In a follow up to the Little Darwin recent post about British mineralogist John Mawe , who in the early 19th century issued a guide to collecting the wonders of the New World , including seashells , he having bought the collection of Captain William Bligh's widow, is a circa l811 advertisement for a business he ran in London for those keen to climb aboard the collecting craze, which included royalty . He personally collected minerals for the King of Spain and his wife, Sarah, advised Queen Victoria .
MINERALOGY.
The study of this useful science has been much retarded by the difficulty of obtaining a Collection, and the high prices generally asked for peculiar Specimens. With a view to obviate this, Mr. MAWE has been induced to form Portable Collections, classed and arranged, with a Catalogue, at Twelve Guineas; larger Cabinets, containing two hundred and fifty Specimens, at Fifteen Guineas; others, containing upwards of three hundred Varieties, Twenty Guineas. Collections, consisting of five hundred larger and fine Specimens (without Cabinet) Fifty Guineas.
Any Specimens may be exchanged, if required; and the Collection may be formed peculiarly rich in any given Class.
Large, elegant and rare Minerals at reduced prices. Precious Stones, Minerals and Shells, purchased.
A great Variety of elegant Vases formed and enriched after the Antique.
(Collecting. Royalty.Minerals.)
A spectacular opera could be made about the life of Australian collector , feminist and opera fan , the late Margaret Vine ,who had been an art researcher at the Australian National Library , Canberra.
By Peter Simon
Called Rocky Road, after her Magnetic Island residence,on Olympus Crescent, it could be bigger than the Rocky Horror Picture Show . Imagine a grand parade featuring her colostomy bag named Stanley, rock wallabies , kookaburras and curlews draped in jewellery , dancing books , assorted prancing retro clothing , a pet Beagle named Ponsonby who had a library card , and jiving telephone directories , which would make Giuseppe Verdi's much raved about parade in Aida , that included elephants , giraffes and horses , seem prety dull.
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| Some of Margaret's pet curlews in the rocks. |
To add to the spectacle of the unique opera , because Margaret had green fingernails , Magnetic Island children wondered if she were a witch ; she told them she was , but did now have a broomstick, so a coven of grounded island witches could be included , perhaps even Macbeth ?
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A small number of the pet wallabies that jumped off large granite boulders onto her roof are shown above. |
Her love of opera was such that she had two cabinets jam-packed with opera CDs and made special plane trips to Sydney to attend opera performances.
Because she had difficulty sitting and the need to cope with her colostomy bag , she had to pay for two airline seats each way .
Little Darwin recently reran articles about the remarkable Margaret Vine. As a teenager, she was told that because she was a girl, who would probably get married early and have children, she would not be sent to university, but her brother would .
She went on to carve out a distinctive career as an Australian art researcher, collector , conservationist , feminist . Margaret carried out reseach work for the epic tome Documents on Australian Internationl Affairs 1901-l918 which included Bulletin cartoons in the illustrations that could feature in the Rocky Road extravaganza .
Some books from her collection, in boxes which once formed the base of her bed , went to Special Collections, Eddie Koiki Mabo Library , James Cook University.
Recently pulled out of a dark corner were cardboard boxes containing a broken run of National Library of Australia News magazines from the l970s to the l990s that had belonged to Margaret , which she had given me .
Some of them contained handwritten annotations and underlining of text by her , including question and exclamation marks . Each volume was closely examined .
This resulted in ideas for a swag of follow up stories and the proposed Rocky Road opera brainwave.
The September 1994 issue featured a cover photograph of opera composer Larry Sitsky, the associated four page article receiving much attention by Vine, indicating she may have written a condensed piece about him and his works.
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| Townsville and Magnetic Island . |
Born in England ,the daughter of a well known medical man,Watson was educated mainly on the Continent, France in particular.
Her family was connected to the British Army , a brother, Colonel Watson, of the Army Medical Corps, visited Queensland at the end of World War l , after serving for years in India.
Her first literary success was Litanies of Life, published in London.
Soon after , arriving in Australia from Wales, she married William Dearden ,deeply involved in the Australian timber industry ,travelled with him on the North African coast , the scene for a novel, The Gaiety of Fatma.
Watson spent 15 years in Brisbane where she was a well known , vivacious identity, said to be a cheery, cultured and charitable woman with a wide view of the world and its problems, and intensely sympathetic.
.She entertained and travelled in Queensland with the French one- armed General Paul Pau when he toured Australia and New Zealand between September 1918 and January 1919 on a post-war diplomatic visit.
A newspaper account said that when General Pau, who had served in the Franco-Prussian War, where he lost his lower right arm , was in Queensland his happiest hours were with the country people, with Mrs Dearden (Watson) as guide, mentor, and friend, and interpreter also, for she spoke French as a Parisian.
Much of her nature , it continued, had the French vivacity and general temperament, and that was not surprising since, as a little child, she had shared the privations of the siege of Paris and heard the German guns thundering on the wider environs.
It is interesting to note that when General Pau was in New Zealand a kauri tree , Agathis australis , was named after him in his honor .
For the Brisbane Courier Mail , Watson wrote a series of short stories under the title Heniette Says, later made into a small book. These were the sayings of a French girl married to an Australian Digger soldier living a new life with him down under.
It was said the brave philosphy and great literary charm of these stories made them very popular . They had all the brightness of the heart of a French woman happily and devotedly linked up with Australia.
They were a blend of humour, bright appreciation of and bravery in new and rough surroundings, and with just a little wistfulness in the reflections upon Henriette’s native land.
A Watson play, If Youth But Knew, set in a London morning room , was performed in Melbourne , along with other plays by prominent playwrights of the day, including Louis Esson . In these illustrations from the program Esson is quoted as saying he hoped a playright like the famous Elizabethan playwright and poet Christopher Marlowe would emerge in Melbourne .
William Moore, journalist, art critic and playwright, promoted Australian art and drama, was involved in annual drama nights in Melbourne from 1909-l912.
Esther Paterson studied at the Melbourne National Gallery School, was a Fellow of th Royal Society of Arts,London, a member of the Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors and a council member of the Victorian Artists' Society .
The James Cook University library in Townsville has a Watson volume.
( Watson. France . Author.)
