1670 CHARLES II BRITISH COLONIZATION MEDAL

Obverse: conjoined busts of Charles II and Catherine of Braganza facing right, he wearing a breast plate and her draped. Around, CAROLVS. ET. CATHARINA. REX. ET. REGINA [Charles and Catherine King and Queen].

Reverse: a globe depicting all the continents; Antarctic and Australia (west coast only) joined as one land mass. Around: DIFFVSVS IN ORBE BRITANNVS 1670 [Briton spread over the world].

Metal: silver

Size: 41mm

Engraver: John Roettier 1631-1703, born Antwerp, arrived in England 1661.

This medal alludes to the dowry brought with Charles’s marriage to Catherine, which laid the foundation of the British Empire in India or possibly to the acquisition of territory notably in North America and Asia.

Charles II (1630 –1685) in 1660 was restored as King of England, Scotland and Ireland. In 1670 he married Catherine of Braganza (1638- 1705). Catherine was born into the House of Braganza, the most senior noble house in Portugal which became Portugal’s royal house after Catherine’s father, John, 8th Duke of Braganza, was proclaimed King John IV, after deposing the House of Habsburg, in 1640.

The Society was founded in Sydney on 15th February, 1988. Each year the Society meets six times in Sydney and six times in Melbourne. It also produces six newsletters a year and organises trips (including interstate)and seminars.

The Silver Society of Australia Inc PO Box 925

Northbridge NSW 1560

The Secretary

0408 123 622 info@silversociety.com.au silversociety.com.au

The Oriental Rug Society of NSW Inc (ORS) was founded by oriental rug enthusiasts and collectors as a voluntary non-profit society in 1980. It holds regular meetings in which members explore the world of oriental carpets, rugs and other textiles from the tents, villages and urban workshops of Eurasia.

To foster an interest in and appreciation of oriental rugs & related textiles through exhibitions, talks and seminars.

To provide a forum for collectors, researchers and enthusiasts to examine and discuss these textiles in all their aspects.

Though oriental rugs and carpets are our primary focus, we sometimes cater to members whose textile interests extend to Central Asian ikat and embroideries and the folk textiles of other cultures, such as those of India, Southeast Asia and North Africa.

Our meetings at the National Trust Centre on Observatory Hill every two months feature talks on oriental rugs and related topics, as well as popular showand-tell sessions at which members display and talk about their favourite pieces and latest acquisitions. Our refreshments are also a big hit.

We have mounted high-quality seminars and exhibitions, often in conjunction with a major institution or Society. Members receive a regular informative newsletter by e-mail. This covers forthcoming meetings, local textile events, and various aspects of oriental rugs including design, colour, history and classification.

You can join the Oriental Rug Society of NSW by emailing us at info@rugsociety.org.au or go to rugsociety.org.au All are welcome – beginner and expert, keen collector and the simply curious.

For those of us who enjoy foraging at the bottom end of the antique market, and when we’re over buying drinks trays and pottery, then old picture frames are another item to consider. People often dispose of them because they are considered unfashionable, or the family history has been lost, or they have less wall space when they downsize. The frames themselves may be of limited collecting value but, as they can be handy for mounting spare prints, I’ve bought a few.

I have since discovered that their contents can be quite revealing in terms of Australian social history. This paper shows examples of how they can ‘get you in’. They were all collected in rural Queensland, each cost less than a good bottle of wine, and have lasted much longer.

The frames shown here contain subjects that relate to around 1900 and reflect different aspects of life at the time. The frames are original and old, although one cannot guarantee that the current contents and the frame were always together; as with furniture, ‘marriages’ (and ‘divorces’) happen. Recycling has always been a feature of picture frames, long before we were doing it to save the planet.

A charcoal portrait of an anonymous young lady in late Victorian dress is mounted in a pressed pine frame of the period (plate 1). A label on the back says that the image was mounted by Dimond Bros, who are recorded as having premises in Brisbane from 1888/89, later opening a branch in Warwick in 1897. The portrait was found in Gympie and could have originated there. With the discovery of gold in 1867, Gympie quickly became a prosperous town and some residents made fortunes. And when you are successful you need to have it recorded. Hence artists and photographers were known to visit Gympie and other regional cities to create portraits for the newly wealthy inhabitants. Advertisements show the town was visited prior to 1890 by the well-known portrait artists Joseph Backler and Auschar Chauncy, and by photographers Thomas and Agrippa Bevan, among others. The artist of this particular portrait remains unknown, but he/she was certainly a skilled practitioner.

A hand-tinted photograph taken in about 1895 of a young girl named Ada Kuch sitting on a bentwood chair came with an attractive silky oak frame (plate 2). On the back is her story written by her daughter (since deceased). Ada Ernestina Kuch was born in 1885 in Darriman, Gippsland to Ernest and Emily Kuch nee Drienel. The family moved to regional Queensland, where in 1910 her father died; two months later, she married George Hill, formerly of Bathurst. Ada Hill died at Maryborough, Queensland in 1968. The photograph was said to have been taken ‘under a pear tree in Darriman’, but the photograph looks like a studio shot with Ada’s portrait overpainted and the background painted in. The frame is a machined moulding, hand finished with cuts and indents to make the sides resemble a line of lappets.

A black and white print of an apothecary and his spaniel has a pressed oak frame (plate 3). On the matt surround bottom left is a barely discernible stamp which under a strong lateral light reads ‘1892 The Colombian Exposition

1. Charcoal portrait of a young girl in late Victorian dress, in a pressed pine frame, with framer’s label for Dimond Bros, who operated in Brisbane and other Queensland cities from 1888. Queensland, c 1890–1900.

2. Hand-tinted studio photograph of Ada Kuch (1885–1968) as a young girl, sitting on a bentwood chair, with hand-painted background of a tree and foliage, in a silky oak frame, c 1895.

3. After Fred Hall (1860–1948), print by George Barrie of Philadelphia, showing an apothecary and his spaniel in his dispensary, made for merchandising at the World’s Columbian Exhibition, Chicago 1893, in a pressed oak frame.

Chicago Illinois 1893’ and it carries a date stamp of 14 August 1893. The Exposition was held, a year late, to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Spanish discovery of America by Christopher Columbus. On the top in tiny print is ‘Copyrighted 1893 by Geo Barrie’.

George Barrie was a printer and publisher from Philadelphia who had commissioned etchings of high-quality contemporary paintings for making prints to sell at the Exposition. Two hundred of each were supposedly made and sold at the Exposition. The original painting for this etching was by Fred Hall (1860–1948), an accomplished English artist who exhibited at the Royal Academy and the Paris Salon. Hall mostly painted rural scenes with titles like ‘Homeward Bound’ or interiors with a single figure such as this one, with fashionably clever titles. No doubt many Australians visited the Exposition, and some would have exhibited there. But how this print ended up in rural Queensland is anyone’s guess.

A note on the back of the next image claims that the print is cut from a page from the Illustrated London News (Australasian Edition) of May 1901 and handcoloured, though it is actually a reproduction (plate 4). Old newspapers are commonly dissected for their illustrations, and popped into a mount or frame; this one is Huon pine with a fine red cedar cockbead edge. The scene is awkwardly titled ‘ELLIMAN’S FOR “OUT BACK”, QUEENSLAND’ and is subtitled ‘From a sketch by A. Esam, Melbourne, Vic’.

Arthur Esam was an English surveyor who arrived in Australia in 1870 and was known for his sketches of country life that appeared in several Australian publications. It appears most of his travels were in South Australia and he seemed to have a penchant for drawing wagons. Elliman’s Universal Embrocation was an ointment claimed to soothe stiffness, aches, pains and bruises, for both animals and humans (in that order originally).

Lastly, we have an example of a ubiquitous Pears’ print from their Annual of 1903 (plate 5). Pears' is a brand of transparent soap originally made in England and sold in several countries. The company was an active and innovative advertiser, with their prints such as John Millais’s Bubbles being readily available in their markets. These old prints are relatively common in Australia but normally faded. Fortunately this one has retained excellent colour, and is probably in its first mount. It is titled ‘Playmates’; the original oil painted in 1885 and exhibited at the Paris Salon by French artist Emile Munier (1840–1895) was entitled ‘Trois amis’ (Three friends).

This frame is hand-carved cedar and is cruciform in shape, possibly made in the Bundaberg area where it was found. It was black when purchased but cleaning revealed that the flat front surfaces had originally been painted gold. These frames are a wonderful example of how a little craftwork could transform four sticks into a picture frame with character, although one wonders why someone painted it all black at some stage.

4. Reproduction newspaper illustration after Arthur Esam, ‘Elliman’s for “Outback” Queensland’, likely based on an advertisement in the Illustrated London News (Australasian Edition) 1901, housed in a plain Huon pine frame.

5. Pears’ soap chromolithographic print, Playmates; from Pears’ 1903 Annual, after the original oil by Emile Munier (1840–1895) ‘Trois amis’ (Three friends), painted in 1885, in a cruciform cedar frame highlighted with gold paint.

These five examples highlight the research that can be done on simple objects, using information provided on the objects themselves, and internet sites such as Trove and the various states’ Births, Deaths & Marriages. They show how with a small amount of effort you can uncover some delightful stories about our past, which can give our collections a little more depth. And it started out with the innocent intention of picking up a few cheap frames. So I was framed. Anyway, it helps build the case that we need a bigger house!

Reproduced from the Australiana magazine May 2023