass a large collection of wax,papier-mâché and plaster anatomicalmodels. Dating from the 19th andearly 20th centuries, the models arevaluable assets to the classroom inillustrating the three-dimensionalnature of human anatomy, and mayalso be valued for their depiction of ahistory of medicine. Each modeldisplays aesthetics concurrent withmovements influential to thedevelopment of medicine. Forexample, one visual theme shared byall the plaster collection is simplicityin design. As the explicitness ofpopular exhibits was tailored totantalise a curiosity in the taboo,scientific apparatus in the late 19thcentury promoted a pared-backedsobriety as the visual ideal of scientificmedicine. These values are bestexemplified by the plaster anatomicalmodel collection, which has disposed

of unnecessary ornamentation, exoticillustrations and expressive figurines.Unchallenged by what art historianDeanna Petherbridge labels the‘frivolity of art’, the new clinical,objective style of model produced formedical institutions ‘legitimisednotions of “serious” science andpowerful medicine’, reclaiming theuse of anatomical models formedicine.3

As the first collector of anatomicalspecimens and apparatus for theUniversity of Melbourne, Halford’swork was hampered by difficulties infunding, lack of staff and geographicisolation. His successor HarryBrookes Allen (1854–1926), afterwhom the current museum is named,chose to focus on pathologicalspecimens, leaving the anatomicaldepartment somewhat neglected.Australian universities were poorlyfunded in comparison to theprestigious schools of Europe, whichhad outstanding collections ofanatomical paraphernalia. It was notuntil the appointment of RichardBerry (1867–1962) as its first chair ofanatomy, that the flagging fortunes ofanatomy at Melbourne were revived.

Richard Berry’s tenacity incollecting is well documented.4

Arriving in Melbourne in 1906 with alarge assortment of bones, he oversawthe reconstruction of the anatomy

Chance, circumstance and folly Richard Berry and the plaster anatomical collection of the Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy and PathologyLucinda Spencer


department, contributing models andpreserved specimens to the museum.He was also influential in the creationof a physical anthropology collection.This collection enabled Berry tocombine his expert skills inanatomical examination with thedisciplines of anthropology andeugenic theory; foundling studies inthe 20th century that nonethelessblossomed amongst the unfamiliarAustralian landscape with its exoticflora and fauna. The indigenouspopulation particularly intriguedBerry. As naturalists had collected theexotic flora and fauna of the bush,

Richard Berry’s contribution to thecollections of museums and scientificinstitutions would literally be countedin heads. He was fond ofbushwalking, and the wilds ofTasmania held an abundance ofinterest, both for this activity and onprofessional grounds. In theexpeditions of one year, he and acolleague were able to ‘discover’ 42crania to be distributed to museumsin Australia and abroad.5

The suspect origin and ethicaldilemma of Richard Berry’s collectingactivities are not isolated to onecharacter in University history; rather,those influences that shaped hisactions were also responsible forsignificant directions in early 20thcentury medicine. Close inspection of the historical anatomical modelcollection in the Harry Brookes AllenMuseum provides a greater under-standing of early medical education at Melbourne. The creation ofanatomical models was a latemanifestation of a shared history ofart and medicine. The discussion thatfollows focuses on three significantexamples from the plaster collection,and how the story of their origin andthe development of artificial anatomyin medical education mirror theinfluences on education, experi-mentation and sometimes folly at theUniversity of Melbourne.

A European influence

Paris in the 19th century was a city ofrevolution, art and culture, andcoincidentally the capital ofanatomical model-making. WhenEuropean medical schools requiredartificial anatomy, their academicswould descend on the French city tobuy, direct from the manufacturers,the world’s best and most expensivewax and papier-mâché models.Names such as Deyrolle and Auzouxpromised the latest in scientificknowledge and technological advance,producing models of the highestquality. One such academic wasRichard Berry, who travelled to Parisin 1896 during his time as a Fellow ofthe Royal College of Surgeons inEdinburgh:

Paris was then, the home of thebiological maker of models, andto Paris I had to go … Variousportions of the Human bodywere reproduced in wax, papier-mâché, and such like, and wereoften more realistic as they werebuilt up on the actual bones ofsome long since dead Parisian.6

Conducting the business ofmodernising his department by day,before descending upon the famousnightlife of Montmartre, this trip

Doris McKellar, Professor R.J. Berry, first Professor of Anatomy at the University ofMelbourne, 1906–1929, c.1915–1918, gelatinsilver print, 13.5 x 8.0 cm. UMA/I/1976,University of Melbourne Archives.


Wilhelm His (anatomist) and Franz Josef Steger(sculptor), model of a female, dissected to

show organs after the spine has been separated, 1872–1904, plaster of Paris, paint, wooden base,copper plaque. Harry Brookes Allen Museum of

Anatomy and Pathology, University of Melbourne.

would be but a pleasant memorywhen Berry finally arrived at the bareand almost bankrupt University ofMelbourne in 1906. Over time theanatomy department at the Universitywould certainly not overlook theexquisite and expensive Parisianmodels, yet without a ready supply ofteaching apparatus or money, moreeconomical alternatives wouldcharacterise purchases during Berry’stenure. As the prestigious reputationsof the Parisian model-makers enabledthem to easily dominate the artificialanatomy market, other Europeancompanies competed by offeringmore affordable options. Across theborder, German manufacturersaligned themselves closely withuniversities in a different approach toanatomical model-making. In noother country had the transformationof modern medicine been as rapid orcomplete as in the German statesfrom 1820 onwards, and with thismedical revolution cameentrepreneurs, keen to supply thegrowing medical schools andcapitalise on the buoyant positivismfor the new ideals of science.Appearing in a secondary role to thatof well-known German anatomists,the model-makers traded on fineworkmanship and an authorisedmedical content. One famous unionwas between Leipzig University and

the model-making company Steger.Producing a range of affordablemodels for use by medical schools inthe latter half of the 19th century, thesculptor Franz Josef Steger hadpreviously collaborated withpathological anatomist Carl ErnstBock (1809–1874) before continuinghis university association withWilhelm His (1831–1904). Both inresearch and in public deeds, WilhelmHis was an academic powerhouse. Inone notable instance, he used forensicanatomy to locate the whereabouts ofcomposer Johann Sebastian Bach’sbody, which had been lost amongstthe graves in Johannis Cemetery.7

Appearing in internationalcatalogues and German shops ofscientific apparatus, Steger was aname that was well regarded yetlacked the allure of the Frenchcompanies. Trading on the scientificideals championed by Wilhelm Hisand the German university system,Steger’s were relatively simpleproductions compared to otheranatomical models. Without thestaggering production processes ofwax and papier-mâché, costs werekept low, effectively eliminating theirdesirability to those buyers lookingfor extravagant showpieces. ‘Sensiblemodels for sensible men’ could wellhave been a motto for Steger’s plasterproduction. Following a process ofdissection very similar to otheranatomical preparations, plastermodels, particularly the gypsum(plaster of Paris) casts, could be maderapidly and in multiples. With theskill necessary to hasten the process ofaccurate cast-making, the most labourintensive element of production—apart from the anatomist’sdissection—was the paintwork. As anexperienced model-maker it isunlikely that Steger would have beenforced to consult often with theanatomist on accurate colour and finedetailing, and once mounted on anappropriately understated stand themodel was complete. The professional


output of the Leipzig workshop, involume and variety of anatomicalmodels, attests to Steger’s skill andingenuity.

The main problem with orthodoxanatomical models was their inexactdetail. Although fine paintwork couldcreate an effect similar to humanorgans, it could not replicate theirtexture. Nor were those model-makers truthful in their representationsof the human bodies as imperfectmesses. By contrast, in taking acorpse, freezing it, then slicing thetorso precisely down the centre,Wilhelm His enabled Franz Steger tomake a precise cast, illustrating thenatural placement of organs, musclesand bones. Even the nature of organs,whether they were solid or cavity,such as the heart and stomach, wasvisible. The hyper-realism of Steger’sfrozen cast models, produced in anage where photography and othermeans of reproduction and replicationwere inexact, is a true credit to hisskill as a craftsman. Science hadovercome the vagaries of artisticinterpretation, and it was through theanatomist’s preparation, not an artist’simpression, that Steger modelspresented the human body togenerations of students in rationalscientific terms.

The University of Melbournepurchased eight His-Steger models.

Fortunately its collection of plastermodels, unlike those of theuniversities of Leipzig and otherGerman cities, remained intact afterthe catastrophes of war in the 20thcentury. Including examples of bothfree-form sculpture and direct casts,the Steger collection exemplifies theunion between anatomical model-makers and universities that existed in the late 19th century. This was aperiod when anatomical manufacturerssubdued any creative flourishes infavour of science, famous men, andnew techniques, all in their quest foraccurate representation.

An Australian modelRichard Berry’s arrival in Australia in1906 was an inauspicious event. Onboard the Orient docked at PortMelbourne, two Melbourne graduateswith an interest in anatomy greetedhim. Compared to congratulatorydinners he had received upon hisappointment in Edinburgh, theircurious questioning on whether hemight lift anatomy ‘out of the bog, inwhich’, according to their accounts, ‘ithad too long wallowed’ raisedimmediate suspicion.8 It was Februaryand amidst the 40 degree swelterBerry was soon able to absorb theshortcomings of the University ofMelbourne: ‘Notwithstanding … Idetermined to go and see for myself if

the anatomy department was as badas was depicted to me. It was worse. Itcontained literally nothing, not even askeleton, though later I discoveredquite a lot in the cupboard.’9

Finding the grounds similarly tohis distaste, the new professor was leftto ponder the wisdom of hisimmigration. With his career centredexclusively on Europe, Berry hadflourished within an environment ofprogressive scientific medicine. Tripsto Paris and Germany were regularfeatures of his research, and adjustingto the difficulties of colonial academiabrought out the more astringentaspects of Berry’s personality.Regarded as an excellent teacher, hewas nonetheless a stern character witha biting sense of humour.

From the Royal Colleges ofEdinburgh to an anatomy departmentadorned only with the peculiarbrownish marks of a student ‘meatfight’, Richard Berry’s initial cultureshock would transform into forcefuldetermination to revive the study ofanatomy at the University ofMelbourne.10 Within a month of hisappointment a report on the materialrequirements of anatomy wassubmitted to the Council of theUniversity and the FinanceCommittee.11 To teach anatomywithout visual aids was a challenge,and nearly impossible for students to

Franz Josef Steger, model of thorax and abdomen, date unknown, plaster of Paris, paint, wooden base. Harry Brookes Allen Museum ofAnatomy and Pathology, University of Melbourne.


follow. From his own student days,Berry recalled skipping uninformativelectures, resorting in a panicked rushat exam time to anatomical books.‘That a student would always followthe man who could give him what hesought—good teaching,’ was aconviction surely frustrated by theslow processes of bureaucracyhindering the refurbishment of thedepartment.12

Berry coped remarkably well inthese first years and was slowlygranted funds to renovate thedepartment. His career at theUniversity of Melbourne progressedto becoming Dean of Faculty, wherehe was extremely influential inguiding the direction of medicaleducation and ultimately becameresponsible for expanding thecollection of artificial anatomy. Hewas even able to contribute to themodel collection with one model that,although misshapen and poorlyfinished, is extremely precious to thestory of anatomy at Melbourne. Themodel, Male, age 2 years, 7 months—R.J.A. Berry is the only completeplaster anatomical model in thecollection that was made at theUniversity.

Compiling a collection ofexpensive overseas models, it wasnatural for Berry to utilise theresources available to experiment in

creating his own models.Understandably, Berry’s effort is theleast technically accomplishedexample in the collection. It neglectsthe association of over 400 yearsbetween art and medicine in thecreation of anatomical models.Another notable difference is thesubject Berry chose. Anatomicalrepresentations of children are lesscommon than of adults, and mostoften deliberately stylised. Portrayinga two-year-old child in the mannerBerry chose is almost unheard of. Thechild’s torso, removed of skin, arms,

legs and head, is barely recognisableto untrained eyes, following a style ofsanitised anatomical representationpopular from the early 19th centurythrough to today. Intended toseparate serious, supposedly impartialmedicine from human emotion, themodel almost succeeds in presenting apurely objective vision of a humanbody. Its flaw in this regard howeveris its pitiful size. Only 30 centimetresin height, it reveals the human realityof anatomical study.

Until recently, historiessurrounding the dissection of humanbodies at the University of Melbournehave skimmed across the topic ofprocurement. From discussing thetight government constraintsregulating the flow of dead bodiesinto the medical school, to the almostfarcical theft of human tissue byGeorge Halford, there has been littlesuccess in overriding the sense oftechnical procurement and gallowshumour dominating discussions onhuman dissection.13 Most commonlythe lack of bodies to dissect has beenthe feature of early stories from theanatomy department, and only inRoss Jones’ Humanity’s mirror, themost recent and thorough workdiscussing the study of anatomy at theUniversity of Melbourne, has a senseof humanity been restored to cadaversand medical specimens. Balancing the

Richard Berry, Male, age 2 years, 7 months, modelof an infant’s torso, 1906–1929, plaster of Paris,

paint, wooden base, height: 42.0 cm. Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy and

Pathology, University of Melbourne.


quarrels of academics and medicalschool administration, Jonesintroduces the character of JamesHalferty, a man whose body becamethe first recorded subject of a studentdissection. Over a century after hisbody involuntarily became theproperty of science, restoring to JamesHalferty his name is a small butsignificant gesture that penetrates theveil of scientific anonymity,14 a veilthat, although imposed to protectboth the identity of the subject andthe sensibility of the anatomist,encouraged the view of the dead bodyas a commodity.

It is with regret that I am unableto restore a name to the child whodied aged two years and sevenmonths. When the humanity ofcadavers and specimens is easilyoverlooked by the medical professionit is perhaps a continuing injusticethat a model directly cast from thebody of a child should continue to beexhibited bearing only the name ofRichard Berry.15 To which family thislittle person belonged, where theylived, and how the child died, areunknown. The likelihood is that theywere from the bottom of society,perhaps forced by circumstance togive their child to an institution.

Although I cannot name thischild, there is an epilogue—thoughsad and unsettling—to conclude the

Serious science and thefrivolity of art

Collections amassed by institutionsillustrate ideals of modernity,specialisation and a professionalapproach to the field of medicine. Yeteven among university collections areanatomical items that have come tosymbolise the trial and error ofscientific progress. The most visuallystriking models of the plasteranatomical collection are the threeheads made by Casciani and Son ofDublin. Modelled from cranialdissections conducted by anatomistDaniel John Cunningham (1850–1909), the plaster casts are unusual fortheir reproduction of the exact facialfeatures of the cadavers. Most modelsfrom this period aim to give adignified face to the humancondition, whereas the Casciani triodisplays an intriguing combination oftechnical accuracy and ghoulishrealism. In one particularlyfrightening example, a partiallydissected brain appears as secondaryto the weathered face and blank eyesof a man whose mouth hangs ajar instupor. Cunningham was ananatomist interested in physicalanthropology, and like other medicalmen of the period, was influenced byresearch and ideas that would spawnthe development of eugenic theory.

story of the model Male, age 2 years, 7months. By the early 20th century theUniversity of Melbourne and otherinstitutions had become selectiveabout the types of cadavers theiranatomists and students dissected.These were usually the poor, criminal,or institutionalised. Unfortunately forRichard Berry’s family, death did notdiscriminate between social classes. Inmid-March 1908 an outbreak ofgastro-enteritis swept throughParkville and Carlton, killing manychildren, including eight-month-oldRichard Brighouse Berry. His illness,like those of the other children, wasshort, and he was buried the nextday.16

It is extraordinary to witness theseparation between a person’spersonal and professional lives carriedto such an extreme that a man—afather—could accept the body ofanother parent’s child to dissect inorder to create a model. Objectively,Male, age 2 years, 7 months is animportant object in the HarryBrookes Allen Museum of Anatomyand Pathology as evidence ofexperimentation in techniques ofmodel-making within the University.Yet the model also serves as apowerful symbol of those individualswho, sometimes willingly, sometimesunknowingly, contributed their bodiesto medical education in Victoria.


Daniel John Cunningham (anatomist) andCasciani and Son (model-maker), model of the

head of an elderly man, brain exposed on one side,1883–1903, plaster of Paris, paint, height: 26.0 cm.

Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy andPathology, University of Melbourne.

Fuelled by increased interest inuncovering scientific explanations forsocial questions, eugenics would applyevolutionary theory as an explanationfor society’s ills. Perhaps the Cascianimodel was used to illustrate mentalillness to medical students at theUniversity of Melbourne. After all, atheory based on a physical correlationbetween skull size and intelligencepropelled Richard Berry’s careerbeyond the teaching of anatomy, toinclude physical anthropology andmental studies of criminals andchildren. Through his studies of‘mental deficients’, the kindermoniker then given to those whowere intellectually disabled orpsychiatrically ill, Berry establishedhimself as an expert in the field,gaining appointments as consultingpsychiatrist at the Melbourne andchildren’s hospitals. Although fromtoday’s perspective it appears absurdthat an anatomist experiencedprincipally in examining the physicalremnants of the dead could be thereigning authority on psychiatricmedicine, at the time this applicationof science provided a convenientanswer. If crime, stupidity and generaldegeneracy were genetic, littleintrospection, or understanding ofsocietal misdeed, were required.

Berry’s success in promoting thesetheories led to a series of public

anatomical model series made byCasciani and Cunningham areincluded, and are visible in anaccompanying laboratory photographas students conduct an experiment.18

It is somewhat surprising to findmodels of the same series in both apsychological laboratory and thecontemporary collection of theUniversity of Melbourne. Berry wasnot isolated amongst his peers inregarding psychology with scepticismand considered the theories of Freudto be conceited, exclaiming that thefamous psychologist ‘had done moreto hide the truth than any other manliving’. The Melbourne MedicalSchool would remain, under theprofessor’s guidance, firmly focussedon a hereditary approach toexplaining mental illness.19

Anatomical models can be used tosupport arguments for either eugenicor psychological theory. Within thishistory they have come to embodyopposing schools of thought in late19th to early 20th century medicine,and only through historicalperspective can we appreciate thefailing of one so completely. Fromterra firma Richard Berry’s collectingand work in eugenics are grosslydisrespectful to the people whosebodies became subjects of thispseudoscience. Yet amongst hisUniversity of Melbourne and

lectures undertaken in the interwaryears. Concerned by the ‘menace’society faced from the ‘uncontrolledactivities of the feeble minded’, Berrydelighted in his reputation as aprominent anatomist and touredregional Victoria.17 Given a littlefreedom from the usually staid topicsof anatomical detail, the evocativelanguage in which Berry described hisventures into the asylum andpenitentiary was probably illustratedby equally dramatic visual aids. Is itpossible that in a public hall crowdedwith mothers clutching babies,concerned citizens and boredteenagers, the topic of public healthwas sensationalised by the unveilingof an anatomical model bothfrightening and very real?

With such an image in mind,across the oceans, Casciani’s series ofmodels had been put to use in adecidedly different approach. Whileeugenic theory was the predominantinfluence on early 20th centurytreatment of disability andimpairment in Melbourne, the studyof psychology had gained increasedmomentum in the late 19th century,establishing itself as a legitimate fieldof inquiry. During the 1893 World’sFair in Chicago, Harvard Universitywould publish a detailed inventory ofmodels and equipment used within itspsychological laboratory. The


international contemporaries Berry’swork was consistent with mainstreamscience. It was also a researchapproach consistent with thepreceding history of anatomy; like theearly anatomist trawling cemeteriesfor fresh bodies, it quite simply failedthe society it sought to heal.

Was it by ‘chance and circum-stance’ that Berry’s career took thepath of a mental specialist? Berryhimself described it as a ‘leap over the ages’ from his early years at theUniversity of Melbourne.20 For it wasin these first few years, which hestated in his memoirs were the best of his years at Melbourne, that heachieved the most for theDepartment of Anatomy. From themysterious brown stains of thedissecting room, to the constructionof an entirely new building toaccommodate rising enrolments, thestudy of anatomy was revived andrefreshed under Richard Berry’sguidance. The new building, jokinglynamed ‘Berry’s Folly’ for its enormoussize, was one example of hisfarsightedness; another was hisinvestment in anatomical models. Forbeyond their use in general teaching,the plaster models are valuableremnants of a history of medicineinteracting with art, science, thepublic, and education.

7 George B. Stauffer, ‘Beyond Bach themonument, who was Bach the man?’, NewYork Times, 2 April 2000, section 2, p. 1.

8 Berry, ‘Chance and circumstance’,pp. 109–110.

9 Berry, ‘Chance and circumstance’, pp. 109–110.

10 Berry, ‘Chance and circumstance’, p. 110.11 Council of the University of Melbourne,

Requirement of the Department of Anatomy,meeting no. 1, 5 February 1906, and FinanceCommittee Minutes, 4. Anatomy Department,meeting no. 3, 2 April 1906. University ofMelbourne Archives.

12 Berry, ‘Chance and circumstance’, p. 33.13 For an account of Halford’s theft see Richard

Selleck, The Shop: The University of Melbourne1850–1939, Carlton: Melbourne UniversityPress, 2003, pp. 105–106.

14 Ross L. Jones, Humanity’s mirror: 150 years ofanatomy in Melbourne, South Yarra:Haddington Press, 2007, pp. 95–96.

15 See Ruth Richardson, Death, dissection and thedestitute, 2nd edition, Chicago: University ofChicago Press, 2000.

16 Berry, Richard Brighouse. Death Certificateno. 1164, Third Schedule, Deaths in theDistrict of Carlton 1908. Registry of BirthsDeaths and Marriages, Department of JusticeVictoria.

17 Berry, ‘Chance and circumstance’, p. 145.18 Interior of a laboratory room (chain reaction

experiment), illustration in [HugoMünsterberg], Psychological Laboratory ofHarvard University, Cambridge, Mass.: TheUniversity, 1893, published online athttp://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Munster/Lab.

19 Ann Westmore, ‘Berry, Richard James Arthur(‘Dicky’) (1867–1962)’, History of medicine,dentistry and health sciences: Biographical entry,Centre for the Study of Health and Society,University of Melbourne, 2003,http://www.jnmhugateways.unimelb.edu.au/umfm/biogs/FM00008b.htm, accessed 22 February 2006.

20 Berry, ‘Chance and circumstance’, pp. 114,126–127.

This article is based on the author’s historiographyand catalogue, ‘The artist’s knife: The art andscience of plaster anatomical models at the HarryBrookes Allen Museum of Anatomy andPathology, the University of Melbourne’, writtenfor her Master of Public History Degree atMonash University in 2006. That project wascompleted with support from the University ofMelbourne’s Cultural Collections Student ProjectsProgram and the Harry Brookes Allen Museum ofAnatomy and Pathology. Lucinda Spencer alsoholds a Bachelor of Arts degree, and is currentlyemployed as an assistant registrar at thePerforming Arts Museum at the Victorian ArtsCentre.

Notes

1 Mimi Colligan, ‘Anatomical wax museums inMelbourne 1861 to 1867’, Australian CulturalHistory, no. 13, 1994, p. 52.

2 Michael Sappol, A traffic of dead bodies:Anatomy and embodied social identity innineteenth-century America, Princeton:Princeton University Press, 2002, pp. 276,303–304.

3 Deanna Petherbridge, ‘Art and anatomy: Themeeting of text and image’, in DeannaPetherbridge and Ludmilla Jordanova (eds),The quick and the dead: Artists and anatomy,Berkeley: University of California Press;Hayward Gallery, 1997, p. 96.

4 See for example a list of skulls acquired byBerry and others in R.J.A. Berry, A.W.D.Robertson and L.W.G. Büchner, ‘Thecraniometry of the Tasmanian Aboriginal’,Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute ofGreat Britain and Ireland, vol. 44, January–June1914, pp. 122–126.

5 Berry, Robertson and Büchner, ‘Thecraniometry of the Tasmanian Aboriginal’, p. 122.

6 R.J.A. Berry, ‘Chance and circumstance’,photocopy of unpublished typescriptautobiography, c.1954, p. 75. Papers ofLeonard J.T. Murphy, UMA 91/114,University of Melbourne Archives.


Love in taxing timesJay Miller

For the cataloguer or curator, anyhandwriting attached to orincorporated in a work of art or craftprovides a fascinating and vivid linkwith the creator or past user. Whensuch handwriting is combined with amiscellany of images the challenge toresearch the work becomescompelling.1 The quotation above ishandwritten on a piece of paper,adhered with several other cut-outimages to the inner surface of acylindrical glass container with twocinched ends. Such objects arenowadays described as rolling pinsbut in the 19th century they were of acategory of works in glass known as‘friggers’. Initially these storagecontainers were hand-producedthroughout the British Isles, from themid-18th to mid-19th century (manymore were later produced by machineas 20th century tourist souvenirs).According to Howe, the name‘frigger’ comes from the verb ‘tofriggle’ or ‘mess abaht’, often theresult of glass blowers using upunused glass and at the same timedeveloping their craft skills.2 In thisinstance ‘the glass blower wouldskilfully swing the molten glassglobe’3 until the requisite hollowlength was obtained; the narrownecked ends became a means ofattaching a ribbon or some wire, withwhich to hang and display safely the

fragile container. Our example has aslightly faded and threadbare wovengreen ribbon attached.

In 1845 the British tax on flintglass was repealed and better qualityglass was more readily available formore decorative versions. A clearamethyst-coloured glass frigger,which is part of the Ernst MatthaeiMemorial Collection of Early Glass,is on display at University House.4

This example is catalogued as beingcirca 1840, but there is a good chance,given its fine quality, that it maypostdate 1845 and abolition of thetax.

It could be argued that the designof the frigger in the GrimwadeCollection almost suggestscamouflage, an attempt perhaps todisguise highly taxed glass by swirlingwhite paint inside and forming anopaque ground. At first sight thework appears to be a ceramiccontainer rather than glassware. It islikely the paint used is heavily leadedand hopefully the stored contents didnot become a health hazard to theowners. Just as glass was taxed, so toowere luxury commodities such as tea,sugar and salt, and these werefrequently presented as treasured giftsstored in these decorative containers.Arnold notes also that within ahousehold a concentration of salt in acontainer such as a frigger would have

been regarded by some as a powerfulsymbol of luck and a protectionagainst witchcraft.5 Keeping thecontainer and contents intact andlimiting the use of salt would therebypreserve not only the good fortunebut also in retrospect the probablehealth of the household. Friggerswere sometimes presented as weddinggifts but more often as keepsakes orlove tokens by sailors and soldiers.

It is difficult to determine for sureif our frigger was a Grimwade familytreasure. A label on one end could bean auction label or it could be an earlycatalogue label. The Grimwadeinvolvement with both glass manu-facturing and salt production in late19th century Australia could haveinspired an interest in the purchase ofsuch an item for the family’s privatecollection.6

The printed paper images decor-ating the container are intriguing, butoffer some clues as to the date ofmanufacture. They are an oddassortment of images selected byeither the maker or giver. For instancethere is one graphic of an early steamlocomotive which resembles a steamengine designed and built by RobertStephenson, named The Planet.7 Ifthe image does in fact depict ThePlanet it could perhaps be inspired by its links with the seaport ofLiverpool.8 The National Rail

When this you seeremember mewhen I am farre away at sea


Museum archive at York has alsosuggested that as rail networks wereestablished and expanded globally,navvies or engineers, who oftentravelled widely within the BritishIsles and abroad, could also havebestowed such a gift. Anotherunusual image for a love token is achild wearing a blood-red dresscarrying a pennant, a drum andwaving a sword, labelled the ‘Youngsoldier’, perhaps to invoke a sense ofthe giver being involved in manlydeeds, or protection of the young.

The main cut-out graphic thatstrongly supports the theory that thiscontainer was once a love tokendepicts a well-dressed young woman,whose fashion suggests a date of circa1820. This image is labelled ‘The loveletter’ and she coyly regards theviewer over her left shoulder whileholding a love letter in her left hand.This, together with the handwrittenmessage, surely alludes to a romanticpurpose, until that is, we inspect theimage immediately above. Here adramatic scene unfolds with a faintinglady and a man in Ottoman dressgrasping her hand and waving adagger; this tableau is labelled ‘Thefair Circasian’ [sic], perhaps a warningto the beloved that it would be wiseto remain faithful to the absent giver.With further investigation of thisreference it became apparent that The

Fair Circassian as a concept waswidely used in literature andcorrespondence of the early 18thcentury and continued to inspirepoets and playwrights well into the19th century.9 It is regularly referredto by travellers and explorers ineastern Europe and a reference was

even made in a significant legal caseon the subject of the status of aslave.10 The exotic concept of fairCircassian slaves—that is, youngwomen from the Caucasus—certainlyappears to have been a popularfantasy of the era. Such an imagecould also be a reference to the distant


Artist unknown (English, 19th century), ‘Frigger’,glass, paint and paper cut-outs, length: 37.5 cm.

Accession no. 1973.0207, University of MelbourneArt Collection. Gift of the Russell and

Mab Grimwade Bequest 1973.

lands where a sailor, soldier orperhaps an engineer was to be posted.Maintaining the exotic theme, there isalso a female figure, almost acaricature in form, dressed in ratherlewd Regency style, wielding avegetative branch, who is labelled‘Fatima’; perhaps another character incontemporary popular literature.

The references to exotic locationsalso prompt speculation that the givercould have been both soldier andsailor: a member of the MarineCorps, employed in the protectionand support of naval vessels, andoperational in regions dominated bythe Ottoman Empire. From the early1800s during the period of theNapoleonic wars and until 1832, theGreek war of independence waswaged continually against theOttoman rulers, a source of romanticinspiration for figures such as LordByron. As the 1820s progressed thiswar became a topic of strategicinterest to the British, and their forceseventually combined with those ofFrance and Russia to oppose theOttoman forces at the naval battle ofNavarino in 1827, a significantturning point in that war.11

Considering all the clues available,the method of manufacture and theimages incorporated in the design,there is a fair chance that our friggerwas produced at some time between

1820 and 1835. This is certainly anarrower timeframe than the originalcataloguer’s rather broad designationof the ‘19th century’ and furtherresearch may lead to a more specificdate of manufacture.

Originally trained as a teacher and then librarian,Jay Miller holds a Bachelor of Arts (Fine Arts)degree from RMIT and a Graduate Diploma ofMuseology from Deakin University. She has doneproject work for local government and theNational Trust of Australia (Victoria) and laterworked as Collections Officer at DeakinUniversity. Jay now works as the AssistantCollections Manager with the Ian Potter Museumof Art.

Notes

1 This article began as a small research project togenerate an interpretive label for a homely yetintriguing artefact catalogued for theUniversity of Melbourne Art Collection aspart of the Russell and Mab GrimwadeBequest of 1973, accession no. 1973.0207(originally catalogued as a porcelain and glassrolling pin). The primary objective has been totry and narrow the possible dates ofmanufacture; inevitably more questions wereraised than answered.

2 Bea Howe, Antiques from the Victorian home,London: Spring Books, 1973, p. 197.

3 Ken Arnold, Collector’s companion, GoldenSquare, Vic.: Crown Castleton Publishers,1995, p. 106.

4 University of Melbourne Art Collection,accession no. 1991.0022, Gift of Pat andRoger Daniels in memory of Rex Ebbott,1991.

5 Arnold, Collector’s companion, p. 106.6 The Grimwade family was involved in glass

manufacture in Australia from 1872, withVictoria’s first Melbourne Bottle WorksCompany which in 1903 became a ProprietaryLtd. In 1939 Australian Glass Manufacturersbecame Australian Consolidated Industries.From 1882 to 1900 Alfred Felton andFrederick Shepherd Grimwade were associates,with business interests in the Australian SaltManufacturing Company. John RiddochPoynter, Russell Grimwade, Carlton:Melbourne University Press, at the MiegunyahPress, 1967.

7 This theory is strengthened after consultationwith the curators at the National RailwayMuseum in York.

8 ‘The Planet’ ran on the Liverpool toManchester railway from 1830.

9 For example, [Samuel J.] Pratt, The fairCircassian: A tragedy, as performed at theTheatre-Royal, Drury-Lane by Mr. Pratt, 2ndedition, London: printed for R. Baldwin, 1781;James Sayers, ‘A scene in the Fair Circassian’(Robert Bensley; Elizabeth (née Farren), Countessof Derby), 1781?, etching, plate: 28.1 x 36.5 cm,collection of the National Portrait Gallery,London, available online athttp://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?LinkID=mp01264&rNo=2&role=sit, accessed28 November 2007; Thomas Maclean, ‘Armsand the Circassian woman: Frances Browne’s“The Star of Attéghéi”’, Victorian Poetry, vol. 41, issue 3, Fall 2003, pp. 295–318.

10 ‘Davy asserted that Virginia law could notapply in England. England would not permit“a Turk” to “bring here his fair Circasian [sic]slaves” and rape them with impunity’. HenryMarchant, Diary (R.I. Historical Society MS1771–2, typed transcript, PhiladelphiaHistorical Society, 1:120), quoted by GeorgeVan Cleve, ‘Somerset’s case and its antecedentsin imperial perspective’, Law and HistoryReview, vol. 24, issue 3, Fall 2006,http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/lhr/24.3/cleve.html, accessed 29 June 2007.

11 ‘Navarino, Battle of ’, Encyclopaedia Britannica,2007, http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9055077/Battle-of-Navarino, accessedDecember 2007.

Road area in London and at therenowned London dealer in paintings,prints and drawings, Colnaghi’s. As ateenager, Orde Poynton, accompaniedby his father, visited the illustriousstaff of the Prints and DrawingsDepartment of the British Museum:Campbell Dodgson (1867–1948),Arthur M. Hind (1880–1957),Arthur Popham (1889–1970) andLaurence Binyon (1869–1943). Byseeking the opinion of these expertson northern European prints,Frederick and his son were able torecognise and thus acquire prints of ahigh standard,3 including etchings byJan van de Velde II.

During World War 2, thePoyntons’ print collection was movedfrom place to place for safe-keeping,including Bath where a bombseriously damaged the house, then toa warehouse in Bristol, also damagedin bombing raids. Poynton later wroteabout the prints becoming ‘muddledup’ and dirty as a result of thesemoves. Although only a few of theprints were damaged by bombsdirectly, wartime conditions preventedthe collection from being ‘organisedand improved’.4 During this periodDr Frederick Poynton passed awayand Orde Poynton became a prisonerof war. When the prints were sent toAustralia in 1947 it became obviousthat about 200 to 300 out of

Introduction to the Poynton Collection

The Print Collection in the BaillieuLibrary at the University ofMelbourne is unique in the sense thatno other Australian university holdssuch a comprehensive collection ofinternational prints dating from the1500s through to the 1850s.1 Thecollection is of internationalsignificance, both in the range ofartists represented and the choice ofeditions and states of the prints. Moreresearch needs to be undertaken intothis jewel among the University’scultural collections. The 3,700 printsdonated in 1959 by Dr John OrdePoynton AO, CMG, MA, MD,HonLLD represent more than half ofthe total holding, and form asignificant collection in their ownright, worthy of research.

John Orde Poynton was born inLondon in 1906 and was educated atMarlborough College, Caius College(Cambridge) and Charing CrossHospital. After being appointedsenior resident medical officer at theCharing Cross Hospital, he served ashealth officer, research officer andpathologist in Malaya. He was in theBritish Army until 1946 and was aprisoner of war at Changi. In 1947 hemoved to Adelaide where he waslecturer at the University of

Lonely traveller in a transient world The landscape prints of Jan van de Velde II donatedto the Baillieu Library by Dr J. Orde PoyntonKathleen Kiernan

Adelaide’s medical school, and from1950 was director of the Institute ofMedical and Veterinary Science. In1959, whilst still living in Adelaide,he presented to the University ofMelbourne a significant collection ofrare books and pictures, at that timethe most noteworthy gift everreceived by an Australian library.2 Hedied in Melbourne in 2001.

Poynton the collectorDr Poynton inherited from his father,Dr Frederick John Poynton (1869–1943), a lifelong interest in collectingrare books and old master prints.Many of the prints were purchasedfrom dealers in the Charing Cross

14 University of Melbourne Collections, Issue 2, July 2008

approximately 3,000 prints weremissing, including some of the best inthe collection.5

Dr Poynton’s relationship with theUniversity started with a visit to thenewly built Baillieu Library in 1959.6

His intention for a University printcollection was to assemble a goodrepresentation of the history ofprintmaking and of the techniques ofengraving, etching, mezzotinting andlithography, spanning the period 1500–1850, stating that the University ofMelbourne would be ‘the onlyuniversity with such a collection yet’.7

Internationally, few universities holdsuch a comprehensive print collectionas the Baillieu Library, and the

collection of the northern Europeanprints that Poynton and his fathercollected are comparable and evenmore comprehensive than manymajor international university andlibrary collections, albeit smaller.8

Poynton’s print collection tells usabout his activities as a collector andalso about the wider appreciation ofprints during the early 20th century.Identification of the artist or engraveris often through Poynton’sinscriptions on the artwork andmounts. During my CulturalCollections Student Projectsinternship at the Baillieu Library in2006, during which I undertook aninventory of the Poynton prints, an

examination of his mounts andannotations revealed various patternsof collecting. The Poynton Collectionincludes parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 of theseries Sixty landscapes by Jan van derVelde II.9 Cross-referencing archivalmaterial held in the Baillieu Library,such as Poynton’s register book, hisannotations on the mounts and hisletters to the University, reveals thatPoynton’s numbering follows thechronological sequence of acquisitionand that he attempted to acquire thecomplete Sixty landscapes. Three ofthe four complete parts (1, 3 and 4)10

are numbered sequentially byPoynton, showing they were acquiredas complete sets, whereas part 2 isnumbered out of sequence, jumpingfrom 585 to 661, 1227, 1228, 1229,1230, 1774, 1776, etc., showing thathe tried to assemble part 2 by buyingindividual prints as they came on themarket. Van de Velde’s landscapeprints were sought after by artistsduring the 17th century as teachingaids and references for composition ormotifs, leading to the breaking-up ofmany sets. Complete sets aretherefore hard to find.11

Jan van de Velde II etched andengraved about 500 prints, this largenumber serving as testament to theartist’s popularity during hislifetime.12 About 200 of his printsdepict landscapes and these are his

Opposite: Norman Wodetzki, QueensberryPhotography, Dr J. Orde Poynton being admitted

to the degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa atthe University of Melbourne on 31 July 1977,

photographic print, 17.5 x 12.5 cm. UMA/I/2293,University of Melbourne Archives.

Below: Jan van de Velde II, ‘Evening: Travellers ona road near an inn’, plate 11 from part 1 of

Sixty landscapes, 1616, etching, 13.3 x 19.7 cm, second state. Reg. no. 1959.3931. Gift of

Dr J. Orde Poynton, 1959, Print Collection,Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne.

15University of Melbourne Collections, Issue 2, July 2008

most important and originalachievement.13 He etched more than20 landscape series, of which the NewYork Public Library holds threeseries, only one being van de Velde’sown designs.14 The National Galleryof Victoria holds only six prints byvan de Velde, all after the artistWillem Buytewech (1591/92–1624),15 and the Art Gallery of SouthAustralia has 21.16 The Rijksmuseum,on the other hand, holds around 700van de Velde prints,17 and the BritishMuseum also has a large number,around 370.18 The University ofMelbourne has 56, comprising parts1, 2, 3 and 4 (totalling 48 prints) ofthe Sixty landscapes series, thecomplete Six landscapes series of hisown design, plus two engravings afterBuytewech.

Recognising the sequence ofchanges in the plates between statesallows us to attribute states to theUniversity’s prints. The editions ofSixty landscapes, parts 1, 2, 3 and 4collected by Orde Poynton werepublished in 1616 and demonstratehis connoisseurship since they are thefirst and second states, published bythe prolific Haarlem etcher,draughtsman and publisher ClaesJanszoon Visscher (1586/87–1652) asthe one body of work during theartist’s lifetime, complete withfrontispieces. The first states were

fewer plates, numbered in the lowerright corner. When van de Veldecreated more plates in the secondedition he divided them into fiveparts, preceded each part with afrontispiece, and re-numbered eachplate at the lower right corner.Eventually the plates were acquiredby the publisher P. Schenck Jr whoadded his own monogram.19 Thislater state is not in the PoyntonCollection.

The frontispieces for the Sixtylandscapes series invite the viewer toembark on a journey through a seriesof landscapes, observing farmers,workers and travellers. Thesefrontispieces help structure the series,

setting a direction and organisingscenes that might otherwise appearrepetitious due to their reworking ofcommon motifs. The frontispiece topart 1 depicts two men on a roadpassing through a portico, with otherfigures in the distance, drawing theviewer into a place, rather than simplypresenting a realistic scene forcontemplation (see front cover).Inscribed on the tympanum above isEerste Deel (First Part). Three lines ofLatin above the opening of theportico read:

AMENISSIMÆ ALIQUOTREGIUNCULÆ, AI.VELDIO DELINEATÆ, ET A


Jan van de Velde II, ‘Winter landscape with asquare tower used as an inn’, plate 12 of part 3 ofSixty landscapes, 1616, etching, 11.9 x 18.7 cm,first state. Reg. no. 1959.3966. Gift of Dr J. OrdePoynton, 1959, Print Collection, Baillieu Library,University of Melbourne.

NICOLAO IO:HANNIS PISCATORE IN LUCEM ÆDITÆ.

(‘Some very attractive little regions,drawn by Jan van de Velde, andpublished by Claes Visscher.’)20

Jan van de Velde II and 17th century Dutchlandscape printsAround 1612 the coming together inHaarlem of a group of talented artistsled to a significant change in both theperception and the representation ofthe visible world, through their printsof the Dutch landscape.21 Theseartists came to Haarlem for variousreasons: some were attracted by theopportunities of learning fromluminaries such as Haarlem’s leadingprintmaker, draftsman and painterHendrick Goltzius (1558–1617) andthe poet, biographer and artist Karelvan Mander (1548–1606). Flemishimmigrants were welcomed toHaarlem and, consequently, broughtother family members, which alsoexpanded the city’s artistcommunity.22 Two such individualswere Jan van de Velde II and hiscousin Esaias van de Velde (1587–1630), whom Arthur Hind named astwo of the most noteworthy Dutchetchers of the first part of the 17thcentury.23

Jan van de Velde II was probablyborn in Rotterdam between 1593 and1597. He was the son of mastercalligrapher Jan the Elder whosefamily was originally from Antwerp.In 1613 Jan the Elder sent his son toHaarlem to undertake anapprenticeship with the masterengraver Jacob Matham, stepson ofHendrik Goltzius.24 Jan van de VeldeII entered the Guild of Haarlem in1614, but not as a master. He waslater admitted to the Guild of SaintLuke in Haarlem to become a masterin 1617, enabling him to engrave andetch freely his own and other artists’designs.25 His last engraving is dated1633.26 He moved to Enkhuizen in1636 and died there in about 1641.

Printers and publishers inHaarlem in the early 1600scommissioned artists to produceseries depicting a very saleablesubject: the local landscape.27 Jan vande Velde’s entire output, producedbetween 1613 and 1633, comprisesportraits, historical plates, bookplatesand landscapes.28 He was the mostprolific landscape etcher of hisgeneration, establishing thepopularity of Dutch landscape printsby depicting the local countryside andits residents.29 He worked from hisown designs (greatly influenced bythe landscapes of Visscher30 andAbraham Bloemaert31) until about

1618, after which he based hisetchings on drawings by otherpopular artists such as Buytewech andPieter Molijn, probably fromeconomic necessity, as these wouldguarantee sales and were less time-consuming than creating originalworks. But it is van de Velde’slandscapes of his own designs thathave made his reputation as an etcher.

Etching technique and 17th century Dutchlandscape printsThe golden age of Dutch landscapeart has its foundations inprintmaking, in which medium itdeveloped well before reaching itsapex in painting. Prints weredistributed widely throughout Europeand were used as reference material bypainters.32

Etching (from the Dutch etsen, toeat) is a printing technique in which ametal plate is covered with an acid-resistant ground, such as wax, andthen worked into with an etcher’sneedle. The exposed metal is ‘eaten’ inan acid bath, creating lines to hold theink. The technique was invented inabout 1500 and in the early 17thcentury became very popular amongyounger Dutch printmakers, beingless laborious, cheaper and requiringless formal training than engraving.Artists also found that etching


created a direct and spontaneousimage so they were more readily ableto render painterly effects.33 Van deVelde’s tidy and highly stylisedworkmanship typifies early 17thcentury Netherlandish etching. Thetwo series Sixty landscapes and Sixlandscapes clearly demonstrate hisvirtuosic technique: the variety andgraduation of lines creating atmos-pheric effects; his wide range ofgraphic marks from light to dark, soft to hard, and fluid to rigid. Theinfluence of his calligrapher fathercomes though in his ornamental style,particularly in his depiction of treesand clouds (see p. 15).34 Trained as aprofessional engraver-etcher, Jan IIlearned from his cousin Esaias van de Velde, a pioneer in painted Dutchlandscape, and other painter-etcherfriends, to loosen his draughts-manship. His etching techniqueevolved, not to purely imitateengraving, but to utilise etching’scharacteristics of texture, tone andline.

Though not etched directly fromnature, van de Velde’s simple viewsrecreate the experience of walkingthrough the Dutch landscape with itslow horizon line, trees and ruinsagainst a generous proportion of sky.The persistent journey theme and theseemingly natural subject matterinvite a wide range of interpretations.

‘Into the light’: Symbolism in Jan van de Velde II’slandscapes

Van de Velde’s landscapes had aconscious purpose, demonstrated byhis recurring use of particular themesand motifs. His landscapes are asophisticated choice of style andsubject matter, eliminating someelements, carefully arranging others,to create landscapes that appearspontaneous. Artists sketched thecountryside en plein air and relied ontheir sketchbooks, memory andimagination back in the studio tocompose the final work. It is likelyvan de Velde manipulated his

compositions by combiningtopographical motifs andrepresentations of nature that inreality did not exist together. Whilethe prints appear realistic, these worksconvey an emotional moral power byincorporating personal experience andcultural beliefs into representations ofnature.

Van de Velde drew upon a bank ofmotifs such as bridges, dead trees,wagons, old farmhouses, taverns anddovecotes. His recurring patterns ofcomposition, structure and motifswere conventional at the time andwould have been understood by theviewer,35 whether consciously orunconsciously, including their social,

Jan van de Velde II, ‘Farm built against a squaretower’, plate 11 from part 2 of Sixty landscapes,1616, etching, 13.6 x 20.1 cm, second state. Reg. no. 1959.3935. Gift of Dr J. Orde Poynton,1959, Print Collection, Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne.


economic, historical and moralreferences. While artists such as vande Velde did not celebrate thefundamental Calvinist teachings thatemphasised the natural beauty ofnature, I believe we cannot dismissthe Calvinist influence. The positiveview of nature encouraged byCalvinists to study the natural worldcomes through van de Velde’slandscapes to a certain extent. On thetitle page of Sixty landscapes the ideaof pleasant landscapes iscommunicated in the Latininscription on the portico,AMENISSIMÆ ALIQUOTREGIUNCULÆ (‘Some veryattractive little regions’), yet, ratherthan simply presenting a realisticscene, the portico invites the viewer toembark on a journey through a seriesof landscapes.

The traveller Sixty landscapes depicts the lonelytraveller in a transient world, strivingfor eternal bliss, negotiatingtemptation along the way.36 Thetravellers, sometimes resting on theside of the road, stopping at inns, orstriving towards their destination(often an ethereal city or church onthe horizon, also representing the endof mortal life) draw the viewerthrough the series.

For example, ‘Winter landscape

with a square tower used as an inn’(see p. 16) features a lone travellernegotiating a lot of activity in order tostay on the straight and narrow path.He has passed some peasants in theforeground transporting barrels ofbeer on sledges. On the left is a river,on which there are some skaters.Further in, someone occupies anouthouse (a symbol of dilapidationand decay),37 while close by a manurinates against a tree. Across theroad is a square tower that serves as atavern or inn—the embodiment ofdepravity in medieval sermons. Highon the tower is a dovecote, symbol oflust,38 while leafless trees, signifyingvanitas, arch over the road in a

threatening manner. On the far bankthe spire of a church is iridescent inthe distance.

We cannot assume that all of vande Velde’s etchings possess allegoricalmeanings; they also serve thetraditional function of landscapeimages: enabling the viewer toexperience nature. His art oscillatesbetween representing Haarlem and itsphysical surrounds (see above) andconveying contemporary moralconcepts originating in medieval ideasand traditions. Van de Velde’s printsdo not conform to a single religious,moral or historical interpretation, nordo they illustrate precise allegories orprovide a structure of indisputable

Jan van de Velde II, ‘The “Spaernwoude” or“Amsterdamsche Poort” at Haarlem’, plate 6 of Six

landscapes, n.d., etching, 9.9 x 18.9 cm. Reg. no. 1959.3942. Gift of Dr J. Orde Poynton,

1959, Print Collection, Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne.



symbolic content. Their naturalismleaves them open to a wide range ofinterpretations, encouragingcontemplation.Kathleen Kiernan is currently writing her PhDthesis on the circulation of 17th century Dutchlandscape prints and drawings in London andtheir influence on 18th century British landscapeart. In 2007 she completed her Master of ArtCuratorship (Melbourne) and in the same yearwas the Harold Wright Scholar at the BritishMuseum. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in textiledesign (RMIT), a Bachelor of Arts in multimedia(RMIT) and a Postgraduate Certificate in ArtConservation (Melbourne). Kathleen is curatingan exhibition of the etchings of Jan van de Velde IIin the John Orde Poynton Collection, to be held atthe Ian Potter Museum of Art in 2009.

Notes

1 Sarah Thomas and Eszter Szabo, ‘Significanceassessment: Baillieu Library Print Collection’,unpublished report, University of Melbourne,November 2005, p. 1.

2 Anonymous, ‘1959: The University ofMelbourne: The Poynton Collection: Anotable gift to the University’, typescript, 7 December 1959. Baillieu Library files.

3 J. Orde Poynton, ‘Catalogue of the PrintCollection, together with a small number ofpictures and drawings, given to the Universityof Melbourne by Dr Orde Poynton, 1960’,unpublished manuscript. Baillieu Library PrintCollection.

4 Poynton, ‘Catalogue of the Print Collection’.5 J. Orde Poynton, letter to Axel Lodewycks

[Librarian, University of Melbourne], 12 August 1960. Baillieu Library files.

6 Merete Smith, ‘Dry light is best’, University ofMelbourne Library Journal, vol. 7, nos 1–2,December 2001, p. 11.

7 Poynton, letter to Lodewycks, 12 August 1960.8 For example, after viewing the exhibition

Recent acquisitions: Old master prints at the New

York Public Library in 2006 it becameapparent to me that the NYPL’s holdings ofvan de Velde prints are less rich andcomprehensive than the Baillieu Library’s.

9 Titles of works are from ChristiaanSchuckman and Ger Luijten, ‘Jan van de VeldeII to Dirk Vellert’, in F.W.H. Hollstein, Dutchand Flemish etchings, engravings and woodcuts,ca. 1450–1700, no. 33, Roosendaal:Koninklijke van Poll, 1989, pp. 75–98. Thetitles used by the Baillieu Library are in theprocess of being updated as a result of myresearch. I was also able to attribute some ofthe Baillieu Library’s prints, previouslycatalogued as ‘unknown artist’, to Jan van deVelde II.

10 The British Museum holds only part 5 of thisseries.

11 Daniel Franken and Johann Philippe van derKellen, L’oeuvre de Jan van de Velde: Graveurhollandais, 1593–1641 (originally published1888), 2nd edition, Amsterdam: Hissink, 1968,p. 7.

12 Irene de Groot, Etchings by Dutch masters of theseventeenth century, London: Gordon FraserGallery, 1979, p. 6.

13 Christopher Brown, Dutch landscape: The earlyyears, London: National Gallery, 1986, p. 173.

14 Roberta Weddell, wall text from exhibition Oldmaster prints, New York Public Library, 2006.

15 National Gallery of Victoria, informationgenerated from collection database, 2006.

16 Art Gallery of South Australia, informationgenerated from collection database, 2007.

17 Huigen Leeflang, email to Kathleen Kiernan,8 November 2006.

18 British Museum, information generated fromcollection database, 2006.

19 Franken and van der Kellen, L’oeuvre de Janvan de Velde, p. 111.

20 Piscatore is the Latinised version of thesurname Visscher, literally meaning fisher orfisherman.

21 Brown, Dutch landscape, p. 34. Haarlem wasthe home of many important Dutch artistssuch as Frans Hals and Adriaen von Ostade.

22 Arthur K. Wheelock Jr, ‘Review: Haarlem: Theseventeenth century, Rutgers University’,

Burlington Magazine, vol. 125, no. 963, June1983, p. 386.

23 Arthur M. Hind, A history of engraving andetching (originally published 1923), New York:Dover Publications, 1963, p. 168.

24 William Aspenwall Bradley, Dutch landscapeetchers of the seventeenth century, New Haven:Yale University Press, 1918, pp. 10–12.

25 Franken and van der Kellen, L’oeuvre de Janvan de Velde, pp. 5–7. Dates of van de Velde’slife vary between sources. Franken and van derKellen’s dates are the most widely cited.

26 Catherine Levesque, ‘Haarlem landscapes andruins: Nature transformed’, in Susan DonahueKuretsky (ed.), Time and transformation inseventeenth-century Dutch art, Poughkeepsie:Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, VassarCollege, 2005, p. 114.

27 de Groot, Etchings by Dutch masters, p. 2.28 Franken and van der Kellen, L’oeuvre de Jan

van de Velde.29 Franken and van der Kellen, L’oeuvre de Jan

van de Velde, pp. 4–7.30 de Groot, Etchings by Dutch masters, p. 1.31 Hind, A history of engraving and etching, p. 355.32 Brown, Dutch landscape, p. 9.33 Walter S. Gibson, Pleasant places: The rustic

landscape from Bruegel to Ruisdael, Berkeley:University of California Press, 2000, p. 43.

34 Levesque, ‘Haarlem landscapes and ruins’, p. 54.

35 Lawrence O. Goedde, ‘Naturalism asconvention: Subject, style, and artistic self-consciousness in Dutch landscape’, in WayneE. Franits (ed.), Looking at seventeenth-centuryDutch art: Realism reconsidered, Cambridge andNew York: Cambridge University Press, 1997,p. 131.

36 Josua Bruyn, ‘Toward a scriptural reading ofseventeenth-century Dutch landscapepaintings’, in Peter C. Sutton (ed.), Masters of17th-century Dutch landscape painting,Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press,1988, p. 100.

37 Walter S. Gibson, ‘Bloemaert’s privy: Therustic ruin in Dutch art’, in Kuretsky (ed.),Time and transformation, p. 65.

38 Bruyn, ‘Toward a scriptural reading’, p. 85.


Dentistry in Australia before the First FleetHenry F. Atkinson

The Henry Forman Atkinson DentalMuseum has a large collection ofinstruments for extracting teeth fromhumans. Amongst these are ‘pelicans’,keys, pincers, elevators and forceps.The forceps alone number over 250.

The early ‘pelicans’ wereessentially a straight shankedinstrument with a hook for passingover the tooth to forcibly lever it fromthe bone of the jaw. The key was animprovement on the pelican, having asimilar hook or claw but with a crosshandle for operating from the front of the mouth. In the hands of atrained person it was a most usefulinstrument.

Pincers were simple hingedinstruments for holding or graspingan object but were not designed forthe rigours of tooth removal. In theearly 1800s they were the forerunnersof the forceps, the design of whichhas changed little from the 1850s totoday. Elevators were originallystraight shanked, pointed instrumentswhich appeared in a variety of typesincluding straight, curved, left- orright-handed, and as the nameindicates were used to tease a root ortooth from the jaw. Finally, the‘punch’ was similar to the artisan’s toolbut in dentistry applied to the role ofknocking out teeth. Whilst originallyreferred to as the punch, thisinstrument was later, most probably

due to professional sensibilities,graced with the addition of ‘elevator’,to become known as the ‘punchelevator’. Dating early instruments isan inexact science but some examplesin the Henry Forman AtkinsonDental Museum are thought to befrom the 17th century.

When discussing the use of apunch elevator, a relatively simpleinstrument generally forged in onepiece from steel or, in the moresophisticated types, fitted with a

handle often of wood, it was broughtto my notice that certain AustralianAboriginal groups were, in initiationceremonies, practising methods oftooth removal long before the arrivalof the First Fleet.

Historically, the Europeanoperator, dentist, barber surgeon ortooth drawer would, when removingan offending tooth, place the pointedend of the instrument on the boneabove the tooth and then strike theother end a sharp blow with a heavyobject, thus freeing the tooth from thebone. The method was developed inthe pre-anaesthetic days when theshort sharp pain resulting from asingle blow was followed byimmediate relief from days of misery.The success of the method dependedupon the fact that the roots of theupper central incisors are broadlystraight and conical; a blow deliveredto the bone over the root of such atooth acts to compress the socket andthus apply an extruding force to thetooth. The net result is similar tosqueezing an orange pip betweenfinger and thumb. Like the slipperypip the tooth is ejected!

A literature search reveals thatsimilar practices were carried out byindigenous Australians in ceremonieswhich were described, sketched,painted and later photographed bythe earliest European explorers,


Previous page: Illustration showing (from left toright) two forms of punch and a hook elevator.The Henry Forman Atkinson Dental Museumholds instruments of similar age and appearance.Pierre Fauchard, The surgeon-dentist; or, treatise onthe teeth, in which is seen the means used to keep themclean and healthy, of beautifying them, of repairingtheir loss and remedies for their diseases and those ofthe gums …, translated from the 2nd edition(1746) by Lillian Lindsay, London: Butterworthand Co., 1946, plate 18.

Below: Joseph Lycett, Corroboree at Newcastle(detail), c.1818, oil on wood panel, 70.5 x 122.4 cm. Presented by Sir William Dixson,1938. Reproduced courtesy Dixson Galleries, State Library of New South Wales.

writers and artists at the time of theirfirst visits to Australia. From thisinformation it is evident that the localprocedures mirrored in some detailoperations which had been practisedin the northern hemisphere forcenturies.

David Collins gave an account ofan initiation ceremony in which theremoval of an upper front toothplayed an essential part.1 The dentalcomponent commenced with thesubject seated on the shoulders of aselected member of the group whowas kneeling on the ground, then asharpened bone was used to lance thegum over the selected tooth. Thepointed end of a stick, often selectedwith due ceremony from a specialtree, was placed in the incision andheld firmly. The operator, with aheavy stone in his other hand, thenmade up to three feints at the stickand with a final blow knocked out orloosened the tooth sufficiently so thatit could be removed easily with thefingers.

Some few years later GeorgeBarrington in 1802 described asimilar ceremony, concluding that thetooth comes out ‘generally as perfectas if drawn by a dentist’.2

Around 1818 the convict artistJoseph Lycett painted Corroboree atNewcastle which includes a groupinitiation ceremony in which two

rows of standing men face each other;in one row each member is holding inone hand a short stick that appears tobe in the mouth of the initiate and inthe other hand a stout cudgel or clubpoised, it would seem, to dislodge afront tooth (illustrated).

Baldwin Spencer and F.J. Gillendescribed a similar ceremony. Theiraccompanying photograph shows ayoung man lying flat on the groundwith arms extended. Another man,kneeling at his side, holds in one hand

a pointed stick placed above a toothand in the other hand a large stone;what follows in the description is asoutlined above.3 It is also recordedthat girls in some groups underwentan initiation ceremony with a similardental component, but theirs wasentirely separate from that of theyoung men.4

Until the early 1700s the dentalliterature is sparse on details ofmethods for the removal of teeth,because the art and science of


Goat’s foot type stump elevator, c.1800, ebony andsteel, 14.5 x 2.5 cm diameter. Reg. no. 1119,

probably from the original Odontological Society of Victoria Museum, 1884,

Henry Forman Atkinson Dental Museum,University of Melbourne. Punch elevator similar

to f.2 in plate 18 of Fauchard (see page 21). The end was sharpened and bifurcated so that theinstrument could be used on either the bone above

the tooth or on the tooth directly.

Lead hand weight, c.1990, cast lead, 6.0 x 2.0 cmdiameter. Reg. no.2125, Henry Forman Atkinson

Dental Museum, University of Melbourne. Made by Professor H.F. Atkinson and weighing

approximately 300g, the weight could be usedeither with an all-steel punch to strike the headdirectly, or with a wooden handled instrument

held tightly in the closed fist and the head struckwith the side of the hand.

Coxeter, London, Lancet with curved triangularblade, c.1890, polished steel and xylonite.

Reg. no. 437, part of a set comprising reg. nos. 433 to 442,

Henry Forman Atkinson Dental Museum,University of Melbourne. Pierre Fauchard advised

that the instrument must be kept very sharp as adull blade caused unnecessary pain for the patient.

dentistry were, although advancingrapidly, still in their infancy. Theclassical account of the status ofdentistry at that time is given byPierre Fauchard (1678–1764), theleading French dental surgeon of hisday, who is often referred to as ‘thefather of modern dentistry’. Hedescribed, amongst many otherprocedures, the removal of a toothusing the gum lancet, the punchelevator and a lump of lead to hold inthe hand for striking the instrument.5

All the actions described by Fauchaudare similar to those of the Aboriginalceremonies. His instrument had anarrow steel blade (fitted into awooden handle), the end of whichwas sharpened and, in somespecimens illustrated, divided intotwo; it was listed in later makers’catalogues as a ‘goat’s foot or punchelevator’.

From a consideration of the abovea fundamental question arises: did themethod of tooth removal using apunch and heavy object developindependently but in parallel in boththe southern and northernhemispheres? If so, then theAboriginal people of Australia hadaccumulated a great deal of dentalknowledge which in 1788, in relationto tooth removal with a punchelevator, was comparable to that of asurgeon of the First Fleet.

Acknowledgments: I express my appreciation toMs Louise Murray for editorial assistance, DrNeville Regan for his advice on the selection ofreferences and Mr Chris Owen and Mr MichaelCrooks for photography.

Professor Henry F. Atkinson MBE was appointedto the Chair of Dental Prosthetics, University ofMelbourne, in 1953 and on retiring in 1978 wasmade Professor Emeritus. Professor Atkinson hasworked on the dental collection for over 50 yearsand was made Honorary Curator in the early1990s. In 2006 the museum was named the HenryForman Atkinson Dental Museum in appreciationof his many years of work.

Notes

1 David Collins, An account of the English colonyin New South Wales: With remarks on thedispositions, customs, manners, &c. of the nativeinhabitants of that country. ... London: Printedfor T. Cadell Jun. and W. Davies, 1798, pp. 579–580.

2 George Barrington, The history of New SouthWales, including Botany Bay, Port Jackson,Parramatta, Sydney, and all its dependancies,from the original discovery of the island: With thecustoms and manners of the natives ..., London:Printed for M. Jones by W. Flint Printer, 1802,pp. 12–15.

3 Baldwin Spencer and F.J. Gillen, The northerntribes of Central Australia, London: Macmillanand Co., 1904, p. 591.

4 Spencer and Gillen, The northern tribes, p. 590.5 Pierre Fauchard, The surgeon-dentist; or, treatise

on the teeth, in which is seen the means used tokeep them clean and healthy, of beautifying them,of repairing their loss and remedies for theirdiseases and those of the gums ..., translated fromthe 2nd edition (1746) by Lillian Lindsay,London: Butterworth and Co., 1946.

University of Melbourne Collections, Issue 2, June 200824

Many business archives come to betransferred to a permanent repositorysuch as the University of MelbourneArchives (UMA) due to heightenedawareness of their endangered status,an impending move from premiseslong inhabited, or when anapproaching anniversary or milestoneawakens the desire to endorse anofficial history or celebration. Therelocation of the archive of AXANational Mutual to UMA cameabout largely because of the former. Ithad been housed for many years inthe basement of the AXA building at447 Collins Street, languishing threefloors below the concourse level,infrequently visited, and largelyforgotten by the parent company. Inmid-2007 UMA staff were alerted toits existence. AXA was planning onconsolidating its officeaccommodation—an enormousproject entailing the relocation fromthree CBD buildings aroundMelbourne into a single Docklandsbuilding.

With this imperative, and a fastapproaching deadline to be out of thebuilding by the end of November, ateam of us went into the basementand set about loading the records(documenting almost 140 years ofinsurance history in Melbourne andAustralia) physically into boxes andintellectually into spreadsheets, for

the move to UMA. The recordsthemselves date back to the origins ofthe National Mutual Life AssuranceCompany in 1869, and taper off inthe late 1990s, shortly before AXAAsia Pacific Holdings took control ofNational Mutual and its holdings.The archive itself is important; itdocuments almost a century and ahalf of business activity in Melbourneand beyond, and fills an importantgap in UMA’s holdings, which untilnow did not extend its substantialbusiness collections into the insurancearena.

In a business sense, the recordsreflect the remarkable success withinAustralia and internationally of AXAAsia Pacific since it was firstestablished over 100 years ago. Thecompany first began in Melbourne in1869, founded by actuary JohnMontgomery Templeton.1 Duringthat time it was known as theNational Mutual Life Association ofAustralasia.2 The establishment ofmutual societies was becoming morefrequent throughout this period inAustralia.

The Australasian Temperance andGeneral Mutual Life AssuranceSociety Limited (known as T & G)began in Victoria in 1876. Thissociety would later expand through itsamalgamation with other smallerinsurance societies from 1889 to

1890. These mergers came aboutthrough fluctuations withinAustralia’s economy and the effects ofthe economic depression of the late19th century.3 Despite this, theexpansion of the National MutualLife Association of Australasiareflected the continuing growth of lifeinsurance in Australia. Between 1878and 1886 branches were set up inSouth Australia, New South Wales,Queensland, Western Australia andTasmania as well as New Zealand.4

National Mutual merged with manydifferent companies throughout thistime but its amalgamation with theMutual Assurance Society of Victoriain 1896 was of the most benefit, as itallowed for the establishment ofinternational branches. Branches werecreated in South Africa as well as theUnited Kingdom within two years ofthe merger.5 By the turn of thecentury National Mutual had a strongestablishment across Australia andoverseas.

T & G had also established astrong Australia-wide presence by theearly 1900s. The company had set upbranches in each state by 1905, and inNew Zealand in 1903.6 The companycontinued to grow throughout thisperiod with the help of James TusonThompson. Thompson played asignificant role in the company’ssuccess, starting out as an agent in

The AXA Collection:Discovering the social value of business records Christine Kousidis and Helen McLaughlin

2424


1899 and advancing to chairman andmanaging director by 1922.Thompson maintained T & G’s focuson industrial insurance and was alsoinfluential in the style of the T & G buildings that were erectedthroughout the 1920s. Theirdistinctive neo-Renaissancearchitecture was part of Thompson’spublicity strategy for the company.Between 1917 and 1949, T & Gfunds grew from £2.5 million to £63 million.7 In 1974 the companychanged its name to T & G MutualLife Society.8

National Mutual diversifiedthroughout the 20th century. In 1957the company opened a fire subsidiaryknown as the National Mutual FireInsurance Co., while in 1961 theNational Mutual Casualty InsurancesLtd was formed, providing accidentand health insurance. As a result of itssuccess National Mutual needed toaccommodate a growing staff, so newoffice buildings were set upthroughout the mid-1960s acrossAustralia and internationally.9 Headoffice in Melbourne was relocated to447 Collins Street, to a buildingcompleted in 1964 and inauguratedby the then Prime Minister SirRobert Menzies.10

While the ins and outs of the purebusiness collection—ledgers, letterbooks, personnel cards, minute books,

policy registers, board minutes,company newsletters, details ofmergers, photographs, artefacts andframed items—are important for thehistorian to understand the workingsof a large and influential insurancebusiness and its importance in the19th and 20th centuries, the storieswithin the records are also fascinating,and largely forgotten. These recordstell us not just about the innerworkings of the business, but are alsoa mirror of society. Staff photographsfrom the 1940s, for example,document the gendered structure ofthe Melbourne workforce, with onepicture taken of the men, and anotherof the women. Such segregation isalso reflected in the superannuation

records of the time, which give usinsight into the common employmenttasks considered acceptable forwomen to undertake, and thoseacceptable for men.

Fascinating too are the personallives reflected within the professional.R.L. Bienvenu is present in the men’sstaff photo for December 1940. Manyyears later there are repeated imagesof Bienvenu, as he rises through theranks of the company to become asenior executive in Western Australiain 1954, moving to the seniorexecutive team in Victoria in 1958,branch manager in 1959 andmanaging director in 1982.11 Moreintriguing is the glimpse the recordsafford into Bienvenu’s marriage. In

Left: Illuminated address presented to James Tuson Thompson on the occasion of hispromotion to the role of General Manager andSecretary of the Australasian Temperance and

General Mutual Life Assurance Society Ltd inNovember 1917, 49.0 x 36.0 cm. AXA Collection,

University of Melbourne Archives.

Below: Female employees at the National MutualLife Association, possibly at Melbourne Branch,December 1940; top row, first from right stands

Jean Hunt (later Mrs R.L. Bienvenu), gelatinsilver print, 14.5 x 20.0 cm. AXA Collection,

University of Melbourne Archives.


the December 1940 women’sphotograph, Jean Hunt is present. Insubsequent records she has becomeMrs Bienvenu. The National Mutualrecords are therefore not onlyimportant for their documentation ofa business history, but will also be atreasure-trove for genealogists inenabling them to piece together thestories of their ancestors, particularlyas many staff began their workinglives with the company, and oftenfinished those working lives with thesame employer, an alien concept forthose entering the workforce in the21st century.

The collection also documents

more than business and personalhistories. The way in which NationalMutual and T & G influenced thearchitectural landscape in most ofAustralia’s capital cities has beenmentioned already, and is also evidentin the records. The buildings whichhoused the daily endeavours ofhundreds of employees weremeticulously planned and suitablydocumented. They were a symbol ofpride and contributed enormously tothe cityscape of the growingmetropolis in the 19th century, andon into the 20th century. NationalMutual’s purchase of a site on thecorner of Collins and Queen Streets

in Melbourne in 1881 was asignificant step towards establishingthe company in its own premises. Thedesign competition for the newbuilding, a common practice at thetime,12 stipulated a Gothic design.From the 43 entries received, sevenfinalists were selected. The Adelaidefirm of Wrighton, Reed and Beaverwas the winning entrant, and theconstruction tender was awarded toRobert Gamlin, a Melbourne-basedbuilder. Works commenced in 1893 atthe 395 Collins Street address. Theimportance of the occasion wasmarked by the commissioning of asilver trowel, and a time capsuleplaced under the ordinal stonecontained coins and newspapers ofthe day, company prospectuses andreports, copies of Banking andInsurance Record and drawings of thebuilding design.

The merger between NationalMutual and T & G took place in1983.13 This significant step for bothbusinesses helped to influence thefuture success of the company,resulting in further expansion ofNational Mutual throughout the AsiaPacific region. In 1995 the companydemutualised and AXA SA gained 51 per cent interest in the company.Further regional acquisitions includedcompanies in Singapore, Thailandand the Philippines. National Mutual

H.L. Orry & Co., National Mutual boardroom,Sydney Branch office, corner of Pitt Street andBond Street, Sydney, c.1910, gelatin silver print,30.0 x 38.0 cm. AXA Collection, University of Melbourne Archives.


changed its name to AXA AsiaPacific Holdings in 1999. Themultiple businesses that wereoperating collectively with NationalMutual at the time also altered theirnames to incorporate the AXA brand.By 2006 AXA Asia Pacific hadestablished partnerships withcompanies in Malaysia, India,Indonesia and China.14 Today AXA’sservices include financial advice,funds management, superannuation,life insurance and incomeprotection.15

Thanks to the move to newpremises in Docklands, and AXA’srecognition that the company historyought to be preserved, University ofMelbourne Archives staff are nowprocessing the collection to enableaccess for researchers.

Christine Kousidis is the Project Archivistundertaking the arrangement and description ofthe 26-metre AXA National Mutual Collection atUMA. She has previous experience with UMAworking on the personal papers of Sir David OrmeMasson, and was a serials cataloguer at the StateLibrary of Victoria. She holds a Bachelor of Artsdegree in history and English from La TrobeUniversity and has recently completed post-graduate studies in information management atMonash University.

Helen McLaughlin has been the PrincipalArchivist at UMA since 2006, and before this shewas Manager, Business Records at Victoria Police.She has worked as archivist or records manager atRecords Services at the University of Melbourne,the Victorian WorkCover Authority and theAeronautical and Maritime Research Laboratory.

She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in history andanthropology and a Graduate Diploma inInformation Management (Archives and Records),and has studied policy, leadership, managementand change at masters level.

Notes

1 AXA Asia Pacific Holdings: History,http://www.axa-asiapacific.com.au/axaaph/axaaph.nsf/Content/Company_History, accessed 30 January 2008.

2 Ann-Mari Jordens, ‘Templeton, JohnMontgomery (1840–1908)’, Australiandictionary of biography, vol. 6, Melbourne:Melbourne University Press, 1976, pp. 252–253, online at http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A060269b.htm, accessed 30 January 2008.

3 A.C. Gray, Life insurance in Australia: Anhistorical and descriptive account, Melbourne:McCarron Bird, 1977, pp. 39, 101, 106–107.

4 L.L. Robison, ‘Wider horizons’, in NationalMutual Life Association of Australasia, Acentury of life: The story of the first one hundred

W.M. Drummond & Co. (Melbourne),ceremonial spade. AXA Collection, University of

Melbourne Archives. This spade was presented bythe architects Wright, Reed & Beaver and the

contractor Robert Gamlin to the Hon. EdwardLangton, to commemorate his laying of the

foundation stone for the new premises of theNational Mutual Building on 28 July 1891.

years of the National Mutual Life, Melbourne:The Association, 1969, pp. 138–139.

5 Gray, Life insurance in Australia, pp. 107–108. 6 Gray, Life insurance in Australia, p. 54.7 Geoff Browne, ‘Thompson, James Tuson

(1879–1954)’, Australian dictionary ofbiography, vol. 16, Melbourne: MelbourneUniversity Press, 2002, pp. 381–382, online athttp://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A160463b.htm?hilite=T%3B%26%3BG%3BSociety, accessed 30 January 2008.

8 Gray, Life insurance in Australia, p. 39. 9 Robison, ‘Wider horizons’, pp. 102–103.10 AXA Asia Pacific Holdings: History. 11 Robison, ‘Wider horizons’.12 Susan Reidy, ‘Prince’s Bridge and John

Grainger’, in Brian Allison (ed.), John HarryGrainger: Architect and civil engineer, Parkville:University of Melbourne, 2007, p. 21.

13 Browne, ‘Thompson, James Tuson’.14 AXA Asia Pacific Holdings: History.15 AXA Asia Pacific Holdings: Vision and

strategy, http://www.axa-asiapacific.com.au/axaaph/axaaph.nsf/Content/Company_Vision, accessed 30 January 2008.


The University of Melbourne’sacquisition in 2007 of the completepublications of the Eragny Press(1894–1914) has major significanceto the Baillieu Library’s SpecialCollections. It is the only completeholding of this press in the southernhemisphere, as with the University’sKelmscott Press holdings. There areonly three other complete Eragnycollections in the world, two in theUnited States and one in the BritishLibrary.1 The collection will alsosubstantially increase the depth andbreadth of the University’s researchholdings on the Arts and Craftsmovement in England in the late19th and early 20th centuries. Theseries of 32 books includes the veryrare Whym Chow, the last bookprinted, of which only 27 copies wereproduced. Also included are twoseparate editions of Areopagitica byJohn Milton. The first edition is oneof just 40 to have survived a fire at thebookbinders (initially all werethought to have been destroyed).

Eragny Press is considered one ofthe ‘big six amongst modern Presses’,2

which greatly influenced book designand typography in Europe and theUnited States. Eragny books do notresemble the books produced by otherprivate presses of the period.Elements that set them apart includetheir beautiful flowered covers which

Acquisitions Eragny Press books Jacinta Fleming

combine English Arts and Craftsdesign with a French Impressionistinterest in colour, light and sensationsafter nature.3

HistoryEragny Press was a joint venturebetween Lucien Pissarro and his wifeEsther. Lucien (1863–1944), a shy,quiet and gentle man, was the son ofthe French Impressionist painterCamille Pissarro. He learnt to drawand paint from his father, frequentlygoing on painting trips together topaint from nature—a practice theycontinued all their lives.4 Lucienspent some time in England when hewas 20 years of age, returning home

to the village in Normandy where hisfamily lived, Eragny-sur-Epte, tomake lithographs and sell illustrationsto art and literary journals which werethen popular in France. During thistime he also discovered the art ofKate Greenaway and Walter Craneand designed and illustrated children’sbooks for his younger siblings. Thisperiod was intrinsic to the laterdevelopment of Eragny Press, andLucien was able to discover his ownstyle and expertise. Frustrated withthe cost of production and theinfluence of publishers he set out tolearn the art of wood engraving,which became his preferred medium.In 1890 his father sent him back toEngland to gain entry into thedecorative arts movement so thefamily could bring these ideas back toFrance. Lucien felt that England,generally considered more receptivethan France to decorative and graphicart, would appreciate his woodengravings. He became involved inthe world of English bookillustration, typography and binding.

Lucien was strongly influenced bythe Arts and Crafts movement, inparticular William Morris atKelmscott Press (established 1891).Morris in turn looked to Gothicdesign for his inspiration, usingspecial papers designed to emulateearly 15th century Bolognese papers


with specially hammered gold leafand vellum for covers. Lucien wasalso influenced by the work ofCharles Ricketts who founded theVale Press and became his closestfriend, mentor and publisher. Rickettslooked towards earlier Renaissancebooks which were simpler in design.As a result his designs were less densethan those of Morris.5

Lucien met and married EstherBensusan in 1892 in spite of bothfamilies’ objections, and stayed inEngland, as Esther refused to live inFrance. The daughter of a well-to-doJewish family, Esther was anindependent and headstrongcharacter. She showed an earlyinterest in art and could draw withskill and ease.6 Husband and wifebelieved in the ethos of the Arts andCrafts movement where the artist wasunited with the craftsman. Thisrevolution in the industrial artsconsidered ‘everyday objects in termsof satisfying design and carefulcraftsmanship’.7 Lucien was thedesigner and principal wood engraver,while Esther became the technicalskill behind the press. They dideverything themselves, from makingup the bindings, setting the layoutand design to printing the text, woodengravings and decorated papers forthe bindings. Esther usually engravedthe simpler one-colour blocks, the

woodblock initials, and theornaments. Lucien was experimentingwith three-, four- and five-colourwood engravings in a book worldmoulded by the tradition of Englishblack and white illustration.8 Eachbook had a varied print run ofbetween 150 and 230 copies.

The Eragny Press collectionThe collection now in the BaillieuLibrary was owned by Enid andErnest Verity, who were personalfriends and business colleagues of thePissarros. Ernest was a surveyor andworked on the Pissarros’ house ‘TheBrook’ in Chiswick for many years.The first book, The queen of the fishes,numbered 142 (1894), is inscribed ‘ToMr. and Mrs Verity / In remembranceof Nov. the 21st 1894 / from[monogram of Lucien Pissarro]’. Theother 17 inscribed books date from1901 to 1906. It appears that thefriendship cooled, as the inscriptionsstop abruptly, and the collection mayhave been put together by acombination of the Veritys and thenext owner of the books.

The books are in their originalbindings and are generally inremarkably good condition. Enclosedin Of gardens by Francis Bacon (1902)is a personal ‘with best wishes’ cardfrom Orovida Pissarro, the Pissarros’daughter born in 1893.

In choosing his titles, Lucienappealed to a range of interests, andthe books produced during the Valeassociation were printed in French toattract continental collectors, withtheir aesthetic being Pre-Raphaelite.The second half of the Eragny outputwas printed in English, but wasFrench in character.9

The booksThere were two phases of the EragnyPress. The first 16 books usedRicketts’ Vale type. The second typewas named The Brook, after thePissarros’ house in Chiswick. Thetypes created by these private presseshelped create a distinctive personalitynot possible with commercial types.When Vale Press closed down forinstance, the type itself was melteddown, as Ricketts could not bear thethought of its being used in booksover which he had no control.10 ColinFranklin, in his Private presses, arguesthat the Brook type, on the whitepaper of the small pages of theEragny Press books, was the mostbeautiful font invented in this wholeperiod.11 Esther, three years afterLucien’s death, in 1947 threw thepunches and matrices of the Brooktype into the English Channel. Thetype itself survives at CambridgeUniversity Press.

The Eragny Press was the only

Opposite: Margaret Rust, The queen of the fishes:An adaptation in English of a fairy tale of Valois …

with illustrations designed on the wood, cut andprinted by Lucien Pissarro, Chelsea, London:Charles Ricketts, 1894. Special Collections,

Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne.Frontispiece.

Left: Lucien and Esther Pissarro, trademark of the Eragny Press.


private press of this period to usemusic type. Based on 16th centurymodels, it was used in Some old Frenchand English ballads edited by RobertSteele (1905) and in Songs by BenJonson (1906). A Greek type was usedin John Milton’s Areopagitica (1903).

The books became widely loved inEngland and France, two beingcommissioned by French book clubs.The books were printed in colour,printed with gold leaf and goldpowder, printed on vellum and withprinted music. The influence ofWilliam Morris is evident in thecover designs and the use of borders.Colour wood engravings are ahallmark, and are used mainly as thefrontispiece in each book.

The first book produced by theEragny Press was The queen of thefishes (1894), an old Valois fairytale,with rich illustrations, photo-engraved calligraphy for the text, anda joining of letterforms anddecoration. As Urbanelli points out, itwas experimental, yet well received.12

The majority of books were issuedwith patterned paper covers, usuallybotanical in nature, designed byPissarro. Emile Verhaeren’s Les petitsvieux (1901) is typical in style. It isbound in quarter grey paper withMichallet blue paper boards showinga repeat pattern of ‘Winter aconite’(ranunculus) printed in two shades of

green ink. The spine is blocked ingold.13

The next 15 books following Thequeen of the fishes contain little colour,consisting of complex frontispieces, aborder and decorative capitals. Anexample is the beautiful frontispieceof Pierre de Ronsard’s Choix de sonnets(1902), which depicts a girl pickingflowers. It was not until 1903, afterthe death of Camille Pissarro, theclosure of Vale Press, and theestablishment of his own Brooktypeface, that colour returned toEragny Press publications. Anunfortunate downside was the

increased cost of production, withLucien sometimes miscalculatingproduction time and expenses. Anexample is Gérard de Nerval’s Histoirede la reine du matin & de Solimanprince des génies, commissioned in1909 by the Société des CentBibliophiles. Printed in gold leaf andcolours, finely detailed, it took 20months to produce. The finalcomposition includes more than 15illustrations, seven border designs,and 11 historiated capitals. Theleather-bound cover was decoratedwith gold stamped flowers (see backcover).

Although Lucien usedphotography to transfer his images tothe woodblock, his engravingscontinued to develop as they werebeing carved. Lucien wrote:

we knew nothing about the art ofprinting and had to learn it as wewent along … Queen of the fisheswas printed two pages at a time;the gold used in the book was realgold powder … after many sheetsof paper had been spoilt, theedition was achieved.14

During the ensuing years Lucien andEsther overcame many difficulties,continually making improvements totheir press to create perfect register.What made Eragny Press

Gérard de Nerval, Histoire de la reine du matin &de Soliman prince des génies, Hammersmith: EragnyPress, 1909. Special Collections, Baillieu Library,University of Melbourne. Frontispiece.


extraordinary—artistic integrity andcomplex production methods—unfortunately also resulted in smalloutput and little to no financialprofit. Artistic autonomy was placedabove all else.

The Press’s last book, WhymChow, flame of love, was totallyundertaken by Esther in 1914.Whym was the chow dog belongingto Katherine Bradley and EdithCooper, who commissioned aremembrance card for their belovedWhym when he died. The Pissarroswere subsequently commissioned toprint a book of poems devoted toWhym Chow.

Eragny Press closed in 1914.

Lucien had gone back to painting fulltime and World War 1 prevented theimport of handmade paper fromFrance. The Pissarros also lost touchwith their collectors on the continentand worldwide.

The Pissarros helped shape, andmade a unique contribution to, theprivate press revival in England. Theyare considered artist-printers.15

Lucien was able to bring together theavant-garde ideas of the Parisian neo-Impressionists with those of theEnglish Arts and Crafts movement.Lucien regarded his marriage toEsther as the ideal union. The EragnyPress became an expression of theirmutual love.

Pierre de Ronsard, Choix de sonnets de P. deRonsard, London: Eragny Press, 1902. Special

Collections, Baillieu Library, University ofMelbourne. Frontispiece.

Jacinta Fleming is Head of Library at MaffraSecondary College, where she teaches art, studioarts, visual communication and design andmultimedia. She is also undertaking a Master ofEducation degree (Teacher-Librarianship) viadistance education from Charles Sturt University.She wrote this article during her professionalplacement which she undertook with BaillieuLibrary Special Collections through the CulturalCollections Student Projects Program.

Notes

1 Marcella D. Genz, A history of the Eragny Press1894–1914, New Castle, Del.: Oak KnollPress, 2004, p. 146.

2 Geoffrey S. Tomkinson, A select bibliography ofthe principal modern presses public and private in Great Britain and Ireland, London: FirstEdition Club, 1928.

3 Lora Urbanelli, The wood engravings of LucienPissarro and a bibliographical list of Eragnybooks, Cambridge: Silent Books; Oxford:Ashmolean Museum, 1994, p. 45.

4 Urbanelli, The wood engravings, pp. 9–12.5 Urbanelli, The wood engravings, pp. 19–20.6 Genz, A history of the Eragny Press, p. 35.7 Urbanelli, The wood engravings, p. 13.8 Ruth Lightbourne, ‘Vale and Eragny Presses’,

Off the Record: Magazine of the Friends of theTurnbull Library, no. 13, 2006, p. 7.

9 Urbanelli, The wood engravings, p. 45.10 Lightbourne, ‘Vale and Eragny Presses’, p. 7.11 Colin Franklin, The private presses, 2nd edition,

Aldershot: Gower Publishing Co.; Brookfield:Scolar Press, 1991, p. 98.

12 Urbanelli, The wood engravings, p. 26.13 Lightbourne, ‘Vale and Eragny Presses’, p. 7.14 Lucien Pissarro, edited with a supplement by

Alan Fern, Notes on the Eragny Press: And aletter to J.B. Manson, Cambridge: privatelyprinted (University Press), 1957, pp. 4–5.

15 Genz, A history of the Eragny Press, p. 62.


ConservationThe Laby X-ray spectrographDianne Whittle

The Laby X-ray spectrograph was inmanufacture by 1930 by Adam HilgerLtd of London to the design ofProfessor Thomas Howell Laby. Theinstrument used the principle ofsingle crystal Bragg X-ray diffractionto record wavelengths for spectrumanalysis. An example is on permanentdisplay in the University ofMelbourne’s Physics Museum.1 In2007 the conservation treatment ofthe instrument was undertaken aspart of the University’s CulturalCollections Renewal Project, whichwas funded by the Miegunyah Trust.

Thomas Howell Laby (1880–1946) was appointed Professor ofNatural Philosophy, as Physics wasthen called, at the University ofMelbourne in 1915, and held thisposition until his retirement in 1944.From 1926 to 1929 he was also Deanof the Faculty of Science.2 At theUniversity, he placed greatimportance on research, exploringareas such as precision physics, radiophysics, X-rays, and atomic andnuclear physics.3 In the process hewas involved in the design of anumber of instruments including astring electrometer and this X-rayspectrograph. One version of thespectrograph was exhibited by AdamHilger Ltd at the 1928 Exhibition ofthe Physical and Optical Societies inLondon.4 The Physics Museum also

holds a prototype of the spectrograph(reg. no. 275), constructed in theNatural Philosophy workshop at theUniversity and now displayedalongside the final version. It hasrecently undergone conservationcleaning .

The finished instrument nowdisplayed in the Physics Museum(reg. no. 274) is a complex assemblyof brass, lead, aluminium, and iron-based components, with a rock salt orcalcite crystal held in position by wax,and a range of surface coatingsincluding enamel paint and shellac.The oscillating components weredriven by a clockwork mechanismmounted under the base plate belowthe collimator.

When in use during the 1930s, an

X-ray beam would be directed at anoscillating crystal, which diffractedthe beam at various angles dependingon the elements present. The reflectedbeam was then selectively passedthrough an aperture in a synchronisedoscillating lead screen, and onto acurved photographic plate. Thewavelengths of unknown lines on thespectra image produced were thendetermined by interpolation fromknown standard lines.5

More than 60 years later, and aftermany years of static display in thePhysics Museum display cases, theveteran instrument was showing signsof deterioration including corrosion,surface coating abrasion and loss,contamination of lubricated surfaces,and otherwise the general rigours ofdust, oxidation and handling overtime.

The challenge in developing theconservation treatment was toimprove the appearance of the object,as well as ensuring its long-termstability, without losing evidence ofuse, provenance or historical record.Conservation ethics ideally requireminimal intervention, thepreservation of original material andthe use of reversible treatments. Inapplication however, there oftenneeds to be a compromise betweenthe expectations of the owners ormanagers of a collection, technical


and resource limitations, and ethicalconsiderations. For the collectionmanagers, it was important that theinstrument’s appearance reflect itssignificance as the ‘best preservedinstrument surviving from ProfessorLaby’s research’,6 and that its functionand use should be readable. Inparticular, it was felt that the severelycorroded graduated scales associatedwith the crystal table oscillationshould be legible.

With the assistance of the PhysicsMuseum technical staff, theinstrument was partially disassembledto enable access to the individualcomponents. An interestingconsequence of this disassemblyprocess was the identification ofseveral non-original components,

corrosion was treated locally withtannic acid. The exposed lead surfacesof the crystal mount were sealed aftercleaning with a coating of ParaloidB72 resin to slow future corrosion.

Corrosion pitting of the graduatedbrass scales associated with the crystaltable required the removal of theoriginal—presumably shellac—coating, which had discoloured withage, and mechanical removal of thecorrosion beneath it using abrasives.Prior to re-assembly, the originalcoloration of these components wasmatched by applying a tinted acrylicspray coating over a reversible,conservation-safe Incralac barrierlayer. On the one levelling foot wherea similar coating had major areas ofloss, transparent pigments in solvent

which indicated that the clockworkmechanism at some point in theinstrument’s use had possibly beenreplaced by a motor driven belt/pulleysystem, and that the rotating lead slitdescribed in the manufacturer’sreference literature was no longerattached to the instrument.

During treatment, the surfacecoatings were found to vary widely insolubility and integrity, and care wastaken to use different cleaningregimens for each surface. All paintedsurfaces were cleaned and sealed witha microcrystalline wax. Corrosionproducts on the brass, lead and iron-based components were reduced orremoved manually using a fine scalpelunder low power magnification. Deeppitting associated with the iron-based

Opposite: Professor Laby optical munitions 1943,photographic print, 25.0 x 19.5 cm. Reg. no. 72,

Physics Museum, University of Melbourne.

Below: X-ray spectrograph, designed by Thomas Howell Laby, Melbourne, manufactured

by Adam Hilger Ltd, London, c.1928–1930,various materials including brass, lead, aluminium,

iron, enamel paint and shellac, height: 43.0 cm. Reg. no. 274, Physics Museum,

University of Melbourne.

Elements of the spectrograph before treatment:front and rear of crystal holder, and partially

disassembled crystal mount slide adjustment andturntable, showing corrosion, dirt

and other damage.


were applied over a barrier layer, tosimulate the original coloration. Bothof these coatings can be easilyremoved and replaced in the future ifrequired.

Degraded and contaminatedlubricants on the base of the turntablecomponent, and within the clockworkmechanism, were removed withsolvents and replaced by a lightmachine oil. A decision was made toleave the tube of the collimator, whichappeared to be wrapped in

The spectrograph after treatment.

Notes

1 The display area of the Physics Museum islocated on level 2 of the School of Physicstheatres building. It is open from 9.00 a.m. to5.00 p.m., Monday to Friday. For furtherinformation on the Museum seehttp://www.ph.unimelb.edu.au/museum.

2 For a biographical outline see ‘Laby, ThomasHowell (1880–1946)’, Bright Sparcs, TheUniversity of Melbourne eScholarshipResearch Centre, 1994–2007,http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/biogs/P000553b.htm.

3 Jacqueline Eager, ‘Photograph, OpticalMunitions & Prof. Laby’, website of theUniversity of Melbourne Physics Museum,http://www.ph.unimelb.edu.au/museum/index.php?state=browse&search=search&start_entry=0&num_results=25&search_field=Brief+description&equals_or_contains=Contains&search_string=laby, accessed 8 January 2008.

4 A.F.C. Pollard, ‘Notes upon the mechanicaldesign of some instruments shown at theExhibition of the Physical and OpticalSocieties, 1928’, Journal of ScientificInstruments, vol. 5, no. 3, March 1928, pp. 88–92.

5 ‘New instruments: Professor Laby’s X-rayspectrograph’, Journal of Scientific Instruments,vol. 7, no. 9, September 1930, pp. 296–297.

6 Online catalogue of the collection of theUniversity of Melbourne Physics Museum,entry for ‘X-ray spectrograph, Laby/Hilger’,http://www.ph.unimelb.edu.au/museum/index.php?state=item_view&pm_item=274, accessed8 January 2008.

discoloured adhesive tape, untouched,apart from a dry surface clean.

In summary, the instrument hasbeen cleaned of surface grime and themajority of disfiguring corrosionproducts, and stabilised as much aspossible for future long-term storageand display. The treatment hasimproved the overall visual aesthetic,without significantly compromisingthe historical context or losingevidence of use. As a result, thisimportant instrument, which tells usmuch about early physics research anddevelopment at the University ofMelbourne, can be returned to displayfor many decades to come.

Acknowledgements: I would like to acknowledgethe assistance of Nick Nicola and Phil Lyons fromthe Physics Department in the disassembly of thespectrograph prior to treatment, and Holly Jones-Amin and Kate Shepherdson from the Centre forCultural Materials Conservation for their feedbackand consultation during the conservation process.

Dianne Whittle was the objects conservationintern at the Centre for Cultural MaterialsConservation at the University of Melbourne in2007 and 2008. She holds a Bachelor of AppliedScience (Metallurgy) and a Master of Arts inCultural Materials Conservation (ObjectsSpecialisation), as well as qualifications in Arts, ITand quality management. During the internshipshe also treated a number of other objects from thePhysics Museum and researched and treatedgelatine-based botanical teaching models from theUniversity of Melbourne Herbarium. She iscurrently employed with Artlab Australia as a largeobjects and technology projects conservator.


From 26 to 28 November 2007 theUniversity’s Centre for CulturalMaterials Conservation hosted asymposium on the care andconservation of Middle-Easternmanuscripts. The main themescovered were the materials andtechniques of production, history andtraditions, and cultural issues relatedto holding and caring for this type ofmaterial. Australian and internationalexperts presented a series of lecturesover the three days. Day one provideda general overview of the symposium’sthree themes, while days two andthree covered the themes of culturalcontext and materials and techniquesin more detail. The symposiumopened with a welcome by theWurundjeri Elder, Mrs Joy WandinMurphy.

Dr Adrian Gully, Senior Lecturerin Arabic and Islamic Studies at theAsia Institute, University ofMelbourne, discussed the historic roleof manuscripts as written records inpre-modern Islamic society and thedevelopment from oral traditions tooral/writing traditions.

Pam Pryde, Curator of SpecialCollections, University of Melbourne,spoke about the University’s owncollection of Middle-Easternmanuscripts, initiated by ProfessorJohn Bowman in the 1950s to providehis students with original primary

sources for their studies. Ms Prydedescribed the collection and discussedits past and present managementincluding cataloguing andconservation.

Professor Dr Amir H. Zekrgoo,Professor of Islamic and OrientalArts at the International Institute ofIslamic Thought and Civilization,International Islamic University ofMalaysia, in Kuala Lumpur, presentedthree papers on cultural context. Thefirst introduced the different conceptsof ‘religious’, ‘sacred’, and ‘non-religious’ in Islamic arts, which anyperson handling Islamic art shouldunderstand in order to ‘know thenature of the work he deals with’.People also need to respect thereligious restrictions on handlingsacred Islamic art, in particular theissues of religious ‘pollution andpurification’. Professor Zekrgoo’ssecond paper elaborated on the sacredart of Islam, of which the Koranic artof calligraphy is the most sacred form.He showed examples of Persianmarriage contracts, explaining theirartistic, symbolic, legal and sacredsignificance. He emphasised theirornamental and poetic text, fromwhich he recited a beautiful passage.The professor’s final paper elaboratedon a non-religious example of Islamicart, a renowned 10th centurymanuscript titled Shahnamah, or The

book of kings, a monumental epicrenowned for its length, script,illustrations, adornments and layout.

Dr Mandana Barkeshli, Founder-Director of Art and Identity, KualaLumpur, and Head of theConservation Subcommittee of theIslamic Manuscript Association, alsopresented three papers. The firstfocussed on the preservation andmanagement of Islamic heritage. Shedescribed how the Islamic ArtsMuseum of Malaysia has developedguidelines based on Shari’ah (Islamiclaw) to manage its collection. TheMuseum achieved this byunderstanding the difference between‘religious’, ‘sacred’ and ‘other’ Islamicartifacts, and also by respecting thedictates of ‘ritual pollution’ and ‘ritualpurification’. For example duringconservation or cleaning ‘uncleansubstances’ such as brush bristles andglue made with pork products shouldnot be used. She discussed the needfor institutions managing Islamiccollections to communicate with eachother and to establish collectionmanagement guidelines. Dr Barkeshlithen discussed the materials andtechniques used by the masters ofPersian manuscripts and miniaturepaintings from the 13th to the 19thcenturies in order to prevent chemicaland biological damage to their art.She focussed on two dyes: henna,

ReviewSymposium on the care and conservation of Middle-Eastern manuscriptsClaire Patullo


in the 16th and 17th centuries. Herresearch methodology included thestudy of contemporary journals,treatises on painting materials andstudio practice, bequests of thedescendants of court painters, oralhistories, and analysing pigments,tools and techniques. She alsodescribed the hierarchy of labourwithin the studio.

Cheryl Porter, Director of theMontefiascone Project, London, andSenior Conservator and Coordinatorof Preservation/Conservation withthe Ghesaurus Islamicus Foundation,discussed pigments and organiccolours used in 14th to 17th centuryArmenian and Egyptian manuscripts.

British Library, including pigmentconsolidation and paper repairs, andthe dilemma of whether or not tototally rebind a book so that it can beused as a research object, in contrastto a museum exhibition object.

Mike Wheeler, Senior PaperConservator at the Victoria andAlbert Museum, focussed on acomprehensive research project nowin its tenth year, which explores theanalysis, conservation and display ofMughal and Islamic manuscripts. Ahighlight was his discussion of theinfamous pigment Indian yellow,originally produced from the urine ofcows fed exclusively on mango leaves.This diet led to a painful death forthe cows and the pigment waseventually banned.

Shingo Ishikawa, paperconservator, described the conserv-ation of a masterpiece produced byMishkin Qalam, a renowned 19thcentury Persian calligrapher. Pastreframing had caused some skinning(removal) of the surface, but duringthe conservation treatment the lostpieces were fortunately found and re-attached.

Anita Chowdry, a British painterand illustrator who incorporatestraditional techniques and materialsin her work, presented a paper on thestudio practices of artists andcraftsmen in the royal ateliers of India

whose anti-microbial property resistsa common fungus that attacks paper,and saffron, which buffers against thedestructive effects on paper of greenverdigris pigment. Dr Barkeshli’s finalpaper described her study of thematerials of Iranian illuminatedmanuscripts and miniature paintings.To support her findings she referredto historical documents such astraditional recipes for pigments, aswell as to current scientific analyticalmethods.

David Jacobs, SeniorConservation Officer in the BritishLibrary, presented his first paper onthe structure, materials anddecoration of Islamic bookmaking.He discussed the origins anddevelopment of Islamic bookbindingboth geographically andchronologically. He described thecraftsmanship of the leather bindingsand embossed designs, usingexamples he had made himself due tothe very small number of historicalexamples that have survivedunaltered. He also described coloursand embellishments such as filigree,gold paint, and painted lacquer. In hissecond paper Jacobs described thecharacteristically light orimpermanent structure of Middle-Eastern bindings, and the signs andproblems of deterioration. Hediscussed conservation practices at the

Professor Dr Amir H. Zekrgoo, InternationalInstitute of Islamic Thought and Civilization,International Islamic University of Malaysia.


and practical work of academics,conservators, craftspeople andcollection managers. The event alsocreated an opportunity for futurecommunication and exchange ofinformation and ideas. The Universityof Melbourne had a special interest inorganising the symposium due to itsholding of a significant collection,which attendees had the opportunityto view closely in a special viewingsession hosted by the UniversityLibrary.

One outcome of the symposium is some discussion of employing aconservation binder to work on theUniversity’s collection in the future.The Centre for Cultural MaterialsConservation also plans to create awebsite for the symposium, enhancedby images of items from theUniversity’s collection. This willprovide international experts access to the collection and also theopportunity to add informationonline.

Claire Patullo is currently undertaking a Master of Arts (Cultural Materials Conservation) degreeat the Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation.She also holds a Bachelor of Arts DegreeConversion (Graphic Design) and works as aProject Officer Australiana (Preservation) in theSpecial Collections of the Baillieu Library.

condition of items in the University’sArabic manuscript collection.

Associate Professor RobynSloggett, Director of the Centre forCultural Materials Conservation,spoke about the University ofMelbourne’s Middle-Easternmanuscript collection. AlthoughProfessor Bowman initiated thecollection to provide material for thestudy of language and texts, thecollection today is also valued forproviding ‘a wealth of informationabout the production of suchmanuscripts’. She discussed theconservation assessment of thecollection, and the use of RAMANspectroscopy to analyse pigments in situ.

Two workshops were also offered.A two-day master class forconservators and bookbinders, led byDavid Jacobs, covered the traditionalmethods, techniques and materials forpreventive conservation of Islamicmanuscripts, while Anita Chowdryled a workshop on Indo-Persianpainting.

The symposium, which wassponsored by Archival Survival, waswell attended and included delegatesfrom the United Kingdom, USA andIndia. It created an environment forincreasing knowledge andunderstanding of Middle-Easternmanuscripts, by exposing the research

The highlight of her paper waslearning of her quest to collect thecochineal insect by hand from thefields of the Ararat valley in easternTurkey, and her subsequent attemptsto reproduce the traditional redpigment.

Caroline Checkley-Scott, SeniorConservator with the WellcomeTrust, London, discussed her 15-yearstudy of the history and conservationof early Christian manuscripts andbooks, particularly Syrian texts. Shedescribed traditional bookbindingtechniques, structural weaknesses andproblems of deterioration, andadvised on conservation measures.

Sophie Lewincamp, PaperConservator at the Australian WarMemorial, presented a paper co-authored with Yasmeen Khan, SeniorBook Conservator at the Library ofCongress, on an extensive study andanalysis of fragments from earlyKorans at the Library of Congress.The study involved identifyingscripts, analysing materials,techniques and equipment such aspens and inks, embellishments,pigments, and parchments, and alsothe use of SEM-EDX sampling.

Karin Scheper, Book Conservatorat the University Library in Leiden,described a conservation assessmentproject which involved setting up adatabase to record and monitor the

Symposium participants inspecting the Universityof Melbourne’s collection of Middle-Easternmanuscripts in the Rare Book Room, SpecialCollections, Baillieu Library.© Penelope Davis 2007.


Cultural Treasures DaysThursday 18 – Sunday 21 September 2008

People familiar with the University’scollections generally are keenlyinterested in one, maybe two specificcollecting areas. If the 19th centurySavory and Moore Pharmacy in theMedical History Museum sparks yourinterest, then you probably haveinvestigated the Henry FormanAtkinson Dental Museum.Conversely, if it is the experimentalworks on paper by Ludwig HirschfeldMack at the Ian Potter Museum ofArt that inspire, then you are alsolikely to have explored the PrintCollection at the Baillieu Library.

The Cultural Treasures Daysevent will encourage those withparticular interests to explore othersamong the 33 cultural collections ofthe University of Melbourne. FromThursday 18 September to Sunday 21 September many of these will beopened to the whole Universitycommunity and the general public.Some, such as the Tiegs ZoologyMuseum and the Herbarium, arerarely seen by anyone other thanstudents and specialist researchers.Cultural Treasures Days will enableothers to explore, for example, theworking set of all types of animalsand some of the 80,000 dried plantspecimens.

Many of the museums andcollections on campus will be openduring nominated times on the

Friday, Saturday and Sunday, withexpert curators and researchers inattendance to answer visitor queries.Numerous collection specialists haveprepared displays and exhibitionsparticularly for this event. TheBaillieu Library for instance will beoverflowing with displays from manyparts of its vast holdings, includingworks from the Louise Hanson-DyerMusic Library, the Print Collectionand Rare Books. The Baillieu will alsohost an exhibition of Herbariumspecimens next to artworks that theyhave inspired. In the McCoyBuilding, visitors will see minerals,mining objects, rare books and mapsfrom the F.A. Singleton Museum ofEarth Sciences, the Earth SciencesLibrary and the Maps Collection.

Special events and activities arealso on offer for the three days. Manyof the curators will present guidedtours of the displays. Curatorsinstrumental in forming thesecollections will be available, includingProfessor Henry Atkinson speakingon the newly refurbished DentalMuseum and Professor David Youngon the Zoology Museum.

Temporary exhibitions will bebrought to life by expert speakerssuch as Dr Heather Jackson’sexploration of the ancient Greek vasesat the Ian Potter Museum of Art.Also at the Potter will be the Basil

Sellars Art Prize, exploring sport andsporting culture. The curator of theGolden Cockerel Press exhibition atthe Baillieu Library will discuss thedisplay, followed by a behind-the-scenes visit. But these are just a taste.There are many tours scheduled overthe three days so that visitors can joinin a number of them during theirvisit.

University House will participatein Cultural Treasures Days, providinga terrific opportunity for those whoare not members of the University’sstaff club to see the notable ErnstMatthaei Memorial Collection ofEarly Glass. An unusual andimpressive space rarely seen by thepublic—the Karagheusian Room—will also be open. It contains theelaborate Renaissance Revivalfurnishings from the Paris residenceof the Karagheusian family, enrichedby a c.1610 painting of a merrypeasant wedding by the Flemish artistPieter Brueghel III. One of the long-serving Matthaei committeemembers, Professor Peter Attiwill,will be in attendance, and perhaps he can clarify if indeed the glasscollection and the painting’s thememight be cheeky references to theactivities undertaken in the House.

The key event on Fridayafternoon will be a talk by Mr AhmedFahour, Executive Director and CEO


Australia of the National AustraliaBank. NAB is commemorating its150th anniversary this year and hispresentation is inspired by the long-standing relationship between theUniversity and the Bank. This ishighlighted by the University’s firstbankbooks retained in the collectionof the University of MelbourneArchives, dating from the time of theUniversity’s establishment in 1853.These and other papers documentingthe two institutions’ shared historywill be on display, including someevocative and important lettersrelating to the Kelly Gang, includingits robbery of the National Bank’sEuroa branch, which are rarelyavailable for public viewing. Bookingsare required for this event.

Sunday’s activities will focus onfamilies, and the Physics Museumwill take the lead with tours,interactive displays and demon-strations, plus giveaways for visitors totake home, where the experimentationcan continue. Our distinguishedSunday guest will be ProfessorReynard Eastley (PhD, Stories andAdventures) a.k.a. actor and educatorBernard Caleo, on one of his specialtours in search of the Secret ofMelbourne University! ProfessorEastley is a 19th century styleadventurer (or perhaps a missingmaster from the Harry Potter stories)

whose life’s work is the exploration ofthe University, digging up its secrets,understanding its stories, andinvestigating its mysteries. Thesetours, principally for children agedfive to 12 and their families andcarers, are for small groups, so pleasebook to join the team.

Readers are especially invited tojoin us in the launch of the CulturalTreasures Days where AssociateProfessor Robyn Sloggett will talkabout conserving and caring for theUniversity’s cultural treasures. AsDirector of the Centre for CulturalMaterials Conservation she has aunique understanding of theirpreciousness and significance. Thepresentation will be in the ElisabethMurdoch Theatre on the evening ofThursday 18 September, followed byrefreshments where guests will meetstudents who have researched objectsfrom the collections. Theirpresentations highlight thecontinuing use of the collections inthe University’s teaching, some ofwhose graduates will join Australia’snext generation of curators, scholarsand collection managers.

As befitting such a grand fewdays, there will be a splendid closingevent, presented by the GraingerMuseum. Renowned Australianmusician Richard Divall will presentan exciting program of musical

treasures from the Grainger Museum.This collection will truly come to lifethrough both performance andcommentary.

Cultural Treasures Days has beenmade possible by the MiegunyahTrust, established through the legacyof Sir Russell and Lady (Mab)Grimwade. The Trust has longprovided substantial financial supportfor the University’s collections, andthrough this event the results ofMiegunyah’s generosity will beavailable to the whole community. Sir Russell was also a keen collector,and selections from the many worksthat he bequeathed to the Universitywill be on display at the Ian PotterMuseum of Art.

These are just highlights of theprogram, with many more things todo and see. Please join us at theCultural Treasures Days with yourfriends and family to enjoy the uniquecultural collections at the Universityof Melbourne. Further details areavailable at http://www.unimelb.edu.au/culturalcollections/treasuresdays.To receive a program in the mail,email [email protected] call (03) 8344 0269. Some activitiesare for smaller groups, so please checkthose which require a booking. Allthe activities will be free. It’s time todiscover new cultural collections atthe University of Melbourne.

Join Professor Reynard Eastley (PhD, Stories andAdventures) in his search for the mysterious secret

of Melbourne University.


Rau Sahib and Feroze Shahsurprised by Colonel Holmes’ columnon the 21st Jan 1859 5 a.m.

[signed] George G. Beazley Lt.HM 83rd Rgt.

Tatya Tope1 was one of the rebelleaders of the Indian Mutiny whoheld out until 1859. January 21, 1859was the day of a surprise Britishattack on his camp (when this Koranwas seized at 5.00 a.m.). LieutenantGeorge Gant Beazley who wrote theinscription later received a medal for

his participation in the suppression ofthe Indian Mutiny.

The uprising known as the IndianMutiny was frightening, bloody andcruel, with massacres perpetrated byboth sides.2 It replaced the rule ofboth the British East India Companyand the Mughal Empire in India withdirect rule by the British government(British Raj) for the next 90 years,until independence in 1947.

Many underlying causes festeredtowards rebellion: political, economic,military, religious and social. The oldaristocracy resented its power beingeroded under British control. SomeIndians perceived British policies andpractices as westernisation withoutregard for Indian tradition orculture—such as the outlawing of sati(widow burning) and childmarriage—and the ban on somereligious practices also suggested adrive towards an imposedChristianisation. The justice systemwas considered to be unfair toIndians. Land reorganisation andtrade policies were skewed in favourof the economy of the British, notthat of India and the Indians.

The immediate trigger howeverfor the uprising in 1857 was thecontroversy over the new Pattern1853 Enfield rifle. To load the newrifle, the soldiers (sepoys) had to bitethe cartridge open. A rumour gained

Provenance is one of the experientialdifferences of encounter between aphysical object and its photographicor digital image. Both provide contentbut physical objects do more. Theyalso provide context. A physical objecthas shared in events that took placearound it and its owner. It is awitness.

Sometimes this witness is also aveteran. Such is the case of an 18thcentury leather-bound vellum Koranrecently catalogued for the BaillieuLibrary’s Special Collections by theArabic language and manuscriptscataloguer, Mahboubeh Kamalpour.

This is a single volume parchmentKoran, 29.0 cm in height, with ahandsome leather cover. Themanuscript is very clear and thewriting beautifully executed. The firsttwo pages are in colourful frames ofblue, red and yellow. The script part isframed in blue and red and consists of11 lines per page. The Koran bearsthe bookplate of the GeorgeMcArthur Bequest of 1903, and thesignature of Leigh Scott, theUniversity Librarian, dated 4 October1948.

An inscription on the front coververso reads:

Kuran picked up in the rebel campat Seekur [i.e., Sikar] Shikawatheecountry camp under Tantiu Tope,

The provenance of a historic KoranArtefact as participant in the events of the Indian Mutinyof 1857Daria Fedewytsch-Dickson


Soon the rebellion spread beyondthe armed forces. However, it did notbecome India-wide. On the Indianside there were many diverging andconflicting interests among those whoaspired to reclaim dynastic rule orgrasp new opportunities. Hindus,Muslims and Sikhs were not only notunited in a common cause but alsohad various separate agendas, some ofwhich involved payback for priorconflicts or perceived collaborationwith British authorities in pastdisputes. Conflict was centeredmainly on the northern and central

currency: that the cartridges issuedwith the rifle were greased with lard(pork fat) which was regarded asunclean by Muslims, or tallow (beeffat) from cows, regarded as sacred toHindus. In the minds of thesesoldiers, many of whom were highcaste Hindus and sons of wealthyMuslims, this was an outrage; Hindus would lose caste by suchcontamination while Muslims wouldhave transgressed a Koranicproscription.

British military authoritiesbecame concerned about the rumourand ordered that cartridges issuedfrom depots were to be free fromgrease and that soldiers could greasethem themselves using whatevermixture they preferred (beeswax orvegetable oil for example). This edicthowever merely confirmed thesoldiers’ suspicions that the rumourshad been true and their fears justified.

Several months of increasingtension and inflammatory incidentspreceded the actual rebellion. Barrackbuildings (especially those occupiedby soldiers who had used the Enfieldcartridges) and European officers’bungalows were set on fire; at variousmilitary cantonments soldiers refusedto obey their British officers. Notlong after, in April, actual rebellionbroke out and British soldiers andcivilians were attacked.

areas of India and was by and largeconfined to the Bengal army.3

At first, the Indians madeheadway against the shocked andundermanned British. But as theBritish received reinforcements andcounter-attacked it became clear thatthe Indian side suffered from a lack ofeffective central command.Leadership fractured among the rajas,princes and nobles. Whoever couldseize the leadership initiative andmuster some troops around himselfbecame a contender for power in thestruggle. One such was Tatya Tope.

Koran, 18th century, one volume, manuscript onparchment with leather cover, 29.0 cm.

George McArthur Bequest, 1903, MUL 170 KORA, Baillieu Library Special

Collections, University of Melbourne.


Tope was the only son ofPandurang Rao Tope, a noble at thecourt of the Peshwa Baji Rao II. AfterBaji Rao was exiled to Bithoor,Pandurang Rao and his family alsoshifted there. Tatya Tope became themost intimate friend of the Peshwa’sadopted son, Nana Dhondu Pant(known as Nana Sahib). Tope turnedtotally against the British when NanaSahib was deprived of his father’spension by Lord Dalhousie in 1851.As the rebellion grew, in May 1857Tope won over the Indian troops ofthe East India Company at Kanpur(Cawnpore), established Nana Sahib’sauthority and became the commanderof his forces.

Tope became feared and hated bythe British after the massacre ofboatloads of British refugees (mostlywomen and children) at theSatichaura Ghat on the Ganges, inspite of having been promised safepassage to Allahabad by Nana Sahib.The exact order of events and whofirst fired on whom has becomehistorically controversial, but Tope’spersona became firmly associatedwith this event.

Tope eventually moved hisheadquarters from around Kanpur toKalpi and joined with the famousfemale rebellion leader Rani LakshmiBai (also known as the Rani of Jhansi)and continued to lead the revolt. He

was routed at Betwa (where hemanaged to field almost 20,000 men),and at Koonch and Kalpi, butmanaged to reach Gwalior. There heproclaimed Nana Sahib as Peshwa.However, before he could consolidatehis gain, Sir Hugh Henry Rosedefeated him in a battle which sawthe end of the Rani of Jhansi. She waskilled leading her forces against theBritish assault, on 17 June 1858.

Saul David notes thatcontemporary British sources concurthat Rani’s death ‘caused the greatestconsternation among the rebeltroops’.4 Tatya Tope and Rao Sahib(also mentioned in our inscription,nephew of Nana Sahib) fled intoRajputana with just over 5,000 troopsand ten guns. Tope neverthelesscontinued his guerrilla warfare againstthe British for several months. SeveralBritish columns were sent in pursuitand marched over thousands of milesin stifling heat to catch him. Tope andhis army stood and fought the Britishat Rajgarh in September 1858. Topelost the battle and all his guns but hestill managed to escape. With a hardcore of supporters including RaoSahib, Tope headed south to Nagpur,hoping to incite an uprising there. Inthe opinion of some, a successfuluprising here in the earlier period ofthe mutiny would have been verydangerous to British rule, but by late

1858 the British had regained theirhold and Tope was more of a fugitivethan a seriously threatening foe.

Nothing came of stirring upNagpur into rebellion, so Tope movedon. So did more British forces sent totrap him. At Indragarh in Rajputanain January 1859, Tope linked up withPrince Firoz Shah (also mentioned inour inscription, nephew of the Kingof Delhi and leader of an earlierrebellion at Mandesar where thegreen flag of Muslim revolt wasraised).5 But the British were moresuccessful this time.

It was the fateful day—21 January1859—the date of our inscription.Colonel Holmes’ column, comprisingHer Majesty’s 83rd and 12th NativeInfantry and four guns, marched 54miles through sandy desert in justover 24 hours and succeeded insurrounding Tope’s force near Sikar,defeating it in a surprise attack atdawn.6 Our Koran was seized—at5.00 a.m. according to LieutenantBeazley—during this very attack!

Was it seized from a saddle bag?From the hands of a terrified, fleeingMuslim supporter of Firoz Shah? Or,even more tantalisingly, was it apersonal copy owned by the princehimself? To whomever it belonged(Tope and Sahib were Hindus so itcould not have belonged to them),this Koran witnessed historic events

Bookplate and inscription in the Koran.


and would have travelled the samethousands of miles that its owner didwhile taking part in attempts atinsurrection and then escaping fromBritish pursuers.

Several British contemporarieswere impressed by the sheer amountof territory the guerrilla leadercovered in his fight with and thenflight from them. Colonel Mallesonnotes that during a nine monthperiod after Tope’s defeat at JauraAlipur until his capture, ‘Tantia Topehad baffled all the attempts of theBritish. During that period he hadmore than once or twice made thetour of Rajputana and Malwa, twocountries possessing jointly an area ofa hundred and sixty-one thousandseven hundred square miles.’7

Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazinereported: ‘The whole distance forwhich they were pursued, between the20th January 1858 and 1st March1859 [when Tope was finallycaptured] was more than 3,000 miles.General Michel marched 1,700, Parke2,000 miles. Captain Clowe’s troop,8th Hussars, was with Parke all thetime and had marched 400 milesunder General Roberts before joininghim.’8

So what became of the three menin our inscription? All three managedto escape the ambush of 21 Januarybut they were finished as guerillas.

Tatya Tope was finally captured in thejungles of Narwar through betrayal byhis friend Man Singh, one of theGwalior rebels who was lured intothis act by a British promise ofamnesty. Tope was charged withrebellion, tried by a military court andhanged on 18 April 1859. At his trial,Tope apparently stated that he ‘hadnothing to do with the murder of anyEuropean men, women or children’(presumably referring to theSatichaura Ghat massacre).9 His lackof ultimate success notwithstanding,Tope is commemorated by a statue atthe site of his execution in the townof Shivpuri in Madhya Pradesh. Norwas this the end of his memory. In2007, when India celebrated the150th anniversary of the IndianMutiny, the government announcedthat it would provide 1 lakh rupees offinancial aid, as well as assistance insecuring jobs and education, to Tope’sdescendants, who live in Kanpur.10

Rao Sahib was not caught until1862 but then he too was snared bybetrayal, tried, and hanged on 20August 1862. Firoz Shah managed toescape the British. He left Indiadisguised as a pilgrim and died inpoverty in Mecca in 1877.11

Acknowledgement: I thank MahboubehKamalpour, Arabic language and manuscriptscataloguer in the University of Melbourne Library,who catalogued this Koran in 2007 and provided

assistance and information in preparing thisarticle.

Daria Fedewytsch-Dickson holds a Bachelor ofArts (Honours) from the University of Melbourneand a Master of Arts (Librarianship) fromMonash University. She is an original cataloguerspecialising in pre-1800 imprints and has workedand catalogued in several early and rare imprintcollections including Monash University Libraryand the Sugden Collection, Queens CollegeLibrary, as well as the University of Melbourne.

Notes

1 The spelling of the Indian names varies fromsource to source. I have followed the spellingused in Saul David, The Indian Mutiny,London: Penguin Books, 2003.

2 The rebellion is known by a number ofdifferent names including the First War ofIndian Independence, Indian Mutiny, SepoyMutiny and Sepoy Rebellion.

3 The East India Company had divided itsIndian areas into three ‘presidencies’ (Bengal,Bombay and Madras), each of which had itsown army. The army of Bengal was the largest.

4 David, The Indian Mutiny, p. 368, quoting SirRobert Hamilton (Sir Hugh Rose’s politicaladvisor).

5 David, The Indian Mutiny, p. 369. Firuz Shah,also Feroz Shah, Feroz Saha and othervariants.

6 Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, vol. 88, no.538, August 1860, p. 191; Colonel Malleson(ed.), Kaye’s and Malleson’s history of the IndianMutiny of 1857–9, new edition, London:Longmans, Green & Co., 1897, vol. 5, p. 256.

7 Malleson (ed.), Kaye’s and Malleson’s history, p. 266.

8 Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, p. 193.9 David, The Indian Mutiny, p. 369.10 ‘Centre to help Tantya Tope’s heirs’, Rediff

India Abroad, 19 June 2007,http://ia.rediff.com/news/2007/jun/19tope.htm, accessed 29 January 2008.

11 Malleson (ed.), Kaye’s and Malleson’s history, p. 258.


On Wednesday 2 August 2006 theMusic Library at the University ofMelbourne was renamed the LouiseHanson-Dyer Music Library, inhonour of the patron and publisherwhose bequest of her ownoutstanding private collection hadfinally arrived at the University a fewmonths earlier.1 Since the arrival ofthe Hanson-Dyer Collection, severalnew acquisitions for the RareCollections of that library have beenspecifically chosen to complement itsstrengths, such as music theory2 andespecially 18th century Frenchmusic.3

A recent catalogue from Lisa CoxMusic, an English dealer in rare andantiquarian music, listed an itemwhich was clearly of interest to us,both because the Hanson-DyerCollection contains severalcomparable 18th century anthologiesof French songs, and because it hadan element of mystery:

1. ANONNouveau Recueil d’Airs Serieuxet a Boire Composés Par Mr DeB…. Livre Premiere. Paris, Le Sr.Boivin; Le Sr. Le Clair, 1731. First edition. 1f., 19pp., engravedoblong 4to. Later boards,stamped in gilt. A very nice copy.

Unrecorded: not in WorldCat,

the British Library IntegratedCatalogue, CPM, BUC, RISMor the Bibliothèque NationaleCatalogue.

Alfred Cortot’s copy with hisbook plate on front end-paperand with his autographannotations identifying thecomposer as René Drouard deBousset (1703–1760). Cortot’sidentification is questionable:Bousset did compose two booksof Airs serieux et à boire and bothwere published in Paris 1731 bythe author (one location onlycited by RISM) but the titlesdiffer considerably from ours.4

It was easy to share the dealer’sscepticism about Cortot’sidentification—the great pianist madeworse errors of judgement than this—and the volume does indeed appear tobe unrecorded elsewhere.5 Afterextensive searching through therelevant musical dictionaries and bio-bibliographies, however, it was alsoeasy to see why Cortot had suggestedBousset: there is simply no otherFrench composer of the time with aname beginning with ‘B’ who fits thebill any better.

We decided to buy this intriguingitem, using funds from the LibraryEndowment Fund. When the slender

but attractively engraved volumearrived in Melbourne the mysteryonly deepened. While the vast corpusof ‘Airs sérieux’ (literally ‘Serioussongs’, though they are often not atall serious in tone) and ‘Airs à boire’(Drinking songs) contains manymodest trifles, the contents of thisbook were clearly the work of asophisticated composer, and thepresence of an air celebrating thebirth of the Dauphin even hinted at aconnection with the royal court atVersailles.

The remaining hope ofidentifying ‘Mr. de B***’ rested withtracing some of the 12 individualsongs. This, however, is not a simplematter.

Even when we restrict ourselves to just those airs which appeared incollections published in Paris, we findthat over 10,000 from the first half of the 18th century still survive.Worse still, many of these appearedanonymously or in incomplete forms,and where composers are given, wecan never be sure that the airs are notparodies, plagiarisms or extracts fromnow lost operas.6

As it turned out, the key was to befound in one of the many furthercollections not published in Paris or even France. The most nearlycontemporaneous collection to handwas no. 166 of the Hanson-Dyer

Mr de B*** and his airs of mysteryRichard Excell


Collection, a set of seven volumes of aNouveau recueil de chansons choisies(New collection of selected songs)published by J. Neaulme in TheHague from 1731 to 1736. Eachvolume contains about 100 songs,preceded by indices according togenre and, mercifully, a ‘TableAlphabetique’. After a couple of falsetrails (songs with similar texts butunrelated music), the seventh volumeyielded up a perfect concordance forthe music of ‘Etre a table, Prés d’unobjet aimable’ (To be at the table, nearthe object of one’s affections) underthe very useful rubric: ‘Les plaisirs de la vie. Duo de Mr. de Blamont’ (The pleasures of life. Duo by Mr deBlamont).7

Not only was the composer’sidentity finally revealed, it alsobecame apparent why it had been soelusive. ‘Mr de Blamont’ does indeedappear in music dictionaries, butunder ‘C’ rather than ‘B’. His fatherwas Nicolas Colin, ordinaire de lamusique du roi (the title for a regularmember of the royal musicestablishment), but with a stronginterest also in painting. Ourcomposer (born 22 November 1690,died 14 February 1760) was known asFrançois Colin [or Collin] deBlamont,8 while his younger brother,a painter, was Hyacinthe Colin deVermont.9 The young Colin de

Blamont’s musical ability impressedMichel-Richard de Lalande, whosepupil he became. In 1719 he attainedthe post of Surintendant de la musiquede la chambre and other courtpositions followed, with duties andrights which he defended fiercely.10

His greatest success, the ballet-héroïque: Les fêtes grecques et romainesof 1723,11 is also represented inNeaulme’s Nouveau recueil, in theform of a ‘Parodie, tirée des FêtesGrecques & Romaines. De Mr. deBlamont’ on page 39 and anothersimilar ‘parody’ (i.e. new words to anexisting tune) on page 41.

Once the composer had beenidentified it became clear that twomore songs from our Novueau recueilof 1731, the Air tendre: ‘Heureuxoyseaux, vous chantez’ (Happy birds,

you sing) and the Vaudeville: ‘La tristephilosophie’ (Sad philosophy), hadpreviously appeared under his namein the journal Mercure de France in1728.12 In addition ‘Etre a table’ alsoappears anonymously in severalmanuscript collections now in theUnited States and Sweden.13 One ofthese Swedish manuscripts hasversions of three more of the simplersongs from the Novueau recueil, butfor voice alone without theaccompanying figured bass part.14

The very inconsistent nomenclaturefor sub-genres of the French air isalso in evidence: ‘Air tendre’ for ‘Airléger’ and ‘Brunette’ for ‘Vaudeville’.These traits are all consistent with awide but haphazard circulation of theless challenging varieties of air amongenthusiastic amateurs.

[François Colin de Blamont], Novueau recueild’airs serieux et a boire composés par Mr. de B*** livre

premier, Paris: Boivin; Le Clair, 1731. LouiseHanson-Dyer Music Library Rare Collections,

acquired October 2007.Left: title page; right: p. 13.


There are other songs in theNovueau recueil, however, which arefar more vocally demanding, and wereprobably performed initially at courtor at the Concert Français15 by leadingFrench singers of the day, perhaps thesopranos Mesdemoiselles Antier, LeMaure and Pélissier, and the bassThévenard. The unaccompanied bassAir à boire: ‘Les beaux jours dePrintemps’ (Drinking song: The finedays of Spring), for example, seemsperfectly fitted to Thévenard’s‘sonorous, supple and wide-ranging’voice.16

Identifying the composer also hasa bearing on the performance of thesesongs. Like most French Baroquemusic, the songs of the Novueaurecueil are liberally supplied withindications of cadential trills, but herethere are three distinct symbols. Twoof them, a wavy line and a cross, werewidely (if not consistently) used, butthe third, a cross with two additionaloblique strokes, is quite unusual. Itdoes appear, however, in the last ofColin de Blamont’s volumes ofFrench cantatas,17 along with aprefatory note by the composerexplaining the distinct meanings of all three symbols: ‘feinte’, ‘jettée’ and‘appuyée’ respectively.18

The birth of an heir in the directroyal line on 4 September 1729occasioned great rejoicing and public

celebration. Many theatrical, literaryand musical works were created,19 andColin de Blamont was heavilyinvolved from the start. Within amonth he and one of his librettists,the Abbé Pellegrin, had compiled agrand ballet, Le Parnasse, from variousworks by Lully, Campra, Destouches,Mouret and Colin himself. His owncontributions to that compilationincluded excerpts from Les fêtesgrecques et romaines, the divertissement:Le retour des dieux sur la terre (Thereturn of the gods to earth) writtenfor the wedding of Louis XV and

[Colin de Blamont], Novueau recueil, p. 7.

Maria Leszczynska in 1725, and theIdylle: Les présents des dieux (Idyll: The gifts of the gods) created in 1727to celebrate the birth of the couple’stwin daughters. The anniversarycelebrations of September 1730 saw a new divertissement by Colin, Le Caprice d’Erato, ou Les caractères de la musique.

The music of Les présents des dieuxhas not survived, but it appears thatthe ‘Air sur la Naissance de Mgr. LeDauphin’ in our Novueau recueilpreserves one of the numbers recycledby Colin in Le Parnasse. The flowery

´


text certainly celebrates a royal birth,but it is not specific about number orgender, and could serve equally wellfor the twin girls and for the long-awaited male heir:

Enfin le doux Printemps reparroit anos yeux,Bientôt nous allons voir enrichir lanatureDe fruits de fleurs et de verdure,Flore et Zephyr reviennent en ceslieux,Chantez petits oiseaux, redoublésvos ramages,

Apprenez aux Echos de ces riantsboccages,Le bonheur qui nous est promis,Chantez sous ces naissantsfeuillages,L’honneur et la gloire des Lys.

(At last sweet Spring reappearsbefore our eyes; soon we aregoing to see nature enriched withfruits, flowers and greenery. Floraand Zephyr return to these lands.Sing, little birds, redouble yourflourishes, hearken to the echoesfrom these cheerful woods, the

happiness which is promised us.Sing, upon this budding foliage,the honour and the glory of theLily [i.e. the royal Fleur-de-Lys].)

Why this one song should have beenpublished separately two years laterremains a puzzle, however. In thismatter the Dictionnaire des théatres deParis by the theatre-loving Parfaictbrothers provides some suggestiveinformation. Its account of LeParnasse20 reveals that in the relevantsection, ‘La Muse Pastorale, III.Entrée’, the singers were:

Un Berger (a shepherd)Le Sieur Dangerville.

Deux Bergéres (two shepherdesses)Mlles Antier & Le Maure.

Une autre Bergére(another shepherdess)Mlle Pélissier.

Since our ‘Air sur la Naissance’ is for asingle soprano, it is only the ‘othershepherdess’, Mlle Pélissier (whoappears in just this scene), who couldhave been the singer. But at the endof its article on ‘Le Parnasse’, Parfaict’sDictionnaire tells us that due to‘indisposition’ Mlle Pélissier wasunable to take her role in the first

Nouveau recueil de chansons choisies, tome septieme, The Hague: J. Neaulme, 1736.

Louise Hanson-Dyer Music Library, Hanson-Dyer Collection no. 166, vol. 7.

Left: title page; right: p. 53.

Richard Excell is a musicologist and librarian who currently holds the position of Rare MusicCataloguer at the University of Melbourne. Hehas a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree in musicand a Master of Arts (Librarianship) fromMonash University, and is a member of themedieval music ensemble Acord.

Notes

1 Denis Herlin, Catalogue de la Collectionmusicale Hanson-Dyer, Université de Melbourne,Parkville: University of Melbourne, 2006;Richard Excell and Jennifer Hill, Bowerbird to lyrebird: The Louise Hanson-Dyer MusicCollection. A Baillieu Library exhibition, 3 August to 24 September 2006, Parkville:University of Melbourne, 2006.

2 Including works by Giovenale Sacchi andPietro Pontio.

3 Including printed and manuscript material byMarin Marais, François André DanicanPhilidor and Jean Claude Trial, Jean-Benjaminde Laborde, François Francoeur and FrançoisRebel, Christoph Willibald von Gluck, Pierre-Alexandre de Monsigny and André ErnestModeste Grétry.

4 Lisa Cox Music: Catalogue 56, Exeter: Lisa Cox,2007.

5 Whether one spells the first word ‘Nouveau’ or,as it is printed on the original, ‘Novueau’. Thelatter spelling is used in this article as it avoidsambiguity. The non-standard spellings usedelsewhere in the publications under discussionhave been transcribed unaltered.

6 Tony Eastwood, ‘The French air in theeighteenth century: A neglected area’, Studiesin Music (W.A.), no. 18, 1984, p. 85.

7 Nouveau recueil de chansons choisies, Tomeseptieme, The Hague: J. Neaulme, 1736, pp.53–59. At the end of this song: ‘Les Paroles sontde Mr. Tanevot.’ (The words are by MrTanevot).


performance before the king in theCour de Marbre at Versailles, playing itonly later in Paris at the Théatre del’Academie Royale de Musique.21 Finallythere is a reason for the orphan-likeposition of this particular song: even apiece of music suffered a loss of statusif it had not been formally presentedto royalty. Paradoxically, it may oweits tenuous survival in the Novueaurecueil to the fact that it was not heardat Versailles on 5 October 1729.

In other publications FrançoisColin de Blamont proudly parades hisroyal patronage, his full name and hisplace in the musical hierarchy. Butwhen in this slim volume he did flirtwith obscurity as ‘Mr. de B***’ he wasalmost too self-effacing.

[POSTSCRIPT: Since this article was writtenthere have been new developments with regard tothis volume. The Centre de Musique Baroque deVersailles has recently published an onlinecatalogue of the works of Colin de Blamont,prepared by Benoît Dratwicki.22 A lost ‘Recueild’airs, I’ is noted, with what information Dr Dratwicki had been able to deduce about itfrom other sources. He was naturally very pleasedto learn that this volume is not lost after all—calling it ‘excellent news’ and a ‘greatdiscovery’—and a digital copy has been orderedand prepared for the CMBV.]

8 James R. Anthony, ‘Collin [Colin] de Blamont,François’ in Grove music online, accessed 5 February 2008.

9 His godfather was the leading portrait painterat the court of Louis XIV, Hyacinthe Rigaud.

10 John E. Morby, ‘The great chapel-chambercontroversy’, Musical Quarterly, vol. 58, no. 3,July 1972, pp. 383–397.

11 Revived many times, the last as late as 1770.12 Répertoire international des sources musicales

[hereafter RISM], Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1971–,A/I: C 3333 (as ‘Heureux oiseau, vous chantés’)and CC 3333a (as a ‘Duo’) respectively.

13 RISM A/II: 101.712 [transposed for 2 basses];117.185; 190.001.508 and 190.013.777.

14 RISM A/II: 190.014.570; 190.014.619 and190.014.751.

15 David Tunley, ‘Philidor’s Concerts Français’,Music and Letters, vol. 47, no. 2, April 1966, pp.130–134.

16 Evrard Titon du Tillet, Le Parnasse françois,Paris: Coignard fils, 1732; suppl. 1743, p. 797(‘sa voix étoit sonore, moileuse & étendue’).

17 François Colin de Blamont, Cantates françoises… Livre troisième, Paris: Boivin; Le Clair,1729.

18 A brief trill at the beginning of the note, asustained trill for the full note, and a trillwhich dwells on the initial upper note.

19 An account and anthology was published in1731: Histoire de l’auguste naissance deMonseigneur le Dauphin, divisée en trois parties... par le chevalier Daudet, Paris: Le Mercier fils,1731.

20 François Parfaict and Claude Parfaict,Dictionnaire des théatres de Paris, Paris: Rozet,1767, tome iv, pp. 76–78 (online at http://cesar.org.uk/cesar2/books/parfaict_1767,accessed 22 January 2008).

21 Whether Pélissier’s indisposition was relatedto her rivalry with Le Maure is unclear. Theirrespective merits were championed bypartisans known as mauriens and pélissiens.Titon du Tillet, Parnasse, quotes a line byVoltaire: ‘Pélissier par son art, le Maure par savoix.’

22 http://philidor.cmbv.fr/catalogue/intro-blamont, accessed 7 May 2008.

[Colin de Blamont], Novueau recueil, inside frontcover with Alfred Cortot’s bookplate and hispencilled classification and shelfmark above(‘MVP’ = ‘Musique vocale profane’; cf. AlbiRosenthal, ‘Alfred Cortot as collector of music’ inOliver Neighbour (ed.), Music and bibliography:Essays in honour of Alec Hyatt King, London:Bingley, 1980, pp. 206–214) and his erroneousattribution below.


Collections news from across the University

Diary 2009Last year the University’s Marketingand Communications Divisionproduced a beautiful 2008appointment diary featuring imagesfrom the University’s culturalcollections. The diary was a greatsuccess and a 2009 diary is inpreparation. It will be available laterin the year from the MelbourneUniversity Bookshop on the groundfloor of the Baillieu Library building,the Union Shop in the StudentUnion Building and Readingsbookshop in Lygon Street.

Write of fancy: The Golden Cockerel Press The exhibition Write of fancy willexplore the hearts and minds of theinventors, writers and artists of thisBritish press which operated between1920 and 1960. It will showcaseexamples from the Baillieu Library’sexceptional collection of GoldenCockerel books, comprising the giftsof various individual donors and theFriends of the Baillieu Library.Examples include Eric Gill andRobert Gibbings’ collaboration onThe four Gospels (1931), JohnBuckland Wright’s illustration ofEndymion (1947), and maritimehistory books. Golden Cockerelbooks achieved a visual harmony

between content, typography andillustration. The exhibition is a chanceto discover how this private pressfrom its inception was a flight offancy, and how through its words andimages it became a ‘write of fancy’.Ground floor, Baillieu Library, 17 August to 26 September 2008(check http://www.unimelb.edu.au/culturalcollections/exhibitions forupdates).

Malcolm Fraser CollectionRecent additions to the MalcolmFraser Collection include the papersof Mr Fraser’s mother, Una Fraser(née Woolf ). These include works byphotographers Ruth Hollick andBernice Agar; newspaper cuttingsrelating to Malcolm Fraser’s earlypolitical career; and correspondencebetween Una Fraser and figures fromthe Australian art world such asProfessor Sir Joseph Burke and SirDaryl Lindsay.

Material relating to Mr Fraser’sactivities with the CommonwealthGroup of Eminent Persons in SouthAfrica is on display at the AustralianPrime Ministers Centre in OldParliament House, Canberra.Photographs of Tamie Fraser wereincluded in the exhibition Mrs PrimeMinister: Public image, private lives,held at Old Parliament House from

19 March to 29 June 2008.A selection of photographs—

including early family photographsand photographs relating to the royalvisit of 1981 and the CommonwealthHeads of Government Meeting of thesame year—is now available onUMAIC, the University ofMelbourne Archives ImageCatalogue, http://buffy.lib.unimelb.edu.au/cgi-bin/mua-search

Modern timesThree of the University’s collectionsare lending items to the exhibitionModern times: The untold story ofmodernism in Australia, beingorganised by the PowerhouseMuseum in Sydney. The GraingerMuseum has contributed ten itemsincluding a selection of Grainger’stowelling clothes, some of his FreeMusic machine watercolour designsand pieces from the LudwigHirschfeld Mack collection ofinstruments. The Ian Potter Museumof Art is lending some artworks andthe University of Melbourne Archivesis lending an exhibition posterdesigned by Hirschfeld Mack in1962. Such loan requests demonstratethe national significance of theUniversity’s cultural assets.

Modern Times national tour datesare: Powerhouse Museum, Sydney:


8 August 2008 to 15 February 2009;Heide Museum of Modern Art,Melbourne: 23 February to 12 July2009; State Library of Queensland,Brisbane: 31 July to 25 October 2009.

Rare music to be cataloguedThe Louise Hanson-Dyer MusicLibrary, located in the BaillieuLibrary building, has received asubstantial grant from the LouiseB.M. Hanson-Dyer & J.B. HansonBequest. The $138,000 provided willfund cataloguing of the music library’srare collections, to be completed overthe next two years. These collectionsare rich in material associated withthe development of western art musicin Victoria. Rare recordingsof Aboriginal music, manuscripts of19th-century operas performed inMelbourne and patriotic sheet musicare a few of the kinds of material thatwill be more accessible toresearchers as a result of this generoussupport. Collections to be cataloguedinclude the historical orchestralcollection; Australian sheet music;newspaper clippings 1895–1945;Stockigt clarinet music collection;White clarinet music collection;organ music; Michael Tippett archive;Australian Music ExaminationsBoard (AMEB) archive; musicalinstruments, photographs and

furniture; and 78rpm records.In this, the 100th year of the

University’s music library, it is timelythat the cultural riches here will bemade available to researchers,students and anyone with music-related interests.

Physics display upgradeThe appearance of the PhysicsMuseum has changed greatly over thepast year or so. Thanks to a 2007cultural collections grant funded fromthe University Annual Appeal and theCultural and Community RelationsAdvisory Group, new, high-qualitymuseum-standard display cases havebeen purchased. These show off theremarkable artefacts to their bestadvantage, as well as protecting themfrom dust and damage. Interpretationof the collection has been expandedthanks to graphic design work fundedby an earlier grant in 2006,undertaken by Elaine Hogarty ofOrigin Design, followed morerecently by the work of RMITBachelor of Mechanical Engineeringstudent, Thomas Ryan. Thomas’project, part of the University ofMelbourne Cultural CollectionsStudent Projects Program, involvedresearching, writing and producingnew labels and explanatory texts forthe objects on display. Physics is a

specialised subject but the newinterpretation makes the collectioneasily understood by all visitors.

Rare French volumesacquired by Baillieu LibraryAn extremely rare French two-volume work was purchased by theBaillieu Library in March, with fundsfrom the Pitt Bequest. TheOrdonnances consulaires pour les echellesdu Levant et de Barbarie, couvrant lapériode 1681–1854 includes otherwiseinaccessible material on the FrenchRevolution’s impact upon the Muslimworld, showing how revolutionarypolicy was translated outside Europeto the communities of Istanbul,Smyrna, Aleppo and elsewhere. Inaddition, it contains a great deal ofimportant material on trade andmilitary matters, which can help toilluminate the transformation ofworld trade at the end of the 18thcentury and the move towardEuropean military hegemony duringthis period.

Cambridge collected: ThePierre Gorman storyThe collection of books and prints atthe University of Melbourne relatingto the town and the university ofCambridge comprises nearly 3,000


items, dating from 1658 to thepresent day. The core of the collectionwas donated by Dr Pierre Gorman(1924–2006), a University ofMelbourne alumnus whosubsequently became the first deafperson to take out a PhD fromCambridge University. Gorman had a long and distinguished career inEngland and Australia as an educatorof the deaf and was a tireless advocateagainst discrimination towards peoplewith disabilities. For his services tothe University of Melbourne he wasawarded an LLD honoris causa in2000. This exhibition, held in theBaillieu Library from 20 March to 30May 2008, was a fitting tribute to thisremarkable man, and also launched anupdated printed catalogue of thecollection.

Archives reviewThroughout 2008 the University ofMelbourne Archives is undertaking amajor review of its holdings. This hasrequired a temporary reduction inreference service hours and freeze onaccessioning, in order to achieve acomprehensive reappraisal ofcollections, possible de-accessioning,and the disposition of Universityrecords which were accepted prior tosentencing regimes. At the same time,UMA is designing and implementing

an integrated archival managementand access system, and converting thecurrent cataloguing accession-basedsystem to the Series System.

For more news on the Universityof Melbourne Archives, check theUMA Bulletin, published twice yearlyand available online at http://www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/collections/archives/publications/bulletin

W.J. Howship projectnominated for awardThis collaboration between theUniversity of Melbourne Archives(UMA) and the Benalla and DistrictFamily History Group (B&DFHG)has been nominated for the 2008Victorian Museums Awards. Theproject made the collection of 1,250historic dry plate negatives, created byBenalla photographer WilliamHowship between 1904 and 1931,accessible to the wider community.The images include views of Benallaand surrounding districts, local eventssuch as floods, concerts and militaryceremonies, and portraits. TheB&DFHG raised funds for collectionre-housing, listing and digitisationand to run a community-basedproject to help identify many of theimages. UMA brought its professionalexpertise to manage these fragileitems and provide online access.

New display area for theHenry Forman AtkinsonDental Museum

The Henry Forman Atkinson DentalMuseum has a new, additional displayarea on the ground floor of the RoyalDental Hospital of Melbourne. Theinstallation takes advantage ofpreviously unused space in the groundfloor stairwell of 720 SwanstonStreet. The display has been fundedby the School of Dental Science withadditional generous support from theRoyal Dental Hospital of MelbourneAuxiliary. The cooperation of theRoyal Dental Hospital of Melbourne,the owner of the building, was vital indeveloping the project. The space willbe used for short-term exhibitionswhich engage hospital visitors in anarea of dental history.

Books of royal provenanceCataloguing of rare books hasbrought to light some intriguingvolumes, including books with Britishroyal connections.

A book once belonging to HisRoyal Highness, Prince WilliamHenry, Duke of Clarence (later KingWilliam IV of Great Britain andIreland and of Hanover 1830–1837),was recently catalogued in theMedical Rare Books Collection

The new display in the foyer of the Royal Dental Hospital of Melbourne.


(currently being relocated to SpecialCollections in the Baillieu Library):Robert Robertson, An essay on fevers,(London: Printed for the author, andsold by G.G.J. and J. Robinson,1790). The book, bound in gilt-ruledred morocco leather with elaboratelytooled spine and gilt edges, bears aroyal armorial bookplate with theinitials ‘WH’ and motto ‘Honi soit quimal y pense’, and has been inscribed‘Most respectfully presented by theauthor to His Royal Highness, PrinceWilliam Henry, Duke of Clarence’.

A book recently catalogued in theEnglish Room in the Baillieu Librarybelonged to George, the Prince ofWales (1738–1820), who becameKing George III in 1760. Oftenreferred to as ‘Mad King George’,from 1801 his son was obliged to actas Regent due to George’s mentalillness. This copy of ThomasComber’s Short discourses upon thewhole common-prayer (London:Printed by Samuel Roycroft forRobert Clavell, 1684) bears the royalarmorial bookplate of ‘His RoyalHighness George Prince of Wales’and the bookplates of two otherowners: one Katherine Edwards,dated 14 May 1700, and Dr J. OrdePoynton. The latter donated this

volume to the University as part of hisvery substantial gift of rare books andprints.

Gift of maps of ConstantinopleThe Rare and Historic Mapscollection has benefitted from asecond gift under the Cultural GiftsProgram from Ronald and PamelaWalker of Canberra. Earlier this yearMr and Mrs Walker donated morethan 40 maps of Constantinople(present day Istanbul) dating mostlyfrom the 16th to the 18th centuries,created by renowned cartographers ofthe day. These complement 136 mapsin the Ronald and Pamela WalkerCollection of Maps of Asia Minor,which were donated in 1994 and havebeen photographed for viewing onlineat http://tinyurl.com.au/x.php?uqu

Annual appealThe University Fund Annual Appealis a valuable source of support for thecultural collections. Money allocatedby donors to the option ‘Library andcultural collections’—complementedin 2007 by funds from theUniversity’s Cultural and CommunityRelations Advisory Group—hasmade possible a wide range ofprojects. Among the most recently

completed are: better housing for theA.G.M. Michell EngineeringCollection, Morgan Children’s BookCollection, Baillieu Library PrintCollection and East Asian rarematerials; preservation of earlymanuscripts, early concert programsand orchestral scores in the LouiseHanson-Dyer Music Library;conservation of photographs,documents, booklets and makers’catalogues from the Henry FormanAtkinson Dental Museum andupgrade of the Museum’s database;protection and cleaning of the Facultyof Music’s two Gamelan orchestrasand improved storage for historicwoodwind and stringed instruments;digitisation and cold storage ofcellulose acetate and nitrate negatives;digital imaging of items in theMedical History Museum; and newshowcases for the Physics Museum,mentioned earlier. Funds raised in the2007 appeal are currently beingallocated; for further news see thenext issue of University of MelbourneCollections. The 2008 appeal is underway; if you would like to contributeplease visit http://www.unimelb.edu.au/alumni/giving/unifund.htmlor contact the Advancement Officeon (03) 8344 1751.

Jacobus Peeters, Constantinopelen, Antwerp: I.Peeters ex op. De Scon. Mert. Ant., 1685. TheRonald and Pamela Walker Collection of Maps of Asia Minor, University of Melbourne, donatedunder the Commonwealth Government CulturalGifts Program, 2008.

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