Large group of men photographed outdoors on New Year’s Day, 1874. Possibly Sandhurst (Bendigo) area, Victorian goldfields.

A$120 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Very large format albumen print photograph, 215 x 270 mm; dated in manuscript in negative lower left 1 Jan 1874 ; the verso has a contemporary inscription in pencil No. 1 and a straight-line wet stamp in green ink whose lettering is unfortunately indecipherable; the print has three vertical folds, with a short tear at the bottom edge of the central fold; the photograph is preserved in the previous owner s archival mat, on which she wrote in pencil Nicholas Caire mount presumably, this is a reference to the remnants of a mount that must have perished. The scrubby, scarred landscape certainly makes it possible that this fabulous outdoor group portrait was taken somewhere on the Central Goldfields. Nicholas Caire was living and working in Sandhurst (Bendigo) at this time. There was a surprisingly large number of social events held in Bendigo on New Year s Day, 1874 in fact, if truth be told, there was probably more entertainment on offer than there would be today. We believe the men in our photograph could have been attending the Oddfellows Picnic on the Campaspe River near Runnymede, to the northeast of Bendigo. A clue to their identity, though, might be found in the presence of the distinguished Indian gentleman who is prominent in the centre of the back row. On that morning 1 January 1874 a journalist in the Bendigo Advertiser gave a summary of all the local events that would take place in the day and evening: ODDFELLOWS PICNIC. The Oddfellows hold their annual picnic today,

• Binding: Hardcover

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