Studio portrait of pastoralist David Reid Jnr. Melbourne, c.1866.

Albumen print photograph, carte de visite format, 100 x 65 mm (mount); verso imprinted ‘Carte de Visite, or Album Portraits, Frith’s New Ivorytype & Photographic Rooms, 7 Collins Street East, Melbourne’; an exceptional print in pristine conditio; (Sitter identified by an inscription on album mount).

David Reid Jnr. (1821-1906) arrived in Australia with his family from England at the age of two in 1823. His father, retired naval officer Surgeon-Lieutenant David Reid Snr (1777-1840), who fought at Waterloo and was later a naval surgeon on convict ships, was encouraged to settle in Australia by none other than Governor Lachlan Macquarie, who granted Reid Snr. 2,000 acres at Inverary (Bungonia), between Goulburn and the Limestone Plains (present-day Canberra). David Reid Jnr. attended the King’s School, Parramatta. He went on to accrue an immense fortune as a pastoralist and speculator, and became one of the most notable pioneers of the Monaro, Albury and Beechworth (Victoria) districts.

Provenance: From an album belonging to Jane Emma Murphy (Balcombe) (1845-1924), “The Briars”, Mornington, Victoria, niece of David Reid Jnr. through her mother, Emma Juana Balcombe (Reid); à Beckett family, Melbourne (by descent).