The Baldwin Bequest

One of thousands of letters left to the Museum.

Source: ABC news online
Posted Thu Jan 15, 2009 10:00am AEDT
Updated Thu Jan 15, 2009 10:13am AEDT

The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery is sorting through a treasure trove of antiques and artefacts at a house in Hobart.

The 1920’s Battery Point home was left to the museum by wealthy benefactor Henry Baldwin.

Mr Baldwin died in 2007.

It was his dying wish that his home and contents be transformed into a museum.

He also donated another two properties and $2 million dollars, making it one of the largest bequests to an Australian museum.

The Director of the Museum and Art gallery Bill Bleathman says his staff are cataloguing thousands of items and have found rare china, historically significant furniture and unique book collections.

“It really reflects early colonial life in Tasmania right through to current day.”

“It’s just a treasure trove and the staff here, every day I’m amazed at the things they find.

“It’s up to us to deliver his, what he thought would be a lovely way for the community to remember him, but to get an added benefit from him having been in Hobart,” he said.

Project Officer Anthony Curtis says Mr Baldwin’s toy collection is fascinating.

“When he was a child he (had) quite an extensive train set collection.

“(One) clockwork train, it’s a model of a steam locomotive was made by Hornby in the UK.”

“It’s probably about 1920, 25, it’s in very good condition.”

The museum will be open to the public in two years.

[end of news item from abcnewsonline]

Handtinted carte by Clifford & Nevin

Scans courtesy © The Private Collection of John & Robyn McCullagh 2006. ARR.

Visit the weblog here for more items in The McCullagh Collection.

This carte bearing the handwritten inscription “Clifford & Nevin, Hobart Town” is one of several in private and public collections indicating a partnership at some time between the late 1860s and ca. 1873. Samuel Clifford (1827-1890) appears to have ceased his photographic business by about 1874, although his stock and studio were not advertised for sale in The Mercury until 1878:

Tasmanian Index (Newspapers & Journals)
Title: [Sale of Samuel Clifford's photographic stock]
In: Mercury 16/03/1878 Page(s): 2, column 3
Notes: Transcribed from Stilwell Index (Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts)
Sale of his photographic stock in trade, camera, lenses, printing frames etc., Liverpool Street.
Subjects: Clifford, Samuel, 1827-1890

This carte may have been hand-tinted with fruit juices – blackcurrant juice for the curtain and blueberry for the man’s bowtie -used as water colour paint. Berries were certainly plentiful, according to this account:

“Diaries of the Rev. Robert Knopwood, the first chaplain of Hobart, provided a detailed account of early horticultural activities, between the years of 1804 to1835.

His land grant called “Cottage Green” encompassed much of the Battery Point we know today, along with the sea cliffs behind the current Salamanca Place site. On these 30 acres, he established a substantial food bowl for the struggling settlement.From his1807 growing season, 5 acres of wheat, 1.5 acres of vegetables and numerous varieties of berry fruits were harvested.

The berry fruits would have included some of the weeds of today such as rosehips, elderberries (favoured for its wine making qualities) as well as currants Ribes sp. Some of these moisture-loving berry fruits species would have also migrated up the rivulets into West Hobart and down the sides of the cobbled laneways of Battery Point. Their presence today in these precincts is testament to their invasive and persistent qualities.” (Source: Unknown)