Birds of Australia & South Seas [colour slides of original watercolours held in the Alexander Turnbull Library]

SLIDES 67

fonds

1788 - 1792 (SLIDES 67/1 is dated 1790; 67/37 is dated 1788)

Graphic Materials, Photographs

41980

Copy print : SLIDES 67

66 slides - colour - 35 mm.

Reproduction Restricted

No. 2 attributed to Sarah Stone by Alexander Turnbull Library
This collection of watercolour drawings is owned by the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand.

Catalogue descriptions of the watercolours provided by Alexander Turnbull Library is at PXn 886.

While only four of the drawings are signed by George Raper, it is considered by scholars such as Professor Bernard Smith that the majority of the drawings are by Raper. The Alexander Turnbull Library has attributed the unsigned drawings to Raper.

The drawings were purchased by Alexander Turnbull, the founder of the Alexander Turnbull Library, between 1880 and 1918. Originally a collection of loose sheets, Turnbull had them bound into a single volume. All the drawings are inscribed "from E Cane", possibly Eva du Cane Godman, the daughter of Dr Frederick Du Cane Godman who acquired these drawings around 1877, together with Osbert Salvin, FRS.

The Raper Collection in the Natural History Museum, London, was originally also the property of Dr Du Cane Godman. His daughter, Eva Godman, presented the Raper Collection to the Museum in 1962.

References:
Mitchell Library file ML 1870/94
K. A. Hindwood, ‘George Raper: An Artist of the First Fleet’, Journal and Proceedings (Royal Australian Historical Society), vol 50, part 1, 1964, pp 32-57

Note that colour shifts have occured in copying these transparencies

Nos. 1, 37, 57 & 60 are signed Geo Raper
All drawings are inscribed in ink "from E[?] Cane"