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• Auction House:
  Bonhams Australia
• Sale Name:
  Important Australian Art
• Sale Date:
  29 Nov 2022 ~ 6pm (AEST)
• Lot #:
  37
• Lot Description:
  Francis James Gillen (1855-1912) and Sir Walter Baldwin Spencer (British, 1860-1929) - A pair of photograph albums, late nineteenth century
  with annotations by FJ Gillen and the second album inscribed in ink inside the front cover: 'P.M. Byrne / Charlotte Waters'. Album I clothbound in blue, 29.0 x 26.0cm, containing 106 photographs numbered 1-106 over 48 pages; Album II with dark green, buckram cover with gold trim, 26.5 x 37.0cm, containing 151 photographs numbered 107-257 over 41 pages, and two loose newspaper clippings (one relating to Pat Byrne and one an Australian Newspaper obituary of Baldwin Spencer) and two, double-sided loose sheets of numbered descriptions of photographs written in ink by FJ Gillen
  SPECIAL NOTICE: Please note that a Moveable Cultural Heritage Permit must be obtained to export this lot from Australia. Please contact the department for further information prior to bidding.
• Provenance:
  Patrick Michael Byrne (1856-1932), Charlotte Waters, Northern Territory; Charles Chewings (1859-1937), South Australia, thence by descent; Dr D. Hugh LeMessurier, Adelaide, thence by descent; Private collection, Adelaide
• Notes:
  In 1894, Englishman Walter Baldwin Spencer, Professor of Biology at the University of Melbourne, was nominated as biologist and photographer to the Horn Scientific Expedition to central Australia. Funded by mining magnate, pastoralist and politician, William Austin Horn (1841-1922), the main purpose of the expedition was to study and record the natural history of the region. The 14-week journey through the Macdonnell Ranges was a resounding success and in its final weeks forged one of the most significant anthropological partnerships of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries – that of Walter Baldwin Spencer and Francis James Gillen. Gillen, the son of an Irish family who had emigrated to Adelaide, was posted to Alice Springs in 1892 as Post and Telegraph Station Master. He was also a keen anthropologist, encouraged by his friendship with Edward Stirling, the Horn Expedition's leader and South Australian Museum Director, (1) and had developed a significant understanding of Aboriginal culture and language of the region. Upon reaching Alice Springs, the expedition's final destination, Spencer stayed on as a house guest of Gillen, enabling further collection of zoological specimens.(2) Spencer was immediately taken with his host's enthusiasm and knowledge in the field and was to later call Gillen the "most important discovery of his career".(3) The pair were to carry on important ethnographic and anthropological research in both northern and central Australia over many years. Their ongoing field research and recording of the ceremonies of the Arrente people of central Australia, led them to publish several books with the first publication in 1899, The Native Tribes of Central Australia. They were innovative in their collection of data, using various mediums such as film, audio recording and photography. The photographs contained in these albums are a vital record of ceremonial life in central Australia and the incredible expeditions and research undertaken by the men. Both Spencer and Gillen were keen photographers and frequently exchanged advice, equipment, slides and prints.(4) Thus arises the difficulty in clearly attributing the photographs to one or the other. In 2015, Bonhams offered a remarkable pair of Spencer and Gillen photographic albums inscribed 'C.E. Cowle', establishing that they had once belonged to Mounted Constable Ernest Cowle (1863-1922) who had been stationed at the outpost of Illamurta Springs. A skilled bushman, Cowle was responsible for the safe and expedited passage of the Horn Expedition to Uluru.(5) The albums in the current lot inscribed PM Byrne, were almost certainly gifted by Gillen to Irish-born Patrick Michael Byrne, postal officer at outpost of Charlotte Waters a few kilometres north of the South Australian border. Byrne was the step-brother of Gillen's wife, Amelia Maud Besley. Gillen and Byrne spent 12 years together at Charlotte Waters. Spencer met Cowle and Byrne during the Horne scientific expedition and both were tasked with collecting specimens for the expedition's ongoing research on the fauna of the region. Cowle, Byrne and Spencer were to begin a correspondence spanning close to 30 years. The collection of letters written between 1894 and 1935 from Cowle and Byrne to Spencer are held in the collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford University and were published in 2000 by John Mulvaney with Alison Petch and Howard Morphy in From the Frontier: Outback Letters to Baldwin Spencer. Mulvaney draws particular attention to the great friendship and respect between these pioneering men, evident in the words of Gillen to Spencer in 1987: 'I don't think there is any man living whose friendship he values as highly as he does yours. He feels and knows that you understand him'. Cowle told Spencer, 'I am awfully glad that you got to know Pat Byrne thoroughly...don't you think he bears out my statement that he was the only man on the line who really was informed on most subjects, and a good fellow besides'.(6) The albums have been passed down through the family of Charles Chewings (1859-1937), a geologist and anthropologist with a particular interest in Aboriginal culture. Chewings undertook a number of trips to Central Australia, compiling several publications including Back in the Stone Age: The Natives of Central Australia, in 1936 in which 15 of Gillen's photographs were included. A collection of reports concerning Chewings' travels between 1881 and 1909 entitled "The sources of the Finke River and other Expeditions" were published in 2010. Chewings also compiled a two-volume vocabulary of the Aranda language held in the South Australian Museum, Adelaide. Chewings is referenced several times in the Byrne correspondence to Spencer (7). Francesca Cavazzini 1. John Mulvaney, Howard Morphy and Alison Petch (eds.), 'My dear Spencer': The Letters of F.J. Gillen to Baldwin Spencer, Hyland House, Melbourne, 1997, p.8; 2. ibid., p.12; 3. D.J. Mulvaney and J.H. Calaby, So Much that is New: Baldwin Spencer 1860-1929 University of Melbourne at the University Press, Melbourne, 1985, p.117; 4. ibid., p.165; 5. ibid., p.123, p.128; 6. Mulvaney, Morphy and Petch, 1997, p.197; 7.ibid., pp.236-237.
• Estimate:
  A$150,000 - 200,000
• Realised Price:
  *****
  

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• Category:
  Photography

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