The Oriental Bank, corner of Queen Street and Flinders Lane, Melbourne, c.1864.

A$300 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Stereoscopic albumen print photograph, each individual image 74 x 72 mm (arch-top format), on pale yellow board mount 82 x 171 mm; verso with printed label worded A. Morris Co. s Stereoscopic Views of Victoria. Oriental Bank [in ms.] Melbourne , and with the firm s address 56 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne at lower right; both prints are in fine condition, as is the mount. A wonderful early view of the Oriental Bank, which stood on the southwest corner of Queen Street and Flinders Lane. This extraordinary Greek temple-style building was designed by Robertson and Hale and was completed in 1856. It was photographed in 1858 by Daintree and Fauchery; this stereoscopic view by Alfred Morris was taken some six years later, but from virtually the same spot as the Daintree/Fauchery image, near the northeast corner of the intersection. The building was vacated by the Oriental Bank at the start of the 1880s, and was demolished in 1889. We have not been able to trace another example of this Morris Co. view, which we believe is almost certainly the second oldest photograph of the Oriental Bank extant. The dates given by Davies Stanbury ( The Mechanical Eye in Australia ) for Alfred Morris s career as a photographic artist in Melbourne 56 Elizabeth Street, c.1870 are wildly inaccurate. In fact, from Morris Co. s advertisements in The Argus , we know that the firm s studio moved a short distance from 60 Elizabeth Street to premises two doors away at 56, at some point between January and April

• Binding: Hardcover

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