Samuel Thomas Gill

Charles R.J. Glover, Adelaide
The Charles R.J. Glover Library, Theodore Bruce & Co., Melbourne 30 November – 4 December 1970, lot 985
Private collection, Melbourne

Valmai Hankel and Margaret Burden, Catalogue of the Charles R.J. Glover Library relating to Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand and the South Seas, Theodore Bruce & Co/Griffin Press, Adelaide, 1970, p. 102, cat. 985
Keith Bowden, Samuel Thomas Gill, Artist, the author, Hedges and Bell, Maryborough, 1971, pp. 42-47, 120
J.A. Ferguson, Bibliography of Australia, Angus & Robertson, Sydney and London, 1963, vol. V, p. 1061 (nos. 9920, 9920a)

Each work is individually mounted in a red leather-bound album. Each lithograph is secured in each corner of the sheet and all appear to be in good orignal condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

After successfully establishing himself in South Australia during the 1840s as a painter of landscapes, townscapes and portraits, S.T. Gill went to the Victorian goldfields in 1852. His many direct, energetic and often sardonic illustrations of gold rush life remain at the centre of his reputation as colonial Australia's Thomas Rowlandson.

In 1852-53 Gill published 48 of these sketches in a celebrated two-part set of lithographs, Sketches Of The Victoria Gold Diggings and Diggers As They Are. Some of the pictures were subsequently issued in several different sets, and they were also pirated in John Sherer's The Gold-Finder of Australia; How He Went, How He Fared, And How He Made His Fortune (Clarke, Beeton & Co., London, 1853).

The present volume is a very rare complete set of the initial printing, in very fine condition, and recently bound into book form by former Mitchell Library rare book conservator David Newbold. Associated materials (a typed list of the plates, newspaper cuttings, stationer's label and bookplate) identify the folio as that formerly in the collection of businessman, philanthropist, Lord Mayor of Adelaide, bibliophile and book collector Charles Glover (1870 – 1936).