Sydney 1850-1900
A selection of photographs, manuscripts and printed ephemera which together paint a kaleidoscopic picture of the society and physical appearance of Australia’s oldest city as it was still evolving in the second half of the nineteenth century.
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# 50338
THORNE (WATKINS), Rosalie Ann (1850-1927)
Rosalie Ann Thorne (later Watkins), of Rose Bay and Parramatta : a substantial archive of unique manuscript ephemera, 1850s-1890s, including family correspondence and material relating to the homeschooling of the Thorne and Watkins children.
Provenance: Rosalie Ann Thorne (1850-1927); Elizabeth Cecilia McNally, aka “The Duchess of Spring Hill” (1909-1996), legendary Brisbane antiques dealer and collector; private collection, Queensland. As the archive is so large, we have arranged it into four main sections catalogued under alphabetical headings, A – D (see below). ROSALIE ANN THORNE AND HER FAMILY Rosalie (“Rose”) Ann …
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# 50311
GLAISTER, Thomas Skelton (1825-1904)
Portrait of the photographer’s wife, Elizabeth Glaister. Sydney, c. 1865.
Albumen print photograph, carte de visite format, 101 x 64 mm (mount); verso with imprint of ‘T. S. Glaister, Photographic Artist, 253 Pitt Street, Sydney’, and a full contemporary inscription in pencil: ‘Mrs Glaister’; both the print and the mount are in excellent condition. A possibly unique portrait of Elizabeth Glaister, taken by her English-born …
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![[SYDNEY] State Banquet in commemoration of the completion of the First Hundred Years of Australian Settlement. January 26th 1888.](https://douglasstewart.com.au/app/uploads/2026/05/2026_DSFB_3492-300x300.jpg)
# 50402
[NEW SOUTH WALES GOVERNMENT]
[SYDNEY] State Banquet in commemoration of the completion of the First Hundred Years of Australian Settlement. January 26th 1888.
Sydney : S. T. Leigh & Co., 1888. Menu. Folding gilt-edged card (195 x 135 mm), chromolithograph illustrated, with gold highlights; second and third sides with menu (catering was Baumann of Pitt Street under the supervision of W. G. Cassidy), toasts, and programme of music, featuring decorative borders with cartouche illustrations; light foxing overall, the …
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![[SYDNEY] Opening of St. Mary's Cathedral. Programme of music to be performed during the Triduum, 8th, 9th, & 10th Sept., 1882.](https://douglasstewart.com.au/app/uploads/2026/04/2026_DSFB_2429-300x300.jpg)
# 50062
[FITZPATRICK, M. J., Hon. Secretary]
[SYDNEY] Opening of St. Mary’s Cathedral. Programme of music to be performed during the Triduum, 8th, 9th, & 10th Sept., 1882.
[Sydney] : J. G. O’Connor, Printer, 26 Jamison-street, 1882. Duodecimo folding card, 150 x 90 mm, printed on [4] sides, text and illustration in purple, decorative borders in silver; front with manuscript entry in ink recording that the programme was issued to Miss Scollen, an official guest; last side with some superficial loss and residual …
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# 47232
FREEMAN BROTHERS
Daguerreotype portrait of a gentleman. Sydney, c.1855.
Sixth-plate daguerreotype with applied colour, 70 x 58 mm (sight); in a square brass mat with arch-top window; housed in a full leather case with the gilt-stamped crest of the photographers ‘FREEMAN BROTHERS / SYDNEY’ to verso, and with two working brass clasps; the daguerreotype is in excellent condition (a few specks of dust underneath …
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![[SYDNEY] Centennial Press Banquet. Given by the Proprietors of the Town & Country Journal & the Evening News, to Australian Press Representatives in the Town Hall ... on the 25th January, 1888. Presided over by His Worship John Harris, Esq., Mayor of Sydney.](https://douglasstewart.com.au/app/uploads/2026/04/2026_DSFB_2405-300x300.jpg)
# 50072
TOWN & COUNTRY JOURNAL & EVENING NEWS (proprietors of)
[SYDNEY] Centennial Press Banquet. Given by the Proprietors of the Town & Country Journal & the Evening News, to Australian Press Representatives in the Town Hall … on the 25th January, 1888. Presided over by His Worship John Harris, Esq., Mayor of Sydney.
[Sydney : s.n.], 1888. Large gilt-edged card, 125 x 205 mm; lithograph printed recto only in gold on heavy satin finish cardstock, illustration at centre dominated by an Australian coat of arms; a few light marks, verso with residual glue from where the card was once mounted in an album, otherwise in very good condition. …
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![[SYDNEY] The Government of New South Wales has the honour to invite J. G. O'Connor Esq. to the State Banquet, to be held in Sydney, on Thursday 26th January, 1888, in commemoration of the completion of the First Hundred Years of Australian Settlement.](https://douglasstewart.com.au/app/uploads/2026/06/2026_DSFB_3606-300x300.jpg)
# 50436
NEW SOUTH WALES. GOVERNMENT. CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION COMMISSION.
[SYDNEY] The Government of New South Wales has the honour to invite J. G. O’Connor Esq. to the State Banquet, to be held in Sydney, on Thursday 26th January, 1888, in commemoration of the completion of the First Hundred Years of Australian Settlement.
[Sydney : Government printer, 1888]. “Pre”-invitation card, 115 x 152 mm, lithograph printed in black on cream card, O’Connor’s name entered in manuscript; a couple of tiny rust marks, small loss at one corner, verso with some residual glue and paper adhesions from where the menu was removed from an album mount, obscuring part of …
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# 50397
MORESBY, Matthew Fortescue (1828-1918)
Tree Fern, Botanical Gardens, Sydney (1856-1860)
Wet plate collodion print, 200 x 155 mm, signed in the negative lower left ‘M. F. Moresby’; on section cut from a mid-19th-century album leaf, with the photographer’s pencilled caption on the mount below the image: ‘Tree Fern, Botanical Gardens, Sydney’; the print has excellent clarity and tonal range, and is in very good condition; …
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# 50449
MORESBY, Matthew Fortescue (1828-1918)
Norfolk Id. Pine, Bot: Garden, Sydney (1856-1860)
Wet plate collodion print, 220 x 265 mm, signed in the negative lower left ‘M. F. Moresby’; mounted on a section cut from a mid-19th-century album leaf (glued at top right and bottom right corners only), with the photographer’s caption in ink across the bottom of the image: ‘Norfolk Id. Pine, Bot: Garden, Sydney’; the …
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![[SYDNEY] Laying the Foundation Stone of the Houses of Parliament. Monday, 30th January, 1888, at noon. Lady's ticket.](https://douglasstewart.com.au/app/uploads/2026/04/2026_DSFB_2417-300x300.jpg)
# 50070
BURNSIDE, C. L. (Sec. Secretary, Centennial Committee)
[SYDNEY] Laying the Foundation Stone of the Houses of Parliament. Monday, 30th January, 1888, at noon. Lady’s ticket.
[Sydney : Government Printer, 1888]. Duodecimo card, 60 x 92 mm, printed recto only in black on yellow card; signed by C. L. Burnside, Secretary of the Centennial Committee; some toning, verso with some superficial loss and residual glue from where the card was once mounted in an album, otherwise in very good condition. Provenance: …
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![[SYDNEY] Laying the Foundation Stone of the Houses of Parliament. Monday, 30th January, 1888, at noon. Admit Mr & Mrs J. G. O'Connor.](https://douglasstewart.com.au/app/uploads/2026/04/2026_DSFB_2434-300x300.jpg)
# 50069
BURNSIDE, C. L. (Sec. Secretary, Centennial Committee)
[SYDNEY] Laying the Foundation Stone of the Houses of Parliament. Monday, 30th January, 1888, at noon. Admit Mr & Mrs J. G. O’Connor.
[Sydney : Government Printer, 1888]. Duodecimo card, 60 x 92 mm, printed recto only in black on brown card; the O’Connors’ names recorded in manuscript, also signed by C. L. Burnside, Secretary of the Centennial Committee; verso with some superficial loss and residual glue from where the card was once mounted in an album, otherwise …
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# 50336
WALKER, James
Studio portrait of a gentleman posed before a painted backdrop with a view of Government House and Sydney Harbour. Sydney, c.1864.
Albumen print photograph, carte de visite format, 101 x 63 mm (mount); verso with imprint of ‘J. Walker, Artist, 233 Pitt St., Sydney‘; the print has some loss at top edge, but is otherwise in good condition, as is the mount. This James Walker carte de visite is a rare example of one of the …
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# 50405
ROBERTS, Jonah
Studio portrait of a young gentleman posed before a painted backdrop with a view of Sydney Harbour. Sydney, 1866.
Albumen print photograph, carte de visite format, 99 x 63 mm (mount); verso with imprint of ‘J. Roberts, Photographer, 328 George Street, Sydney‘; both the print and mount are in excellent condition. Jonah Roberts was only briefly active as a professional photographer in Sydney during the year 1866, before he relocated to Victoria and set …
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# 50308
PICKERING, Charles
Studio portrait of a young girl posed before a painted backdrop with a view of St. Mary’s Cathedral and Sydney Harbour. Sydney, early 1868.
Albumen print photograph, carte de visite format, 100 x 64 mm (mount); verso with imprint (in red) of ‘C. Pickering, Photographic Artist, 612 George Street, Wilshire’s Buildings, Sydney‘; the print has some light surface marks in the upper section, but is otherwise in good condition, as is the mount. The second St. Mary’s Cathedral (the first …
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# 40075
[Various studios]
Archive of portrait photographs of the family of Dr. George Hogarth Pringle, the first medical practitioner to carry out antiseptic surgery in Australia, and his wife Annie Oakes Byrnes, of Parramatta, 1860s-1880s.
Group of 50 (fifty) albumen print photographs, all in carte de visite format (average dimensions of mounts 102 x 62 mm); many with contemporary inscriptions on the verso identifying the sitter(s); the vast majority of the cartes bear the imprints of a range of Sydney studios (see below), but there are also a small number …
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# 50445
HETZER, William fl. 1850-1867
Studio portrait of a wealthy lady in a fine taffeta dress, holding a photograph album. Sydney, early 1860s.
Albumen print photograph, carte de visite format, 100 x 62 mm (mount); verso with imprint of ‘W. Hetzer’s Photographic Gallery, 287 George Street, Sydney, N.S.W.’; both the print and mount are in excellent condition. In 1850 the German-born photographer William Hetzer and his wife Thekla arrived in Sydney, where they immediately set up a photographic studio …