Illuminated
books, albums and addresses
T H O M A S G R AY Gray’s elegy 1846
illuminated by Owen Jones hand-coloured
lithograph on paper in moulded calf leather binding
in slipcase
Illuminated: books, albums and addresses explores
the relationship between text and decoration from
the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The State
Library of Queensland holds only a few books that are
strictly speaking illuminated – hand painted in rich colours
and using burnished metals – three books illustrated by
Gordon Dalrymple Nichol being the premier examples. The
State Library holds a fine collection of books representing
the renaissance of this craft in England during Queen
Victoria’s reign, illuminated by the chromolithographic
printing process and published in the mid-late nineteenth
century. During the same period, in Queensland, several
publishing houses embraced the fashion for highly
decorated items, and a number of illuminated addresses
were produced and given to significant people in
recognition of their services.
While the art of decorating the written word can be
traced to antiquity,1 it was in the twelfth century that the
word ‘illuminator’ was first used to describe an artist who
employed bright colours and precious metals to ‘light up’
a page of a book.2 This highly ornate and delicate art form
reached its zenith in the fifteenth century when books were
illuminated with miniature paintings embellished with fine
lacework. Being labour and time intensive, and expensive
to produce, illuminated books were reserved for significant
works: Latin texts from antiquity and the Bible were
common sources for illumination. The Bible and many
books with biblical references, such as psalters, books of
hours, and prayer books, gave the artist a strong narrative
to illustrate and embellish. The seventh century Book of
Kells and Très riches Heures du Duc de Berry 1410 are the
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A B PAT E R S O N Song of the wheat 1924, H E N R Y L AW S O N
Kiss in the ring 1924, W I L L H O G I LV I E Darrell 1925
hand illuminated by Gordon Dalrymple Nicol
gouache and watercolour with gold leaf on paper, green moire
endpapers, in gold-embossed leather binding
finest examples of illumination known and have strongly
influenced this art form.
With the development of printing in the mid-fifteenth
century, artists became less involved with the production
of unique imagery for each book. Instead, they worked to
create illustrations for woodblock prints and engravings
used in mass-produced volumes. While the fashion for
illuminated book production has since diminished, the style
remains fascinating and recurs in different forms, and
artists may still be found who practise a modified form of
the art. Today, the term ‘illumination’ is used to describe
illustration and decoration in manuscripts, whether or not
gold is used.
Gordon Dalrymple Nicol turned his skills in illumination
to stories and poems written by Australian authors,
giving an antipodean twist to the Arts and Crafts style.
Nicol’s vibrant colours, use of burnished gold and
delicate patterning reflect the richness of fifteenth century
manuscripts. The three volumes in the State Library
collection were completed in 1924-25: Kiss in the ring by
Henry Lawson (1867-1922), Darrell by Will H Ogilvie (18691963) and Song of the wheat by AB Paterson (1864-1941).
Little is known of Nicol, who was born in New Zealand and
studied at the Christchurch School of Art.3 These three
books were completed at Bondi, Sydney. Two were created
for Angus and Robertson, and the last was self-published.
Gray’s elegy 1846, illuminated by Owen Jones (18091874) exemplifies the style and approach taken by artists
of the British Arts and Crafts movement. Critic John Ruskin
(1819-1900) was spokesman and advocate for the
movement which sought to revive a craft aesthetic that
Bible Song of songs which is Solomon’s 1849
illuminated by Owen Jones
London: Longman and Co., 1849
chromolithograph and gilt on paper in embossed leather cover
BARON GEORGE GORDON BYRON ( LORD BYRON )
The prisoner of Chillon 1865
illuminated by W and G Audsley; lithographer WR Tymms
chromolithograph and gilt on paper in cloth over board binding
with embossing, paint and gilt
celebrated artisan skills, in contrast to the tedious labour
associated with the industrial revolution, but also to bring
richness into ordinary people’s lives. Recognising that
machine production could increase access to de luxe
commodities through increasing production numbers,
the movement exploited the efficiency of the machine to
produce such objects in combination with the skill of the
craftsman. Gray’s elegy is a superb example of this idea
in concrete form. It contains both printed text and hand
coloured illustrations on vellum (calfskin), the traditional
support material for illuminated manuscripts.
Parables of Our Lord 1847 was the first in a series
of printed illuminated books by artist, numismatist and
naturalist H Noel Humphreys (1810-1879). Humphreys,
Jones and the lesser known W and G Audsley and WR
Tymms, printed their books entirely using chromolithography, the first printing process to create multicoloured prints. While less painstaking than hand colouring
– which it replaced – chromolithography still required
separate stones or plates for each colour, often in excess
of 20 stones for each image. Humphreys was influenced
by his study of medieval manuscripts in Italy, but equally
his fascination for the natural world can be seen in the
lush borders based on organic, botanical forms.
W and G Audsley and WR Tymms advocated for
chromolithography through the weekly journal The
Chromolithograph. Their monthly educational articles were
interspersed with enthusiasm for the process and retorts
to its critics: ‘It has been for a considerable time rather the
fashion to decry the art of Chromolithography, and to assert
that it can at the best render but a faulty and feeble
24/25 Illuminated: books albums and addresses
representation of highly executed water-colour drawings.
That this is a fallacy is becoming daily more apparent’.4 Their
chromolithographic illumination of Byron’s The prisoner of
Chillon 1865 would appear to endorse their convictions,
being richly patterned and exquisitely printed.
Humphreys was aware of the criticism the new printed
illumination faced, but recommended ‘…with the aid of
assiduous application, the illuminator may lift his art to the
high position which legitimately belongs to it; but which the
poor productions of the last century and a half have tended
so greatly to lower; reducing that which should be an
exquisite art, to a routine of the most vulgar mechanism’.5
The John Oxley Library has a superb collection of
original illuminated albums and addresses created
specifically to mark an event or celebrate a person’s
achievements. The design and production of these
addresses ranges from the discrete, such as the address
given to Mrs Adolphus Hertzberg on the death of her
husband in 1917, to the spectacular, such as that given to
Frederick Philip Parkinson, Esq. on his retirement from the
goldfields in 1905. Presented in a velvet lined cedar box,
a marble, silver, gold and leather album cover protects an
elaborately painted Owen Jones inspired address,
completed with vignettes from the goldfields.
The personalisation of illuminated albums and
addresses was a major consideration, demonstrating the
care and research undertaken by those who were
presenting it as a gift. Commissions would often incorporate
biographical elements into the design, foreshadowing the
albums that would be used in the television program ‘This
is your life’. The address for the Honorable EJ Stevens,
Illuminated album presented to Frederick Philip
Parkinson, Esq. April 1897
ink, watercolour and gilding on paper on card, in gilded,
stamped, leather-bound, marble-inset album with gold
and silver embellishment, in velvet-lined cedar box
H N O E L ( H E N R Y N O E L ) H U M P H R E Y S The art of illumination
and missal painting: a guide to modern illuminators 1849
chromolithograph and gilt on paper in embossed leather binding
with decorative paper inset (detail p. 20)
MLC ‘The Father of Amateur Sport in Queensland’ by the
Sporting Bodies of Queensland in 1917 shows vignettes of
sporting activities and equipment that Stevens would have
encouraged, if not pioneered, in Queensland.
Historically significant items include the address given
to Charles Lilley (1827-1897), MLA, and State Captain of
the Spring Hill and Fortitude Valley Volunteer Rifle Corps on
his resignation from the Corps. Dated 1868, it has a handcoloured photograph of the Rifle Corps, providing a rare
glimpse into Brisbane and the early use of photography in
the colony. Lilley went on to become a Supreme Court
Judge in Brisbane, as reflected in the illuminated address
presented to him in 1874.
To mark his return to Germany as Commissioner of
the Queensland Government in 1905, Johann Christian
Heussler (1820-1907) was presented with an album
containing watercolour sketches and photographs depicting
scenes of Queensland. This leather-bound album celebrates
the European-Australian connection: it is decorated with the
German crest as a central medallion, and four silver corner
pieces feature the English, Dutch, Australian and German
coats of arms. The album contains 80 photographs and five
watercolour sketches by Brisbane artist LWK Wirth. The
first painting contains a dedication to Heussler and a small
portrait of Queen Victoria. Each page of the album has been
illustrated with botanical motifs surrounding the photographs
and captions in German.
In Queensland several publishing firms adopted the
chromolithograph process, often combining it with hand
embellishment by artists to create rich and colourful
addresses. Watson and Ferguson were one of the more
26/27 Illuminated: books albums and addresses
Illuminated album presented to Charles Lilley, MLA, State Captain of
the Spring Hill and Fortitude Valley Volunteer Rifle Corps June 1868
hand-coloured sepia photograph, ink, gouache and watercolour on
paper in leather-bound, gold-embossed folder
popular publishers and their work can be seen in Sir John
Goodwin’s (1871-1960) addresses among others.6 The
Brethren of The United Grand Lodge of Antient (sic) Free
and Accepted Masons of Queensland presented an
address to Goodwin in an ornate wooden box with a silver
medallion to mark his departure from Queensland. The
album contains several pages of elaborate hand illumination,
and photographs of Brisbane’s Freemason temple and of
Goodwin’s contemporaries, along with their signatures.
Illuminated: books, albums and addresses provides
a glimpse into the treasures to be found in the John Oxley
Library and the Australian Library of Art. These brilliantly
coloured and elaborate works reflect the vogue for highly
decorative elaborate design that was prevalent in the late
Victorian age. The exhibition also demonstrates that
manuscripts of historic significance are often extremely
beautiful, displaying their importance as cultural objects and
revealing the artistic and technological fashions of the day.
1. The Musée du Louvre, Paris holds an Egyptian papyrus containing paintings of funeral
ceremonies executed in bright colours with gold highlights.
2. Bradley, J 1996, Illuminated manuscripts (1904), Random House, London, p. 3.
3. National Library of Australia online catalogue <http://www.nla.gov.au/catalogue>.
4. Audsley W and G and Tymms WR 1867, The Chromolithograph, Volume 1, Dec. 28,
p. 91. The Chromolithograph was published in London by Zorn and Company. It gave
the reader a chance to experience a high quality art journal, as well as understand the
new colour lithography in theory and practice.
5. Humphries, HN 1849, The art of illumination and missal painting: a guide to modern
illuminators, HG Bohn, Covent Garden, London, p. 64.
6. Watson and Ferguson remain book publishers in Moorooka, Brisbane.
Illuminated: books, albums and addresses on display
24 March – 8 July 2007
Illuminated album presented to J C Heussler 11 March 1905
photographs and watercolour on paper in leather-bound album
with silver medallion
Illuminated album presented to Adolphus Marcus
Hertzberg, Esq. 2 June 1886
gouache, ink, watercolour, silver and gold on paper in
leather-bound, gold-embossed album
Illuminated album presented to Sir John Goodwin
ACC 23 March 1932
watercolour and gouache on card with gilding in
leather-bound, gold-embossed album in wooden
box with silver medallion