Exhibition | East of India: Forgotten Trade with Australia
From the Australian National Maritime Museum:
East of India: Forgotten Trade with Australia
Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney, 1 June — 18 August 2013
East of India tracks Australia’s colonial links with India, the power and monopoly of the English East India Company, and its inevitable decline.
It’s a tale of ships and shipwrecks, rice and rum, officers and officials, sailors, soldiers and servants – taking us from the old allure of Asia to modern-day ties between India and Australia.
The exhibition includes over 300 objects including coins, artwork, sculpture, maps, weaponry, ceramics, textiles and clothing from more than 15 local and international lending institutions will feature in the exhibition. Rarely seen artefacts include the bejewelled sword that belonged to the Indian leader Tipu Sultan, killed by East India Company forces at the battle of Seringapatam in 1799, and Indian cargo from the ship Sydney Cove wrecked en route to Australia in 1797.
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From the posting, “Bombay and Calcutta in Sydney” at The British Library’s Asian and African Studies Blog (22 May 2013) . . .
George Lambert and Samuel Scott, Fort William, Calcutta, ca.1731 (London: British Library, Reference: F45)
In 1732 the East India Company commissioned six seascapes of their main trading posts, which were displayed in the Director’s Courtroom of East India House in London. The resulting six paintings showed the East India Company’s trading posts at Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Tellicherry, the Cape of Good Hope and St Helena. They conjured up the spread of imperial power inside a single room in the City of London. All six of the paintings were by George Lambert (1710-1765), and Samuel Scott (1701/2-1772). . .
281 years after they were commissioned, Lambert and Scott’s seascapes of Bombay and Calcutta have been sent to Australia’s National Maritime Museum in Sydney, where they are being exhibited in East of India: Forgotten Trade with Australia. Their inclusion in this international exhibition is incredibly significant. They were painted to symbolise the world beyond London, and centuries later, they have been sent from London to another part of the world. . .
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The Charlotte Medal, silver, 1788 (Australian National Maritime Museum, photograph by Andrew Frolows, ANMM)
The exhibition blog is available here»
More images are available here»
Additional information is available from an article in the Indian Herald here»
Conference | Lost Mansions and Country Estates
From the conference programme:
Lost Mansions and Country Estates
Wivenhoe House, University of Essex, Colchester, 13 July 2013
Marks Hall, Coggeshall, Essex, engraving by John Carr Armytage, 1833. The house was destroyed in 1950; the site is now an archeological excavation.
The conference will offer a broad historical context for the destruction of great houses in modern Britain, asking questions about the causes of their loss, the representation of lost mansions and estates at the time of their disappearance, and contemporary resurgent interest in the ‘great estate’. At issue will be the nature of ‘heritage’, the relevance of conservation, and our understanding of proprietorship and estate management in times of social, political and economic transformation. What was the place of the great house in local society, politics and economy, and how does this relate to the popular romanticisation of the great house from Brideshead to Downton?
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P A R T 1 — Wivenhoe House, University of Essex, Colchester
10:30 Registration and welcome over coffee (James Raven)
10:45 Session 1: Irish Mansions
• Terry Dooley (National University of Ireland, Maynooth): ‘The Disappearance of Irish Country Mansions, 1879-2013.’
• Ian d’Alton (Co. Kildare, Ireland): ‘An Aesthetic of Living: Bowen’s Court, Co Cork, and Its Significance in the Imagining of the Irish Gentry’
11:45 Session 2: Rescue and Ruin
• Christopher Ridgway (Castle Howard Estate, Yorkshire): ‘Castle Howard: Lost and Saved’
• Michael Davis (West of Scotland): ‘Better Off As Ruins? The Scottish Castle Restoration Debate’
12:45 Lunch
13:15 Session 3: The Country Estate and General Loss
• Jon Stobart (University of Northampton): ‘Lost Aspects of the Country Estate’
• Barbara Wood (National Trust, South West Region): ‘The Loss of Country Houses and Estates through the Destruction and Obscuring of Identity’
• John Harris (1975 exhibition organiser, London): ‘Empty Country Houses and the Destruction Exhibition in 1975’
W.M. Roberts will sign copies of his book Lost Country Houses of Suffolk during the registration and lunch periods.
P A R T 2 — Marks Hall, Coggeshall
14:45 Coaches to Marks Hall (assemble outside the main entrance to Wivenhoe House)
15:15 Tea at Marks Hall Visitor Centre
15:30 James Raven (University of Essex): ‘The Lost Mansion of Marks Hall’
16:00 Tour of the Marks Hall mansion site and estate
17:00 Discussion at Marks Hall Visitor Centre
18:00 Coaches back to University
Registration: Karen Shields, ‘International History Conference: Lost Mansions and Country Estates’, Departmental Administrator, Department of History, Room 5NW.7.20, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, Essex, CO4 3SQ. Cheques payable to ‘The University of Essex’. £25; £15 for student concessions.
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