AUGUST 2008 - FEBRUARY 2009ISSUE 75AUSTRALIA $16.95 NZ $20.95SINGAPORE $20.00 UK £7.00

US $13.00 €10.50

AUGUST 2008 - FEBRUARY 2009ISSUE 75AUSTRALIA $16.95 NZ $20.95SINGAPORE $20.00 UK £7.00

US $13.00 €10.50

Antiques &Arta magazine of art, design & collecting history

EXPLORING THE RENAISSANCE THROUGH PORTRAITURE:A MAJOR EXHIBITION AT THE

NATIONAL GALLERY IN LONDON

ASSESSING THE PRODIGIOUS OUTPUT OF LOUIS COMFORT TIFFANY

FOCUS ON PHOTOGRAPHY:REVIEW OF PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITIONS IN CANBERRA

A LOOK AT SINGAPORE'S GROWING ART COMMUNITY

BRITISH CONTEMPORARY SILVER:SETTING THE BENCHMARK

FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

EXPLORING THE RENAISSANCE THROUGH PORTRAITURE:A MAJOR EXHIBITION AT THE

NATIONAL GALLERY IN LONDON

ASSESSING THE PRODIGIOUS OUTPUT OF LOUIS COMFORT TIFFANY

FOCUS ON PHOTOGRAPHY:REVIEW OF PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITIONS IN CANBERRA

A LOOK AT SINGAPORE'S GROWING ART COMMUNITY

BRITISH CONTEMPORARY SILVER:SETTING THE BENCHMARK

FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

wor

ld o

f

ACQUISITIONS

156 Frank Lloyd Wright, Chair, c. 1904

Art Gallery South Australia

157 Daimaru Hokuho, Vase

Hamilton Art Gallery

158 Chantilly Porcelain Factory

National Gallery of Victoria

159 Anna Craig, Triangular chairs, c. 1905

Queensland Art Gallery

160 Elwyn (Jack) Lynn, Twenty Questions

Australian War Memorial

164 AROUND THE AUCTIONSAuction highlights from the major houses

ART

48 Iskandar Jalil: Singapore's master ceramicist

Helen Musa

54 The Tyler Print Institute:

a major arts injection for Singapore

Helen Musa

58 Portraiture in the Renaissance

Elena Greer

108 The De Brays: master painters of 17th century Holland

Ian Dejardin

116 Emily Kame Kyngwarreye:

canvases of culture and country

Margo Neale

138 Recording nature: botanical illustrations

Amanda Ahmed

148 Russell Drysdale's images of war

Vicky Dimcevska

75 ART NEWSA selection of international events to diarise plus a look at the

summer season of arts in London

183 CONTRIBUTORS

DECORATIVE ARTS AND DESIGN

28 An early Tasmanian silver cup and its historical significance

John Hawkins

38 George Owen: a recent discovery

Andrew Morris

68 Men's ceremonial dress at the Russian Imperial Court

Lesley Miller

98 Louis Comfort Tiffany's life and art

Jennifer Perry Thalheimer

154 William and Judith Bolinger Jewellery Gallery

Beatriz Chadour-Sampson

150 British contemporary silver

Corinne Julius

4 EDITORIAL

HERITAGE

104 Hidden Rome

Charles Fitzroy

120 The Foundling Museum:

art music and charity in the heart of Bloomsbury

Rhian Harris

126 Women in power: Caterina and Maria de' Medici

James Bradburn

134 The treasures of William Randolph Hearst

Mary L Levkoff

184 INDEX OF ADVERTISERS

LIBRIS

114 The first printed world map

Simon Dewez

130 Book Review: Printed: Images by Australian Artists 1885-1955

Colin Holden

131 Book Review: Oriental Carpets: A Complete Guide

Ross Langlands

143 Illuminations from Italian choir books

Barbara Drake Boehm

PHOTOGRAPHY

10 Portraits for the million

Gael Newton

64 Review: Vivid national photography festival in Canberra

Martin Terry

W O R L D O F A N T I Q U E S & A R T

2

COVERChristian Waller (Australia 1894-1954),Morgan Le Fay, c. 1927, linocut, printed incolour, from multiple blocks, hand-colouredwith gold paint; on thick cream wovepaper, printed image 26.9 x 18.3 cm,sheet 38.8 x 26.0 cm. National Gallery ofAustralia, Canberra

Contents

Gael Newton

‘Truly this is portraits for the million.’

Sydney Morning Herald, 12 May 1859,

on the introduction of the carte de visite

miniature portrait.

In the mid-1850s several variants of the

British wet collodion glass-plate

negative process of 1851 came on the

market in Europe – the French carte-de-

visite and the American ambrotype or

positive on glass and the tintype.

Together with the existing stereograph

photograph of the early 1850s, these

innovations fuelled the explosion in

numbers of photographs produced

worldwide in the 1860s. This greater

circulation brought the photographic

experience to all levels of society.

Ambrotypes were the most expensive of

the new formats and tintypes were

cheapest, but the most popular across

all levels was the carte de viste.

The carte de visite was patented in

Paris in November 1854 by Parisian

studio photographer Eugene Disdéri

Portraits for the million Novelty in the Fine Arts

The invention of carte de visites in the 1850s marked the beginning of a new age in the

quest for the perfect portrait. No longer confined to the wealthy and the aristocracy,

remembrances of family and friends became available to all, changing forever the role of

portraiture and its place in society.

Photography

W O R L D O F A N T I Q U E S & A R T

10

1 Nicholas Caire (Britain/Australia 1837-1918),Studio portrait of a man seated on a rock,1880-1884, albumen silver carte de visitephotograph, 9.4 x 5.4 cm, card 10.4 x 6.3 cm.National Gallery of Australia, Camberra. Giftof Gael Newton 1997

1

John Hawkins

Van Diemen’s Land, settled in 1803

as a penal colony, had by the 1830s

a thriving community with Hobart as its

centre, whose population at that time

was 6,000. Although initially regarded as

the ideal location for intractable

convicts, the island began to attract

many free settlers looking to establish

themselves in a new land.

One such migrant was Scottish-born

David Barclay from Montrose who arrived

aboard the Resource in 1830. A

watchmaker and silversmith by trade, he

set up a workshop in Elizabeth Street,

Hobart Town. Hobart, Australia’s second

oldest city, was at that time experiencing

expansion and development at a rate that

has never been repeated in its history.

A year earlier, convicted felon Joseph

Forrester arrived at the colony on board

the transport ship Thames. Very little is

An important early Tasmanian silver cupand its historical significance

A two-handled silver loving cup presented to George

Augustus Robinson, which was bought from the Hobart

watchmaker and silversmith David Barclay and made by

Scottish silversmith Joseph Forrester, who was his assigned

convict, links together many threads of Tasmanian history.

decorativearts & design

1

W O R L D O F A N T I Q U E S & A R T

28

1 David Barclay, Hobart, Manufacturer, madeby Joseph Forrester, Loving cup, 1835,silver, h: 20.2 cm, w: 750 gm. TasmanianMuseum and Art Gallery, gift of Mr and MrsBrown, Geelong, Victoria

Andrew Morris

George Owen’s mastery of reticulation

resulted in the production of some

of the most complicated ceramic objects

ever made. Reticulating had to be done

before firing when the clay was still wet,

and is difficult to achieve because clay

dries out quickly. A very complex vessel

would have to be kept in a ‘green’, that

is, wet state over a long period. Little is

known about Owen’s actual working

methods since he was extremely secretive

about his technique, as was usual for

craftsmen of that period. What is known is

he perfected the technique clandestinely,

working after hours while in the employ of

Royal Worcester. His extraordinary pieces

made for Royal Worcester were sold to

specialist collectors.

A recent discovery of a hand holding

a reticulated vase by Owen brings new

light to his oeuvre as it is a departure

from his usual work. It incorporates the

hand vase design, a popular model in the

second half of the nineteenth century. This

rare example reveals that Owen worked

with glazed Parian. Other pieces decorated

by Owen also included tinted inner liners in

double-walled pieces and vases with

coloured decoration all over. Many objects

were intentionally left bare in the glazed

white state, without the chased and

burnished gilt enrichments for which his

other pieces are celebrated.

The design for hand vases originated in

the middle of the nineteenth century.

Modelled after the hands of the wife of

James Hadley (Worcester’s then chief

modeller), the old factory workers used to

refer to it as ‘Mrs Adley’s ’and’.1 The

Worcester Porcelain Museum has the

original hand-drawn, hand-coloured

designs for the hand vase in a Kerr &

Binns Worcester pattern book dating to

the 1850s. This pattern book contains at

least 35 hands, each with different

decorations, some rather elaborate. The

decorators would have used these

drawings as a guide to paint each hand

vase with a specific motif.

George Owen – Master Craftsman ExtraordinaireA recent discovery

since its establishment in the eighteenth century, Worcester has been at the forefront of

developing and perfecting decorative techniques, producing some of the finest examples of

English porcelain. Among the many fine craftsmen employed by the Worcester Royal

Porcelain Company was George Owen (1845-1917). In his chosen field of expertise –

reticulating – piercing decorative porcelain objects, he was without equal, the quality of

his work unmatched through to today.

decorativearts & design

1

W O R L D O F A N T I Q U E S & A R T

38

1 Royal Worcester hand vase, c. 1880sdecorated by George Owen, h: 16 cm,shape 6/35, unmarked. Private collection

W O R L D O F A N T I Q U E S & A R T

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