Within Australia
All orders ship freewithin Australia
Rest of the World
Orders over A$300
ship free worldwide
C1847
Pictorial Illustrations of New Zealand
Fine colonial engraved title page for Bree’s, Pictorial Illustrations of New Zealand, published London, 1847, showing Brees sketching a Maori family, with his theodolite next to him, his dog and several other surveyors in a camp in a clearing in … Read Full Description
$A 275
Free Shipping
See Shipping page for Terms & Conditions
Details
Full Title:
Pictorial Illustrations of New Zealand
Date:
C1847
Condition:
In good condition.
Technique:
Hand coloured engraving.
Image Size:
205mm
x 295mm
Paper Size:
272mm
x 367mm
AUTHENTICITY
Genuine antique
dated:
1847
Description:
Fine colonial engraved title page for Bree’s, Pictorial Illustrations of New Zealand, published London, 1847, showing Brees sketching a Maori family, with his theodolite next to him, his dog and several other surveyors in a camp in a clearing in Porirua Bush. Below the main image is a vignette of the Hutt River, with Molesworth’s farm and windmill. Molesworth and Ludlam’s windmill was not built until 1845, Brees’ last year in Wellington.
Collections:
Alexander Turnbull Library: Ref PUBL-0020-01
Samuel Charles Brees (1809 - 1865)
Samuel Brees arrived in Wellington in 1842 to fill the position of surveyor and civil engineer for the New Zealand Company. During his time in Wellington he was responsible for continuing the work of his predecessor, William Mein Smith, surveying the Karori Road and the hills surrounding Wellington Harbour. He oversaw the completion of the initial Wanganui and Manawatu surveys. In 1843 he led an exploratory journey to the southern Wairarapa through Upper Hutt and the Rimutaka range, and prepared the preliminary subdivisions of these areas. By August 1844, six months before Brees’s contract was due to expire, the New Zealand Company was in financial difficulties and was no longer able to pay him. Throughout his period as principal surveyor he had given as much of his spare time as possible to his favourite leisure activity of recording his surroundings in pencil and watercolour. The ending of his employment freed him to devote more time to painting, while he settled his affairs and arranged for his family’s return passage to England. He had produced a substantial portfolio of views of all the areas he had visited, particularly scenes in and around Wellington. These works would normally have become the property of the New Zealand Company, but the company waived its claim to them in the expectation that Brees would publish the sketches and be somewhat compensated for the loss of income he had suffered through the early termination of his contract. On 8 May 1845 Brees, with his wife, now four children, and a servant, sailed on the brig Caledonia for London. His drawings were superbly engraved by Henry Melville in London and remain an important record of early Colonial settlement in New Zealand.
