The New Zealand Association Lithographs

1837 NZ Association Advert selling
"Prints of NZ scenes, landscapes & portraits"

On page 79 of Early Prints of New Zealand this advertisement for "A series of Landscapes, Scenes and Portraits, Illustrative of the Islands of New Zealand and their Native Inhabitants" is reproduced.

From 1837 this is easily one of the very earliest advertisements for prints of New Zealand.

We spend a lot of time figuring out the different reasons people choose to buy prints and what themes or subjects would interest groups of buyers.  It is hard to figure out why prints from the New Zealand Association folio would have been purchased, and a list of subscribers would be interesting if one still exists (please leave a comment if you know its whereabouts!).  Were they decorative, illustrative or aspirational?  Or commercial propaganda of the New Zealand Association?

The plates in the folio are from paintings and drawings by Augustus Earle, the "Wandering Artist" who accompanied Charles Darwin on his famous voyage on the Beagle.

The New Zealand sketches and paintings of Augustus Earle are among the most important pre-1840 impressions, and the prints made from them to illustrate his book on New Zealand, and the later album produced for the New Zealand Association, are both dramatic and delightful.

Earle was the first trained artist to spend any time among the Maori (it was another twenty years before a comparable study, Angas' The New Zealanders Illustrated, would be published).

Earle was the son of an American artist who settled in London after the American War of Independence.  After studying at the Royal Academy,  Augustus exhibited there from 1806 to 1817, and later from 1837 to 1838. He first went to sea in 1815, and over the next twenty years earned the nickname "The Wandering Artist".  He lived in America for almost two years from 1817, and from there visited Brazil, Chile, and Peru. 

Earle arrived in Australia in 1825, and during the three years spent there not only drew and painted but also set up in business as a lithographer.  From Australia he went back to England, via India.  In 1831 he was appointed draughtsman to theBeagle, with Charles Darwin. Illness forced Earle to leave the ship at Montevideo. He stayed there several months before returning to England, where he died in December 1838.

"War Speech" - Early NZ Print by Augustus Earle

A Narrative of a Nine Months' Residence in New Zealand was published in 1832: it contains six aquatint views which, though small, are good examples of a process used for few New Zealand prints.

Better known, though still rare, are the ten lithographs in the New Zealand Association album. A longer series was proposed, and it is regrettable that it was never published — probably because the Association could not afford it.

Among the plates is the particularly charming Native Village and Cowdie Forest (since re-published by Avon Fine Prints), which, Earle noted, "is literally buried in the forest, and is a country residence of Patuoni, the chief of the district; here he plants his potatoes, cumera, [kumara] and maize . . . The mighty forest by which the village is surrounded consists chiefly of cowdie [kauri], the largest and most valuable of the New Zealand trees. We halted at this village on our way to the Bay of Islands..."

Dumont D'Urville's artists & their prints of NZ

 Early NZ lithograph "L'Astrolabe in French Pass" 

Within the range of early New Zealand prints, there are no better or more significant French prints than those published after two voyages of L'Astrolabe under the command of Dumont D'Urville. His records are as important in their way as Cook's, and the prints published in the Atlas to each voyage are among the finest New Zealand prints.

Published at a time when French lithography was at its peak, they are superb examples of both artistic and accurate recording and the highest technical proficiency in drawing on stone. Originally published in black-and-white, many plates are now found hand-coloured, and it is believed some volumes were coloured for the publisher.

Dumont D'Urville was an extraordinarily talented man, with a wide range of interests. He had entered the French Navy in 1807 as a midshipman, and passed his examinations in navigation and mathematics to gain first place among 72 successful candidates. Simultaneously, for his own interest, he was studying Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, to which he would later add Spanish and Italian. His other great love was botany, and after an application to join Freycinet on Uranie was unsuccessful, he spent all available time studying botany and amassing a very large and important collection of plants.

In 1820 Dumont D'Urville sailed on his first voyage, a nine-month cruise in the eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea as an assistant in hydrographical research. He was present at Melos when the Venus de Milo was discovered, and it was through his influence that the statue was purchased for the Louvre.

The following year, promoted to Lieutenant, Dumont D'Urville at last set sail for the Pacific, with Duperrey aboard Coquille. The events of the period of almost three years that Coquille was away from France left a profound impression on Dumont D'Urville, and he could scarcely wait for his next chance to go to the South Seas. In addition to his duties as executive officer, he had been responsible for the zoological and botanical records, and later published accounts on these subjects earned him high praise.

L'Astrolabe: First Voyage, 1826-1829
Promoted to the rank of Commander in November, 1825, and commissioned to Coquille the following month, Dumont D'Urville began the long preparations for his own great scientific voyage. His instructions were to sail via the Canary Islands, round Cape Horn, to visit Australia and New Zealand before exploring further in the South Pacific, and to return to France via the Indian Ocean and the Cape of Good Hope. Even the dates for the various stages of the voyage were prescribed, though they were to prove very difficult to maintain.

Coquille was renamed L'Astrolabe for the voyage, and sailed in April 1826. Among those aboard were Lesson, the botanist, Barthelemy Lauvergne, Dumont D'Urville's secretary, whose artistic talent was pressed into service to record many zoological specimens; and young Louis Auguste de Sainson, the expedition's official artist, who was later to become a permanent clerk to the Admiralty.

L'Astrolabe spent almost three months on the New Zealand coast, moving from the north of the South Island up the entire east coast of the North Island. The expedition members were tireless in their recording: a report published after their return to Paris states (of the whole cruise): "There are a great many drawings designed to show the character of places, the types of men living in them, their costumes, arms, dwellings, etc.: eight hundred and sixty in all. We owe them to M.de Sainson.  If. . . we add four hundred views of the coast drawn by M. Lauvergne, the total number . . . will reach twelve hundred and sixty-six . . . [there is also a] fine collection of portraits of the natives which comprises one hundred and fifty-three figures . . . this collection calls for special attention . . ."

From New Zealand L'Astrolabe went to New Guinea and in February 1828 to Vanikoro, where the remains of La Perouse's ships were definitely identified. L'Astrolabe returned to France in March 1829.

Dumont D'Urville's pride and pleasure in the accomplishments of his expedition turned to dismay and bitterness when the Admiralty refused any recognition of the work of his officers and men: indeed, he charged the Admiralty with "indifference" and could not accept their lack of interest and support.

Over the next four years Dumont D'Urville himself wrote the entire text of the five volumes of narrative of the voyage of L'Astrolabe, and in 1835 saw the completion of publication of the whole account — twelve volumes of text and five albums. The Atlas included 32 superb New Zealand views.

L'Astrolabe: Second Voyage, 1837-1840
Dumont D'Urville's third Pacific voyage began in September 1837 when L'Astrolabe, in company La Zelee, sailed from Toulon. He was 47 years old, and the new expedition was both hazardous and arduous: these ships were to explore the South Polar region.

Print of Stars & Stripes flying over Russell in 1840

with

L'Astrolabe and La Zelee spent the months from January to March 1838 exploring in the Antarctic, discovering and naming Louis Philippe Land in honour of the King, and drawing many maps and charts which were forwarded from Valparaiso in May. The period to December 1839 was spent among the Pacific islands, but in January 1840, Dumont D'Urville took his ships south again into the ice, and the names of Adelie Land (for his wife) and the Clarie Coast (for the wife of Captain Jacquinot of La Zelee) were among those added to the polar maps.

From March to May 1840 Dumont D'Urville revisited New Zealand, approaching from the south and passing Stewart Island before again sailing up the east coast. The artist on this occasion was Louis Le Breton, a surgeon and naturalist, and gifted painter who was later to exhibit at the Paris Salon.

L'Astrolabe and La Zelee returned to Toulon in November 1840, and this time Dumont D'Urville had no cause to complain of "indifference". He was awarded the Gold Medal of the Geographical Society, and was promoted to Rear-Admiral, while his officers and men received awards from the King.

For the next two years Dumont D'Urville worked on the preparation and publication of the account of the voyage, and two volumes had appeared when, in May 1842, he, his wife, and their only child, were burned to death in a disastrous train wreck. The third volume of Voyage au Pole Sud was written by the expedition's geographer, Vincendon-Dumoulin. One of the prints included in this volume was “Entry to the Bay of Islands New Zealand” that has been republished by Thorndon Fine Prints. This shows the American flag of the time flying from the flagstaff later made famous by Hone Heke on Flagstaff Hill near Russell and is now available for sale online here.

Early Prints of Maori Life : John Gilfillan's remarkable "Interior of a Native Village"

Part of an occasional series of articles on prints from our collection.  This week we look at the tragic life of the artist John Gilfillan whose depiction of a pa on the Wanganui River "Interior of a Native Village" is both a remarkable portrait of Maori life in the early days of colonisation and one of NZ's rarest prints.

About the artist

John Alexander Gilfillan, the son of a Captain of the 78th Highland Regiment, was born in 1793. He ran away to sea at an early age, but later retired from the navy to study art.  Gilfillan's qualifications gained him the position of Drawing and Painting Master at the Andersonian University, a position which he held for fifteen years. In 1826 he married Miss Sarah Murray, by whom he had four children. She died in 1837, and shortly afterwards he married his cousin, Mary Bridges, and moved with his family to London, where he spent three months studying carpentry and engineering in preparation for emigrating to New Zealand.

Gilfillan's Farm at Mataraua

The family arrived in New Zealand on Christmas Day 1841 (Gilfillan's 47th birthday) and went immediately to Petre (Wanganui). They took up land at Matarawa (Mataraua), and built a house on their town section, living there till 1845 when they moved finally to the farm. This house was illustrated from a sketch by Gilfillan in W. Tyrone Power's Sketches in New Zealand.

The murder of Gilfillan's wife and three of his children on 18th April 1847 caused him to abandon his farm, and at the end of the year he moved with his remaining children to Sydney. During the fifteen months he lived there he painted the Interior of a Native Village. The Pa is reputed to be Putiki-whara-nui on the Wanganui River.

Gilfillan moved to Adelaide in 1849, but in 1852 was tempted to the goldfields, and afterwards went to Melbourne. He exhibited paintings at the 1854 Exhibition, and died in Melbourne in 1863.

Printing of the Lithograph

Interior of a Native Village (Lithograph)

The authors of Early Prints of New Zealand were indebted to L.A.L. Moore, Esq., of Wellington for the following account of the circumstances surrounding the printing of the lithograph of Interior of a Native Village.

Mr Moore's grandfather, Captain Frederick George Moore, was in the merchant marine, and arrived in Wellington in February 1840 aboard the Bengal Merchant. He purchased the brigantine Jewess and began trading round the New Zealand coast. He acted as pilot for Wakefield's ships the Will Watch, Whitby, and Arrow when they sailed into Nelson Haven to establish the second New Zealand Company settlement, and himself settled on property at Motueka and in Nelson.

Moore probably first met Gilfillan in Wanganui during a trading visit, but met him again in Sydney in 1848 when he (Moore) was on a return trip to England. Gilfillan gave the painting of Interior of a Native Village to Moore, who took it to London, and on arrival arranged an interview with Prince Albert to see if the painting could be displayed at the Royal art gallery. The picture was inspected by both Prince Albert and the Duke of Wellington, and it was decided that it should be shown at the 1851 Exhibition at the Crystal Palace.

Captain Moore was in charge of the New Zealand Court at the Exhibition, and the picture was among the items included. Moore had 50 copies lithographed, sending 25 to Sir George Grey for distribution, and selling and presenting the remainder to friends and associates in London. After the Exhibition, Moore gave the original painting to his sister in Paris: all trace has been lost since the 1870 Franco-Prussian War and it is possible the picture was destroyed at that time."

It is interesting to note that all known copies of the lithograph bear the word "Proof”.  Moore may have perhaps intended to issue the lithograph in larger numbers once the initial fifty were distributed. A census of copies would be interesting today: if in fact only 50 copies were printed, natural wear and loss would reduce the quantity to a handful, making the Interior of a Native Village one of the more rare New Zealand prints.

Full Catalogue Description of the print from Early Prints of New Zealand

Interior of a native village or "Pa", in New Zealand,/situated near the town of Petre, at Wanganui, one of the New Zealand Company's settlements in Cook's Straits, Northern Island,/the figures in the foreground are all portraits, and the original picture (now in London) was painted on the spot./ . . . F.G. Moore, Late of New Zealand, now of 30 Arundel Street Strand. J.A. Gilfillan, M.A. pinxt. — E. Walker, lithr. Day & Son, lithrs. to the Queen. The original picture in the possession of F.G. Moore, 30 Arundel St. Strand. "Proof [1852?] 48.1 x 63.8cm
lithograph in colour, handfinished.

[The print was reproduced by Avon Fine Prints Ltd, Christchurch, 1969 in an edition limited to 1000 copies, NZ Fine Prints have a handful of prints from this later edition available for purchase].

Story of a print of New Plymouth that appeared in the British Parliamentary Papers

Gully, John 1819-1888 :New Plymouth, New Zealand. [London] Day & Son [1860].
Ref: B-051-015. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. http://natlib.govt.nz/records/22326669

This rare print is the only New Zealand view to appear in a British Parliamentary paper in the period up to 1875 (the period covered by Ellis "Early Prints of New Zealand").  It was re-printed by Avon Fine Prints in the 1960s and the original watercolour that the print is based on by painter John Gully is in the National Archives.

The print accompanied a despatch from Governor Gore Browne dated 13 March 1860 and appears in Command paper 2798, 1861: "Papers relating to the recent disturbance in New Zealand."

The description of New Plymouth which accompanies the view is not particularly complimentary about the new settlement.

"The town consists of a struggling village on a skirt of flat land, which is enclosed and commanded by a higher table land encircling the town in the form of a crescent. One end of this crescent is Marsland  Hill, on which the barrack stands, and on the other extreme we are about to erect a stockade. The intervening space between the barrack and this block-house is about three quarters of a mile, but the ground is broken by ravines and swamps and covered with fern, so that what is delineated in the New Zealand Company's plan as squares and streets is in reality wild land, much tormented, and well adapted to cover and conceal the approach of an enemy. Isolated cottages dotted about at intervals, the town being confined to little more than a single street on the shore.

The inland country generally is covered with high fern and dense forest, some of which is almost impenetrable to Europeans, and is everywhere broken by ravines and streams which are thrown off Mount Egmont [Taranaki]. There is a native pah in New Plymouth . . . and there are numerous pahs in every direction . . . 

The proposed blockhouses, which look so imposing in the sketch, may be described as wooden guard-houses, large enough to contain twenty men each. They are not yet constructed."

The view was redrawn for Sir James Alexander's Incidents of the Maori War, 1863

Mr John Gully
The Nelson Provincial Museum, Davis Collection: 1138

John Gully was a major New Zealand artist - according to Una Platts "Nineteenth Century NZ Artists" probably the most popular of his time.  Gully was born in Bath, England. He was apprenticed to an iron foundry and graduated next to the designing and drafting department. However this did not satisfy the young Gully's ambition and he spent periods as clerk in a savings bank and worked in his father's business. Gully took private lessons in painting during this time. In 1852 he and his wife and children emigrated on the John Phillips to New Plymouth.

In 1858 "J.G. of Omata" was advertising ready to paint "views" of properties for sending overseas. He farmed at Omata and worked as a clerk in New Plymouth. Gully took part as a volunteer in the Taranaki wars but was invalided out of the Army. In 1860 Gully and his family moved to Nelson where he settled permanently.  Gully was Drawing Master at Nelson College, then draughtsman in the Lands & Survey Office.

In 1863 two of his paintings, one a wreck of the Lord Worsley, one a view of Mount Egmont were advertised for sale. The encouragement given him by von Haast, whose "outlines" of mountains he coloured, and by the painter J. C. Richmond, then Commissioner of Crown Lands, was probably the turning point of his career. Richmond went on painting expeditions with him and used all his influence to make Gully's work known. In 1865 Richmond enlisted the help of his brother, C. W. Richmond, then a judge in Dunedin, to get his own and Gully's work to the NZ Exhibition and to see that people knew that Gully was ready to paint professionally.

By 1870 Gully was probably the most popular painter in the New Zealand. He exhibited watercolours at the Intercolonial Ex Melbourne 1866-67. In 1878 retired from the Lands & Survey Office and began to spend his full time painting and was listed as a Nelson artist in Wise's directory.  John Gully nearly always in watercolour and was greatly praised for his ''atmospheric effects". In the NZ and South Seas Ex Dunedin 1889-90, a group of watercolours by the "late Mr Gully" were shown as a special exhibit. Exhibited: Fine Arts Association Wellington 1883, NZ Academy of Fine Arts 1889, Melbourne International Ex 1880-81, Centennial Ex, Melbourne 1888-89.  Paintings included in Centennial Exhibition in Wellington1940. Represented extensively in Nelson's Bishop Suter art gallery, and Gully's paintings are in most gallery and library collections throughout NZ today.

The Heaphy Lithographs

Charles Heaphy's Wellington, lithograph by Thomas Allom

International Art Centre's impending sale of "The John Leech Collection" (February 27 2013) contains a treasure trove of artworks from the stockroom of Auckland's oldest dealer gallery.  Among the lots on offer are a fine selection of early NZ prints, including lots 141-143, a set of Charles Heaphy's prints of Wellington and Nelson.  These prints feel like part of this writer's family, I have in front of me a newspaper article featuring my mother (Enid) in her late twenties where she is pictured holding one of the Heaphy lithographs of Wellington from the Alexander Turnball library (similar to the one illustrating this post) and the project that resulted in the publication of Tony Murray-Oliver's enormous book of Heaphy's watercolours loomed large in my childhood (it didn't go smoothly).  Both Don and Enid delighted in teaching us kids to spot differences both between Heaphy's original watercolours and the lithographs by Thomas Allom and the more subtle changes that occurred between editions of this set of prints.  This demonstrated to us the way the New Zealand Company sought to project a certain image of NZ to potential immigrants which we found fascinating, not viewing this embellishment as propaganda but as marketing!  So as soon as I spotted the set for sale in International Art Centre's catalogue I resolved to tell the story of this famous set of NZ prints (and for potential bidders at the sale - how to tell them apart).

Charles Heaphy

Artist - Charles Heaphy

Foremost among the surveyor-artists whom the New Zealand Company brought to New Zealand was Charles Heaphy, their draughtsman on that first voyage of the Tory. Though the details naturally differ, Heaphy's career was in many ways typical of the lives of the surveyors and artists who came to New Zealand — men of more than usual ability, drive, and foresight, who made history in their adopted country and contributed in large measure to its development and prosperity.  Heaphy came of an artistic family, and had had five years training before his appointment as artist and draughtsman — at the age of nineteen — to the New Zealand Company. After his initial landing at Wellington, Heaphy visited the Hokianga and Kaipara, and in 1840 the Chatham Islands before assisting in the first surveys of Nelson in 1841. He went back to England in November 1841, taking with him the portfolio of water-colour drawings which were to form the basis of several prints of the New Zealand Company settlements. Whilst in England he published his Narrative of a Residence in Various Parts of New Zealand.

Heaphy returned to New Zealand in 1843, and took up land near Nelson, but farming soon took second place to his passion for exploration. In February 1846, with Fox (later Sir William Fox) and a Maori guide, Kehu, he explored part way down the Buller River. The following month, with Brunner, Heaphy began a trip down the West Coast which lasted for five months, and which ranks as an epic in the history of New Zealand exploration. On his return from this expedition, Heaphy was again employed as a surveyor in Nelson until May, 1848, when Governor Grey appointed him draughtsman at the Auckland Survey Office. The next four years were spent in general survey work, but with the discovery of gold Heaphy was appointed Commissioner of the Goldfields in 1852. The next year he was appointed District Surveyor by the Auckland Provincial Council, and received promotion to Provincial Surveyor in September 1856. During the New Zealand Wars of the next decade Heaphy played a conspicuous part; a member of the Auckland Rifle Volunteers, he was commissioned as a Lieutenant and rose to the rank of Major. Heaphy won his Victoria Cross at the battle of Rangiriri, becoming the first colonial soldier and the first volunteer so honoured. After the Waikato War Heaphy's duties included a year surveying the land confiscated from the Maoris, before he was reappointed Provincial Surveyor. He now entered political life, representing Parnell (Auckland) in the House of Representatives from 1867 to 1869, and, after his retirement from the House, taking up the position of Commissioner of Native Reserves. In 1878 Heaphy was appointed a Government Insurance Commissioner and Judge of the Native Land Court, but he resigned all his positions in June 1881, and left New Zealand for retirement in Brisbane, where he died on 3rd August the same year.


The Wellington & Nelson Lithographs

Lithographer - Thomas Allom

Among the best known and most valuable New Zealand prints are the four lithographs by Thomas Allom after the watercolour drawings by Charles Heaphy. Comparison of his watercolours (now in the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington - we have some prints of Heaphy's paintings available here) with the New Zealand Company lithographs produced from them reveals several variations, the most notable being the addition of figures to the landscape. The New Zealand Company felt it necessary to show colonists actively engaged in the building of their settlements — it was feared those used to the benefits of civilisation would hesitate to come to an obviously empty country! The Heaphy lithographs appeared in several issues. Subsequent editions may have been published without intent to deceive, but the passage of time and increasing monetary value of the prints has caused them to be sold as originals, and for the purposes of this note they are termed 'redrawn'.

The most exhaustive examination of their background was published by Tony Murray-Oliver in the Turnbull Library Record, October 1971. All four views were advertised, available either tinted or coloured, as published by Smith, Elder and Company. However, they seem to have actually published only two of the four (Part of Lambton Harbour and Mount Egmont), the other two (View of a part of the town of Wellington and View of Nelson Haven) being published by Trelawny Saunders and also issued without a publication line at all, apparently from the same stones. At some later date (possibly 1891 as the fiftieth anniversary of the first edition) the pair of Wellington views and the Nelson print were redrawn and reissued. It is possible that the Egmont view was also redrawn, but no examples have been seen.  Another issue of Part of Lambton Harbour is known, published possibly about 1940 (the centenary of the Treaty of Waitangi would seem a likely occasion on which to reissue the print.) It is on modern paper, with very fresh colours, and is from the 1891 Smith Elder redrawing.  According to "Early Prints of New Zealand" in November 1970 the Alexander Turnbull Library purchased a set of the two Wellington and the Nelson view which would seem to have been a deliberate forgery. From the 1891 redrawn set, the prints are not only vividly coloured, but printed on very heavy modern paper, showing platemarks and signs of offsetting of titles — extremely unlikely on genuine lithographs, to say the least!

Whilst all these issues do not necessarily make the redrawn prints less valuable, collectors would be well advised to examine the Heaphy lithographs on offer very closely before buying from the sale at International Art Centre.

Differences between the prints
The two Wellington and the Nelson views all have several differences between original and re-drawn issues. The quickest to check are: Part of Lambton Harbour — original issue, the standing Maori at the right holds a spear with feathers near tip; redrawn version the feathers are replaced by a circle like a collar.  Part of the Town of Wellington — original issue, the house on the beach, second to the left from Willis Street, has four windows; redrawn version has only three. View of Nelson Haven — original issue has very indistinct "sunbeams"; redrawn version has marked light area.  Although obviously not the coloured prints in the upcoming auction The Part of Lambton Harbour view was also engraved, and lithographed in black and white in reduced form, for use as book illustration, (300), and in addition appeared in the Illustrated London News.

The Alexander Turnbull Library issued photolithographic reproductions of three of the original Heaphy watercolour drawings in 1963. Limited to a hand-numbered edition of 1500 sets of the two Wellington and the Nelson view, and issued at one guinea a print, the edition sold out within six weeks.  This is the set commonly known as the "Queen's Prints"; they were issued to mark the opening by H.M. the Queen of New Zealand House in London. Avon Fine Prints reproduced the lithographs, as a comparison with the Turnbull Library watercolours: the Wellington and Nelson views in 1971 in editions limited to 2000 copies, and the Egmont view in 1975 in an edition limited to 1000 copies.

Lithographic stone discovered in NZ by early surveyors

SS Waipara loading lithographic stone in Pawa Rika Harbor./Abbey Rocks. N.Z. 

Harrison & Sons, Lith. St. Martins Lane, W.C. 

159 x 213mm. Lithograph in tints (EPNZ 766). 

The scarce print shown here illustrates one of the more interesting and lesser known adventures in early New Zealand printmaking. In the 1860s the Abbey Rocks, midway between the Paringa and Moeraki Rivers on the west coast of the South Island were discovered by two surveyors (Arthur and Docherty) to be of lithographic stone.

In the mid to late 19th century there was increasing demand for printing on NZ subjects beyond simple letterpress. News of the wars fought during the 1860s was crying out for illustration. Grayling's "The War in Taranaki" is notable for this period as it was printed locally rather than published in England and contained several pages of wood engravings. 

Within a very short time, however, there was a rapid increase in the number of presses operating in New Zealand. Population growth alone demanded the ready dissemination of news, and though letterpress was still predominant the majority of the pictures drawn, engraved and printed in New Zealand were lithographs.  According to Early Prints of New Zealand "lithography was a form of reproduction more easily learned than wood or metal engraving: provided the artist remembered to reverse his subject, or used transfer paper, the process was little more difficult than drawing on paper, and the equipment necessary was less complex and expensive for the printer."

A development company was launched, and a large sum of money spent on cutting and shipping several tons of the polished stone to London. Tests carried out there threw doubts on the quality of the stone, and later experiments nearer home, in the printery of Sands & McDougall of Melbourne, proved the stone to be full of flaws. At the time (1866-67) the Melbourne International Exhibition was open and had attracted several German printers. They were shown the Abbey Rocks stone, but were not prepared to use it, and the venture failed. 

The print shows the S.S. Waipara loading stone off the Abbey Rocks. The ship herself fared no better than the enterprise she is pictured in: a West Coast trader, she ran aground ten times and was finally wrecked in 1898. The print is undated, but shows the ship as she appeared between 1867 and 1871, when a third mast was added. 

First New Zealand Print?

Recently we came across an Art New Zealand article by R.P. Hargreaves that challenged the place of surveyor Robert Park's "Village of Richmond" as being the first print to be lithographed in New Zealand.  The assertion that "Village of Richmond" was the first NZ print was originally promulgated in the groundbreaking 1978 work "Early Prints of New Zealand" by E.M. and D.G. Ellis. In the article Hargreaves mounts a convincing case for William Mein Smith's "Lambton Harbour & Mount Victoria from the Tinakore" being the first NZ print instead.

We spoke to the authors of "Early Prints of New Zealand" about this discovery.  They said that they were excited to learn about Hagreave's research as the N.Z. Gazette and Wellington Spectator (used as a source by Hargreaves) was not available to them when they were researching the book in the mid-1970s.  They were reluctant to say however that this would be the last word on the issue of the first New Zealand lithograph printed in New Zealand because earlier lithographs could still possibly come to light - or prints could have been made in NZ pre-dating Mein Smith's Wellington view and simply lost to posterity some time over the last 170 years.

Shown here is the print "Lambton Harbour and Mount Victoria from the Tinakore [sic]" - this image is from the Hocken Library collection where the only known copy of this print resides.

What is an original print?

I have been having an interesting discussion with Tony Ogle and Brad Novak about how we can best explain the differences between original prints like screenprints and reproduction prints. They have come up with some suggested additions to our FAQ.

What is an original print?
Original prints encompass different media such as screen prints, lithographs, etchings, woodcuts, linocuts and monoprints. Within an edition, each print is individually pulled from a screen, plate, or block. Generally created as limited editions of archival quality, and because of the skill and effort required to produce them, original prints potentially have a high investment value.

What is the difference between a giclee print and an original print?
Giclee prints are created using the Giclee printing process which uses a very sophisticated digital printer to deliver a fine stream of ink onto archival paper. Original prints differ, encompassing several media such as screen prints, lithographs and etchings (amongst others). Each print is individually pulled from a screen, plate, or block to create limited editions of archival quality.

How is an original print produced?
Original prints are produced in many different ways, generally as limited editions. The main techniques include screen printing and lithography. Each print is individually pulled from a screen, plate, or block. Their creation involves the mastery of a printing press with the artist often solely or heavily involved in the process.