Stereoscopic view of Castlemaine, Victorian goldfields, circa 1862.

A$950 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Stereoscopic albumen print photograph, each individual image 74 x 73 mm (arched-top format), on original card mount 83 x 175 mm; recto of mount imprinted Jones s Photographs of Australian Sceneries , and with contemporary manuscript caption in ink to bottom margin: Castlemaine ; verso with pencilled name of the original owner McMillan ; both prints are in good condition; the mount has some minor silverfishing at right edge and toning on the verso. An early bird s-eye photographic view of one of the most prosperous of the Victorian goldfields townships, looking across from the eastern hill, with the iron and brass foundry of Vivian Co. in the the middle ground on the left. This early stereoscopic photograph of Castlemaine forms part of a larger series of views taken by travelling photographer John H. Jones, prior to September 1862 (see below). They document some of the recently completed major engineering projects associated with the construction of the Melbourne to Bendigo railway line, which was officially opened at Bendigo on 20 October 1862 by the Governor of Victoria, Sir Henry Barkly. The images are reproduced in the Bendigo Art Gallery s 2013 exhibition catalogue of Jones stereoscopic views, Her Majesty s Territories: Stereographic Views of Australian Sceneries (essay by Alva Maguire). Although the biographical information we have for John H. Jones (1817?-1872) is only sketchy, newspaper advertisements and articles from late 1862 and 1863 give a very clear idea of his m

• Binding: Hardcover

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