Carving and Turning in Ivory and Wood, by Captain G. F. Wilkinson, Perth, W. A. … Nov. 1881.

Perth, WA : [G. F. Wilkinson], 1881. Broadsheet, 255 x 125 mm, lithograph-printed in black on white paper; mounted on a section of a nineteenth-century album leaf, with some ghosting from the original glue, otherwise good.

A rare broadsheet apparently issued to accompany Captain Wilkinson’s ivory and wood carving exhibit at the Perth International Exhibition in November 1881.

Captain Wilkinson’s fine carving work in ivory and wood had previously been awarded a bronze medal at the Paris Exhibition in 1876. Several pieces described on the present broadsheet had also formed part of the Colony of Western Australia’s exhibit at the Melbourne International Exhibition in 1880-81, where Wilkinson would be awarded a Fourth Order of Merit. In an article previewing the exhibition that appeared in The Herald (Fremantle), 21 August 1880, Wilkinson’s work received high praise:

‘Among other exhibits from this colony for the Melbourne Exhibition is a small but beautiful collection of carving and turning in ivory, the work of Captain Wilkinson of Perth. The collection consists of a toilet powder puffbox, a card case, a cover for a prayer book, and two carte de visite frames. The work in each of the articles is exquisitely delicate and beautiful, and the design and finish faultless and equal to the best work of the kind we have ever seen. The collection bears creditable evidence to the consummate skill and patience of the gentleman who exhibits them. In addition to the above, Captain Wilkinson also sends a handsomely designed inlaid photographic Album Cover, embracing all the ornamental woods of the colony.’

George Faulkner Wilkinson (1838-1884) was born in Horbling, Lincolnshire. Accompanied by his wife Elizabeth (née Clarke, 1844-1929) and two oldest children, Mabel Bessie (1865-1918) and Wilfred (1868-1917), he emigrated to Western Australia on the Palestine in August 1868, to oversee work on a sheep station he had purchased at Champion Bay, north of Geraldton. In 1870 he settled with his family in Perth. For a number of years he served as a local magistrate, and as Transport Officer in the colonial volunteer forces. An accomplished musician, he was engaged as organist at the Old St. George’s Cathedral in Perth. He and his wife were also keen thespians who, along with their young son, Wilfred, took part in numerous amateur productions in Perth in the 1870s-80s. A personal friend of the Governor, Sir Frederick Weld, Wilkinson served as secretary of the Weld Club, the exclusive gentleman’s club in Barrack Street founded in 1871. In 1879 he formed a partnership with Edward Kay Courthope as auctioneers and commission agents. In 1881 he was appointed the first Station Master for the newly completed Perth-Fremantle railway. Wilkinson died suddenly on 4 September 1884, and – as Staff Officer of Volunteers – was accorded a military funeral. He is buried in an unmarked grave in the East Perth Cemetery.