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• Auction House:
  Leski Auctions
• Sale Name:
  Australian & Historical
• Sale Date:
  27 Nov 2021 ~ 11am (AEDT) - Session 1: Lots 1 - 680
  28 Nov 2021 ~ 11am (AEDT) - Session 2: Lots 681 - 1332
• Lot #:
  962
• Lot Description:
  Charles Henry Theodore Costantini
  (1803–1860)
  Portrait of Frederick George Page
  ink, watercolour and gouache on paper, presented in the original birds-eye huon pine frame
  20 x 18cm,
  signed lower right,
  with original manuscript details attached verso “Frederick George Page Born December 8th, 1843 Portrait taken in Aug. 1849”,. Also, a Page family Birthday scripture book in which the dates of birth of many family members are recorded by hand.
• Notes:
  Costantini (also Constantine, Constantini and Costantine) was a Paris-born surgeon of Italian descent who was twice transported to the Australian colonies in the 1820s. In the first instance, as Theodore Constantine, he was convicted at the Old Bailey of stealing jewellery and had his death sentence commuted to transportation to New South Wales for life. He arrived in Sydney in September 1823 and in August 1825 he was granted a free pardon by Governor Thomas Brisbane and he returned to England. Shortly after his return to England, however, he was found guilty of thieving two £5 notes and was banished to Van Diemen’s Land for seven years. His entry in the Convict Department’s conduct register describes him as ‘disposed to be very troublesome’. Dispatched to the penal station at Macquarie Harbour, he was put to work in the hospital as a dispenser of medicines but attracted the attention of the settlement’s commandant, James Butler, who in January 1828 wrote to the colonial secretary of his intention to employ Costantini in making sketches ‘in order to afford His Excellency an idea of this Station and its Localities’. He managed to receive his certificate of freedom in March 1834 and by 1838 was in Launceston, advertising his availability in the Cornwall Chronicle for the execution of ‘portraits in the most correct style, also, views, and sketches of gentleman’s farms, &c’. He died in Hawaii in 1860.
• Estimate:
  A$8,000 - 10,000
• Realised Price:
  *****
  

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• Category:
  Art

This Sale has been held and this item is no longer available. Details are provided for information purposes only.