Another gem from the Special Collections section of the Eddie Koiki Mabo Library, James Cook University ,Townsville.
The etcher and bookplate engraver , Gerrard Gayfield Shaw,founder of the Australian Painter Etchers' Society,who took an exhibition by caravan through country areas of New South Wales in 1924, is represented by several examples , one for Eirene Mort (1879-l977).
A descendant of the pioneer merchant, Thomas Sutcliffe Mort, (Goldsborough , Mort) , a major player in the wool and cattle industry, auctioneering , she became the first pupil of Italian painter and teacher , Anthony Dattulo Rubbo , who arrived in Sydney in 1897 and set up an art school which ran for 43 years.
In l899 Mort went to London to begin five years of intensive art training specialising in design , black and white illustration and craftwork.
On returning to Sydney in l905 with Nora Kate Weston, a woodcarver and fellow Australian , they established an applied art studio and teaching centre which flourished for more than 30 years.
(Mort, Rubbo , Bookplates.)
