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Twenty four members of the Gold Coast Calligraphers Society visited Level 4 during September to view special collections where calligraphy, illumination and decoration have been used to support printed text.
The History and Art of the Book collection, one of the component collections of the Australian Library of Art has fine examples of original illuminations and facsimile editions of illuminated manuscripts from medieval times to the present.
Popular with all the members was Henry Shaw’s “Illuminated ornaments selected from manuscripts and early printed books from...the sixth to seventeenth centuries” 1833
Of the many items on display, it was the three manuscripts with illuminations by Gordon Dalrymple Nicol that received the most admiration. The three volumes which illustrate Australian poetry are Song of the wheat (1925) by A.B. Paterson, Darrell (1925) by Will H. Ogilvie and Kiss in the ring (1924) by Henry Lawson.
Little is known of Nicol, who was born in New Zealand and studied at the Christchurch School of Art. An inscription in Kiss in the ring states:-
This book, written out and illuminated by me, Gordon Dalrymple Nicol, of Sydney, N.S.W. for Angus and Robertson Ltd. was finished on the twenty second day of August Anno Domini 1924' -- Colophon
To view the three manuscripts, State Library requests 24 hours notice to arrange an appointment in the reading room.
See below some more works through Onesearch.
Ghazals : Persian love lyrics /
The Flemish book of hours of Marie de Medici.
<Gutenberg bible>
Australian Library of Art (142)Visitors (23)Research (104)History and Art of the Book Collection (9)Illumination (1)Calligraphy (1)
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