S. C. BREES, ARTIST AND SURVEYOR

Turnbull Library Record, Volume I, Issue 4, 1 November 1968, Page 36

S. C. BREES, ARTIST AND SURVEYOR

A.G.B.

A. A. St C. M. Murray-Oliver

Heather M. Curnow

A. A. St C. M. Murray-Oliver

I AN HISTORICAL RECONNAISSANCE

Reproductions of the Melville engravings of early Wellington from the sketches of Samuel Charles Brees have long been familiar to the most casual student of early Wellington. The publication of the Avon Fine Prints reproduction of the Library’s hand-coloured copy of S. C. Brees’s Pictorial Illustrations of New Zealand 1 seems an appropriate occasion for a more careful examination of the background to Brees’s work, and the book itself and its various issues as well as the sequel, the Guide and description of the Panorama of New Zealand. One can only as yet say hopefully ‘more careful’, for, apart from limitations of time and domicile, there are still many basic facts which are unknown to us. One feels that there must still be letters and sketches - to fill out the small groups of originals obtained by the Library some sixteen years ago. We know that Brees’s diaries unfortunately were destroyed many years ago on the express wish of his niece.

Our sources for the three-and-a-quarter years - February 1842 until May 1845 - which he spent here are in the main the Pictorial Illustrations . . . themselves, the New Zealand Company records of his service and official correspondence in the National Archives 2 in original or on microfilm, and lastly his very rare, almost nostalgically presented epitaph to his antipodean experiences A key to the Colonies published in 1851. To these we can add only scattered references in the Wellington newspapers and the still more infrequent comments in the letters and journals of contemporaries. And when all this has been examined we have to admit that Brees the man still eludes us. Why a seemingly successful railway engineer at a period when railway development in England was at its height should have elected to have come to New Zealand - with wife, three children and servant is more difficult to answer than to explain why with wife, four children and servant he should have returned. The expiration of the contract, curiosity about the Company’s fairest hope satisfied, frustration or disappointment - we traverse some of the evidence for all these, but without certitude.

What we know of his early life before his migration to New Zealand at the age of 31 is based almost wholly on inference from his testimonials. At the moment we cannot be more specific about his family and education than to repeat the fact from earlier chroniclers that he was born in the United Kingdom in 1810. Appended to the eight testimonials 3 submitted in support of his application to the Company on 20 February 1841, is a record of the award of a Gold Medallion of the Society of Arts in 1829-30 ‘For an original design for a village church . . .’ And from the probability that this interest would be

followed by his period of architectural apprenticeship M. H. E. Kendall, architect of Suffolk Street, London, wrote under date 19 February 1841 that he had known Brees ‘for many years, he having been in my employment, during which time I found him most active, industrious and intelligent on all professional matters’. George W. Buck, Principal Engineer of the Manchester and Birmingham Railway, wrote that he had known Brees ‘for the last seven years, during which time he has been extensively concerned in surveying for some of the principal Railways in England . . The reference which headed the list was that from the famous engineer Robert Stephenson who stated that Brees worked for him for two years ‘getting up nearly the whole of the Plans of the London and Birmingham Railway’. He had every reason to be satisfied with Brees’s talent, assiduity and conduct. Stephenson had a high opinion of his architectural abilities. If therefore we deduce that his seven years as a railway surveyor began in 1834 he was not long in embodying his talents and experience in technical monographs for in 1837 he published his Railway practice. A collection of working plans and practical details of construction . . . Two years later he published an Appendix and in 1840 a Second series of railway practice. His sudden abandonment of this interest for an ‘in charge’ position in a distant country where any possibility of railway construction was infinitely remote is the more difficult to understand.

Although his application was dated in February it was not until September that he was recommended for appointment by the Land Committee of the Company. The latter considered that ‘his professional attainments are in the opinion of the Committee greatly superior to those of the other Candidates, as evidenced by the Testimonials submitted to the Committee: and secondly, it will be recollected by the Court that several Directors had opportunities at the time of the appointments which took place on the Nelson staff of becoming acquainted with Mr Brees character, and of judging of his efficiency for the office for which they have recommended him and they are of opinion that his appointment will be found to conduce to the interests of the Company .. .’ 4 It would appear from this that he may have been considered or at least encouraged to consider an earlier appointment to the Nelson settlement survey staff.

His conditions of employment were covered by a three-page contract. His appointment was for a period of three years at a salary of jf6oo per annum, to which was added an initial outfit allowance of -£l5O and jTso for ‘his superintendence and assistance in the instruction of the... [survey] cadets’ during the voyage. All maps, plans, drawings, sketches and draughts made by him were to be regarded as Company property. 5 Brees left on the Brougham in October 1841 with the cadets and sur-

veyors who were his special responsibility during the voyage. These included H. S. Tiffen, A. Whitehead and Edward Jollie. Captain Mein Smith, his predecessor, was away when the vessel arrived the following February. 6 Brees deferred field work until Smith’s return but was not on duty until 22 February, nearly a fortnight after disembarkation. In April he visited the Manawatu and Wanganui districts. During the winter, work continued on the Karori road which he inspected regularly. He was also active in exploring the present Ngaio GorgeOnslow Road areas for alternative routes to the Kaiwharawhara hill track to Porirua.

In February 1843 he reported to the Principal Agent on an exploratory journey up the Pakuratahi river and over the Rimutaka Range to the Wairarapa some two miles south of Kettle’s route. 7 Much of the year was spent in work between Wellington Harbour and the Wairarapa, including the location of the road as far as the Mungaroa valley. He estimated that a road could be made to the Wairarapa for In August he completed and sent to Wakefield a detailed map of Wellington and the fringe of the Wairarapa. 8 His sectional subdivision of the town and country districts is the basis of the land registration subdivision for title purposes today. In June 1844 he reported that nearly all the valleys on the eastern side had been surveyed where, in an extensive subdivision from the Wainuiomata to the head of the Orongorongo, 152 sections were cut off on paper. Most of the field work was done by Messrs Whitehead, Wills, Tully and Jollie under Brees’s general direction. In January 1845 he suggested to Wakefield that before he left for England an exploration of the Wairarapa should be made to determine the quantity and quality of the land and the best site for an inland town.

Brees does not seem to have been popular with his immediate associates. Samuel Revans, a great friend of Mein Smith’s described him: . . as vulgar as any labourer - it is generally said no Surveyor - it is said he has declared he will do as little work as he can, and is bad tempered and hated by all who are about him. He and the Colonel quarrel famously and the Colonel cannot bear to come in contact with the man. The Colonel now regrets the loss of Smith and speaks as favourably of him as one man can of another. Even the few who could not appreciate the difficulties Smith had to contend with, are now aware of them. - Say they always had a kind hearted industrious gentleman to deal with - and wonder how he always kept his temper . . ,’ 9 Edward Jollie in his reminiscences states that Brees was neither loved nor respected by any of the staff and . . . ‘Colonel Wakefield had also a very poor opinion of him and took every opportunity to snub him . . .’ 10

The position of Chief Surveyor in the unexpected dilemma of satisfying absentee owners and clamant emigrants from the restricted and disputed acres of Colonel Wakefield’s purchase would have been no sinecure. It is not therefore surprising that his temper and patience failed him on occasions. But the records of his labours qualify any inference that he was lazy. > In August 1844 the Company’s operations in New Zealand appear to have been suspended or severely cut back and Colonel Wakefield was unable to continue payment to him for the full three years ending February 1845 in accordance with the Agreement. In view of the Revans comment quoted earlier the ensuing negotiations with the Principal Agent may have been difficult; they were certainly protracted, but as will be seen, were eased by the Colonel’s recommendation to the Court of Directors to waive all claims on Brces’s sketches.

As was to be expected he had apparently made good use of his time, even when fully employed, in recording his impressions of New Zealand. In accordance with the sixth clause of his agreement all his sketches were the property of the Company and Wakefield had already sent some home to the Court of Directors. He set the situation out fully in a despatch which would doubtless have travelled home on the same vessel as Brees himself: ‘Mr Brees, the Company’s late Principal Surveyor in this settlement, having, during the last year of his engagement had much leisure time in consequence of the completion of the work in the surveyed districts, employed it in executing various drawings and sketches in this neighbourhood of a similar description to those I forwarded from him to the Court of Directors last year. ‘According to a clause in the agreement ... all such performances belong to the . . . [Company]; but, upon my coming to a settlement of accounts with Mr Brees and in consideration of my inability to discharge the balance of salary due to him otherwise than by the orders of which I send you copies under cover of my letter of the 30th April, Wellington No. 18/45, by which circumstance he may have suffered some inconvenience, I allowed him, at his request, to retain these drawings in order that he might deliver them personally to the Directors, with which he begged me to acquaint them.’ . . . u

Coincidentally two days later a note in the New Zealand Spectator drew attention to the ‘portfolio’' and acknowledged the'favour of ‘examining the series of drawings he has prepared of Port Nicholson and the adjoining districts . . . These sketches are remarkable for their correctness and truth to nature, and the subjects are happily selected. From them our absent friends will be able to form a more just conception of the settlement and the march of improvement... We hope Mr Brees, on his return to England, may be induced to publish them in a serial work, which we think from the interest of the subject would

take a high rank among productions of this kind. His panorama of Wellington, including the harbour and surrounding district, we recommend to Mr Barker 12 as likely to prove most attractive.’ 13 And the normally far from uncritical H. S. Chapman wrote to his father ‘Brees the late surveyor will call on you and show you his drawings’ - (Brees and Chapman were Karori neighbours although Brees seems normally to have lived in his Hawkestone Street house) - and Chapman writing eight months later about his own sketches said ‘ln the meantime get a sight of Brees’s sketches.’ 14

In preparation for his departure he had advertised the sale of his much loved and painted cottage for six weeks before presumably concluding some arrangement. ‘House to be sold cheap, situate in Hawkestone Street, and now in the occupation of Mr S. C. Brees, containing 4 rooms, and loft above, standing upon one acre of excellent garden ground, leased at .£l2 per annum . . ,’ 15 ‘Mr and Mrs Brees, four children and servant’ finally sailed on the brig Caledonia for London on 8 May. 16 Francis Bradey the industrious gardener-capitalist-diarist went down to farewell him. In expectation of his own return he told Brees that they would meet in London in six months but Brees retorted, referring to the nascent Maori troubles in the Hutt Valley, that ‘we should all be eat before that time.’ 17 It is hard to feel that, in view of his difficulties with his Company colleagues, he was as reluctant to depart as he later claimed in the Pictorial Illustrations .. . although there is more than a touch of nostalgia in his New Zealand comments and advertisements in A key to the Colonies six years later. In this same work he printed also the testimonials to him on his departure, under the impressive heading ‘Complimentary letters received when Mr Brees left New Zealand in 1845’. There were only two, one from Major Richmond, Superintendent of the Southern District and the other from the Church of England clergyman the Reverend Richard Cole. 18 Settlers as well as fellow officers of the Company were silent.

The Caledonia's passengers were safely in London at the end of September or early October. However it was not until early December that Brees waited upon the Directors when a minute recorded: \ . . Mr Brees, late Principal Surveyor was introduced and exhibited the Drawings and sketches alluded to in Colonel Wakefield’s Despatch ... and his own letter of 3rd November .. . and was informed that the Directors consider the Company to have no claim to those executed since Mr Brees left its service; that they relinquish its claim to the others; and that they will be happy to see them conduce to the advantage of Mr Brees by being published.’ l9 One would like to know what was understood by ‘the others’. Did these include not merely those which he brought to England with him

but the first lot sent over by Wakefield? Some light is thrown on this situation by Brees’s own letter of 3 November in which he said: ‘. . . I retained my Private drawings when I left the colony just as every surveyor has done [with] drawings made in stolen moments. I told Colonel Wakefield that if the Court wished I certainly should be proud of the honor of laying them before the Court but... they are principally duplicates of those formerly sent home with a few unfinished additional. I employed my time from the 9th Febry. until I obtained a settlement with Col. Wakefield in sketching and although these sketches are said to be valuable, yet the loss of time to me was immense. I estimate that -£5,000 would no more than pay me for this detention, incredible as it may appear - such has been the demand for Civil Engineers at home . . .’ 20 The statement there that in effect at least two sets of drawings were prepared was an exciting discovery. Today the very incomplete group of originals in the Library, discussed later in Part 111 of this paper, is the only known major collection.

The question of title having been settled, Brees could go ahead and plan his work although to his cost his claims against the Company were still unsettled and apparently were outstanding throughout 1846. Finally on 14 November he attended a special Committee meeting 21 at which it was decided to allow him pay and allowances for the full period mentioned in his letter, presumably until May 1845, but neither his bonus nor his solicitor’s fees, which had been earlier granted. 22 The first reference to his publication was at a meeting of the Court of 5 March 1846 when ‘A Proof being submitted of Views in New Zealand, about to be published by Mr Brees, two copies were directed to be purchased.’ 23 Progress from this point would appear to have been slow. The Illustrated London News in January 1847 featured engravings of three sketches and said ‘. . . These three views are from the pencil of Mr S. C. Brees (now of Lincoln’s Inn Fields) who was the Principal Surveyor and Civil Engineer to the New Zealand Company ... he has collected a large number of Sketches, which are preparing for publication . . ,’ 24

The actual date of publication would appear to have been late August or early September 1847. The Illustrated London News again, on 11 September reproduced two Brees sketches stating that Brees *. . . has just published a beautiful work, entitled “Pictorial Illustrations of New Zealand”.’ No current review has so far been traced. According to advertisements in A key to the Colonies where he described it as ‘a most beautiful Drawing-room book’ the published price was .£2 2s od subsequently reduced, presumably for the later issues, to £1 us 6d. Large paper proofs were available for -£3 3 s od.

The sustained interest in the Pictorial Illustrations . . . throughout 1848 and 1849 doubtless encouraged him to do the Panorama. yd nohutfk In the work of transcribing Brees’s striking but often seemingly unfinished watercolours into the sharp, crisp lines of the final work the key man was the engraver, Henry Melville, of whom with his son, Harden Melville, we at the moment know much less than we need to. Harden Melville was associated with W. A. Brunning, J. Zeitter and other artists in the painting of the 1849 panorama done as the title page to the Guide . . . claimed ‘under the immediate superintendence’ of Brees himself. The description, of what was a panorama in motion, invited the viewer to ‘commence reading the following description from the end, when the Panorama commences moving from, that extremity.’ 25 Brees was in attendance at midday ‘to give information

to parties desirous of proceeding to the Colony’. It appears to have been first exhibited on Christmas Eve 1849. The Times in a lengthy review 26 referred to the opening in Miss Linwood’s gallery at No 6 Leicester Square. ‘The subjects . . . are described in a series of paintings, executed in the first style of the scenic art, and with an accuracy and truth which might well be expected, when we consider that the original drawings were not the work of a mere artist, but of a surveyor.’ The comment described the applause from ‘several gentlemen who had been in New Zealand, and who manifested their delight every now and then as the sight of some well known building, or bit of scenery broke on their view.’ It was clear from later comment that the scenes were confined to Wellington. The New Zealand Journal in strongly recommending a visit, pointed out that the Panorama was not ‘a mere daub, like some of the American productions which have been the fashion of late, but ... is, in the strictest sense of the term, a work of art’. 27 ’

Not everyone approved. Charles Hursthouse junr wrote to the New Zealand Journal 28 criticising the representation of every living creature as magnified to nearly twice its natural proportion. Consequently ‘. .. the ferocity of aspect and Brobdignagian proportions of the natives’ had discouraged some lady visitors to the Panorama who were considering emigrating to either New Zealand or the United States. Brees in his reply 29 denied that the figures were out of proportion. On his first visit Mr Hursthouse had applauded the scene ‘more than usual.’ ‘I entertain a high opinion of New Zealand,- and have sacrificed more for the colony in my time and money than perhaps any man, but .. . there is nothing gained by deceiving. Tell the truth, what New Zealand is, and what it is not. New Zealand need not fear exposure.’ A stronger and more lengthy editorial criticism appeared in the Journal a fortnight later criticising its restricted nature and the fact that it was really a series of quite separate scenes and not a true panorama.

It, by implication, supported Hursthouse’s views: ‘The figures of the men . . . are incorrectly drawn and feebly executed. Indeed, almost all the foreground is deficient in care and finish.’ However, topographically the scenes were commended. The review concluded with a wish that Brees would in time produce similar panoramas of Nelson, New Plymouth, Otago, etc, which from the advertisements in the Key . . . a year later he appears to have done. However from a footnote in that work it seems that he gave offence to the promoters of Canterbury and Otago. ‘... if I have described anything erroneously, why not confront, instead of endeavouring to injure me by setting people against my panorama, merely because it originated from Mr Brees . . .’ He repeated the story that Edward Jerningham Wakefield on seeing the panorama on his return from New Zealand ‘was so moved, that he burst into tears upon seeing Wellington’. 31 One feels that this incident must relate to the sight of the panorama in the Pictorial Illustrations . . . which appeared when he was in England.

Brees in the Key . . . advertised his Engineering and Architectural Agency Office on the Strand in which he had a department ‘expressly devoted to the Colonies’ he ‘procures Land for intending Colonists, and secures them Passages in sea-worthy Vessels and Outfits’. 32 At the moment, from this last known year of active New Zealand interest until his death at sea fourteen years later, he is virtually beyond our knowledge. While on passage in the La Hogue from Sydney to London in 1865 with his wife and family he died on 9 May. The death certificate quite simply gave his occupation as architect, the profession in which he had commenced over 35 years before.

II BREES AS AN ARTIST

Although Brees is among the best known names of earlier New Zealand artists, it must be conceded that his reputation rests largely upon Melville’s engravings of his watercolours and the fact that the published volume is available in relatively large numbers. Brees was also fortunate in having been in New Zealand at the particular period he was and in the lasting historical interest of many of his subjects. The original watercolours have not, in general, been widely exhibited, and have been almost ignored by the critics. 1 Because his paintings as such are not well known, being very different from the engravings, and because he did not sign them, it is possible that many still exist, unknown, in private hands in this country or in England. Some fifty or so which were used in the Pictorial Illustrations . . . have not yet been located, although it may be that some of these lie in the Sir George Grey collection in the British Museum, unidentified.

Brees appears in Graves 2 as a Birmingham artist, exhibiting landscapes between 1832-7, seven being at the Royal Academy, eleven at the Society of British Artists exhibitions, and one at the New Watercolour Society, afterwards the Royal Institute. A number of the watercolours in the Turnbull collection are quite charming, although they are not very positive in character. Others suffer from some flatness in treatment. In many, the artist’s attempts to emphasize highlights by use of a varnished effect, detract from the appearance of the painting. Unlike most of his contemporary surveyors, Brees unfortunately did not produce crisply detailed views. His landscapes are over careful in their painting, yet remain rather indistinct. Close inspection reveals that the figures, whether human or animal, are crudely primitive. Yet Brees was a reasonable colourist and his watercolours are pleasant to view. The most important Brees original in New Zealand is probably that in the Hocken Library, A tangi at Kopekehinga, Wairarapa. E Koro, the chief of Kaikokerri, meeting some of the Huangaroa natives. Another of great interest, and one of his best artistically, is the painting of Barrett’s Hotel, owned by Mr Bruce Anderson, who also has a second original. The Barrett’s picture was reproduced on the dust-jacket of the Library’s Journal of Ensign Best. An Auckland owner also has an original Brees, but others are not known. One of the most attractive of the Library’s watercolours is View of Petoni from the western shore of Port Nicholson. As in much of his work, Brees here has the feeling of the New Zealand hills above the low-keyed cool reflections of the harbour. Again, a scene which is probably on the Porirua coast has much New Zealand appeal; an animated view as Maoris launch their canoes. A landscape, apparently in the Upper Hutt, is also very obviously a local scene and has a sunlit warmth in its pastoral tranquillity. Two refreshingly lively

paintings show, respectively, a little group of fishermen on the upper waters of the Hutt river, and a horseman herding cattle on the hills above Berhampore, looking across to Mt Victoria. Scenes in the Wellington area predominate but Brees ranges as far afield as Taranaki, the Bay of Islands and the Auckland Islands. Of considerable interest and importance are two watercolour drawings of Maori carving, one showing a feather-box, the other a tomahawk handle. Detail is shown in very careful and exact draughtsmanship. Particularly useful, historically, are views of The Courts of Justice in Mulgrave Street, with the Thistle Inn; Ngauranga, where a settler is being ferried across the river on pickaback by a Maori; and the artist’s own house in Hawkestone Street, just below the present convent school.

3011 . MELVILLE THE ENGRAVER •-«tr : •. ■ r • ; \; ['■ ■; , r t\{) ! J ;r;r< It is particularly unfortunate that, when Brees as an artist owes so much to Henry Melville who executed with unusual faithfulness and accuracy the very fine steel engravings for the Pictorial Illustrations . . ~ we as yet know so little of Melville. That he was much superior to Brees as a draughtsman is self-evident. Yet as an artist he is not a known name and it would seem that his forte was book-illustration, though Graves records him as specialising in figures, exhibiting once at the Royal Academy and nineteen times at exhibitions of the Society of British Artists, between the years 1826-41. He may have been responsible for the figure work in two aquatints ‘etched by J. Willis & H. Melville’ and engraved by others, which appeared among the thirty-eight illustrating Captain Robert Melville Grindlay’s Scenery, Costumes and Architecture ... of India (2 vols), 1826-3 o. 3 Melville also engraved the plates for Leichhardt’s Journal of an overland expedition in Australia . . . 1847, and for Jukes’s Narrative of the surveying voyage of HMS Fly . . . 1847. In the latter case the originals had been made by his son Harden Sydney, who was an adventurous and prolific artist. According to Graves, Harden S. Melville exhibited between 1837-79, having six pictures at the Royal Academy, ten at the British Institution, and seventeen at the Society of British Artists. He specialised in domestic scenes for exhibition. Harden S. Melville was one of the five main artists who painted the Brees Panorama in 1849. He provided illustrations for a number of books, and was the author of two which resulted from his sojourn in the Pacific as topographical draughtsman on the surveying voyages of hms Fly and Bramble - Sketches in Australia . . . 1849, The Adventures of a Griffin . . . 1867. There are some New Zealand illustrations in the woodcuts by H. S. Melville to Greenwood’s Curiosities of Savage Life, 1863.

11l BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE NOTE (i) Pictorial Illustrations of New Zealand A total of forty-seven copies of Pictorial Illustrations of New Zealand has been used for this survey. Seventeen copies have been inspected, and the details of thirty additional copies have been obtained in response to a questionnaire sent out by the Library. It should be emphasised that in the case of rebound or incomplete copies, deductions could be made on the basis of typographical evidence alone; and in the case of copies that had become disbound through excessive use, it was not possible to assume that the plates and text still occupied their original positions. Pictorial Illustrations of New Zealand, by Samuel Charles Brees, was first published in London by John Williams and Co, in late August or early September 1847. From the Illustrated London News for 11 September we learn that the artist ‘has just published a beautiful work, entitled “Pictorial Illustrations of New Zealand”.’ The book was reissued in 1848 and 1849; the 1848 edition is not mentioned in Hocken’s Bibliography . . . The contents of the first (1847) edition , common to all issues, are as follows:

[l] Illustrated title page, which is [plate I], with two engravings numbered 1 and 2, and ‘London, 1847’ at the bottom of the page. [2] Printed title page. At bottom of page: mdcccxlvii. [3] Preface, p [3]~4[4] Introduction, p [s]— 6. [s] Pictorial Illustrations of New Zealand, p [l]—4. Head of p [l] illustrated with engraving of canoe prow. (Brief general description of the characteristics of New Zealand). [6] Letterpress - text describing the plates, p 5-36. [7] Twenty plates numbered 2-21. Number of steel engravings to each plate vary, but numbered throughout (including plate 1) from 1-64. [B] Double-page panorama plate with three panoramas. [9] Two folding maps in back, with insets.

Characteristics of the various issues For convenience each issue has been given a code number, eg (1847 a). 1847 edition, ( de luxe issue’. (1847 a) This issue is limited to 1847, and was probably an initial prestige publication. It is larger than subsequent issues, having an outer binding measurement of 51.5 cm (described by Hocken as ‘Royal folio’). The plates have been printed on very thin paper, slightly smaller than the page size of the standard issue, mounted on the large page, which is of much heavier paper than the other issues. This was probably to provide a good printing surface for the plate, which would not ‘take’

on the porous surface of the thicker paper. A deep plate-mark can be seen about 1 cm from the edges of the thinner paper. [l] Bindings: Green with oval design; or purple with a rectangular design. [2] Plates are placed after text. [3] Plates in some copies face the same way, in others two plates have been bound to face each other. [4] Two folding maps at back of book. [s] The caption to plate 6/16 has the typographical error ‘lsland of Maua’. This has been corrected to ‘Mana’ in subsequent issues.

1847 edition, lst(?) (Standard) issue. (1847 b) jiJaalli "481 nfT .smb zixh This issue was probably published simultaneously with the de luxe issue. The outer binding measurement is 37.5 cm (described by Hocken as ‘Royal quarto’). orli rjfk IrJoslq sie zsJsIT [sj [l] Bindings: Red, purple or green, all with a rectangular design: - Li [2] Plates are generally . placed after ! the text, but in one case they are before the text. ■ - r i A ii 1 I, c 1 LRkRi) [3] All plates usually face the same way. r . j' i I’ji 'if fi: i'j r ? TOIDETfIO L- i i [4] There are generally two folding maps at the back of the book. Where there is only one, or none at all, they may have become detached later. ' .rtsusdb ifcion mm t ix£n :miimml [ij detached later. - .jq Li [s] In two cases the panorama plate has been bound in before plate 2.

1847 edition, 2nd(?) issue. (1847 c) [l] Binding: blue, with a floral decoration, yellow endpapers. [2] Plates are interleaved with the text. [3] All plates do not face the same way. There are no maps at the back.

1847 edition, 2nd(?) (cheaper) issue. (184 yd) t This issue is described by Hocken as ‘wanting the letterpress and maps, and with table of contents merely’. The contents page lists the plates, and this issue also lacks a printed title page. The illustrated title page has London/1847 at the bottom. = Xl j ? r :n \ [l] No deduction can be made about the binding, as the only copies 1 J .1 1 1 1 1 'itMW >1 11 ° ■ ' A available had been rebound. [2] Plates all face the same way, but as the book has been rebound, this is not a firm conclusion. , M

1848 edition, lst(?) issue. (1848 a) This is a large group with a variety of bindings, but they have many points in common. Therefore it did not seem advisable to subdivide the group on the grounds of binding alone. The constant distinguishing factor of this issue is that while it has mdcccxlviii at the bottom of the printed title page, it retains the 1847 illustrated title page. Most copies

have yellow endpapers, a characteristic that appears first in the 1847 edition, 2nd(?) issue. [l] Bindings: Blue or red, with floral design, brown or red with shieldlike design. [2] Plates are usually interleaved with the text. [3] Plates usually face differing ways. [4] There are no maps in the back of the book.

1848 edition, 2nd(?) issue. (1848 b) In this issue, the illustrated title page is undated. 'London’ only appears at the bottom of the page. Presumably another plate was being used by this time. The 1847 illustrated title page, however, reappears in some 1849 copies. [l] Bindings: Red, with floral design, brown with shield-like design. [2] Plates are placed after the text. [3] All plates face the same way. [4] Usually there are no maps at the back of the book.

1848 edition 2nd(?) (cheaper) issue. (1848 c) This has the same characteristics as the 1847 edition 2nd(?) (cheaper) issue except that ‘1847’ has disappeared from the illustrated title page. [l] Binding: Red, with floral design. [2] Plates face the same way. 1849 edition (1849) This edition has ‘mdcccxlix’ at the bottom of the printed title page. [l] Bindings: Red or blue, with floral design. [2] Plates are usually interleaved with the text. 3] Plates do not all face the same way. [4] No maps in the back; in a few cases these have been added later.

The relationship of engravings in Pictorial Illustrations of New Zealand to watercolours in the Alexander Turnbull Library Thirty-two watercolours by S. C. Brees are held by the Alexander Turnbull Library. Of these thirteen bear some relationship to engravings in Pictorial Illustrations of New Zealand. watercolour engraving [l] N’Houranga Plate 2/5 : N’Houranga [2] [Porerua Bay] Plate 3/8 : Porerua Bay [3] [Town of Kororareka, Bay Plate 8/25: Town of Kororaof Islands] rika . . . [4] Mr Brees’ cottage, Karori Plate 9/28: Mr Brees’ cottage, Road Karori ... [s] Porerua Harbour Plate 10/29: Porerua Harbour [6] Cooks straits, Pari Pari Plate 10/31: Archway at PariPari

watercolour engraving [7] View looking down Hawke- Plate 13/39: View looking stone Street, Wellington, down . . . with Mr Brees’ cottage [B] Petoni Plate 14/41' Moorings Creek Petoni . . . [9] Palliser Bay 8c the sand bar Plate 15/44: Palliser Bay .. . of the Wairarapa [lo] [View of Port Nicholson] Plate 15/45: View of Port Nicholson from the range of hills west of the Ohiro Valley [n] Courts of Justice Plate 19/57: Courts of Justice, Wellington [l2] Tinakori Road, Wellington Plate 20/60: Tinakori Road .. . [l3] [Canoe Prow] Head of p[i] titled ‘Pictorial Illustrations of New Zealand’ Other engravings

[l] One watercolour, [View looking towards Wellington, from the Hutt Road . . .] although it has no counterpart in Pictorial Illustrations of New Zealand, is represented by an engraving by Smyth in the Illustrated London News for 16 January 1847. The engraving is titled: The Hutt Road at the Gorge. [2] The following engravings by Smyth from the Illustrated London News appear to be after engravings in Pictorial Illustrations of New Zealand. They are: [a] Mr Brees’ cottage, Karori Road, - Plate 9/28: Mr Brees’ Wellington. In: ILN I6Jan, 1847 cottage ... [b] Panorama of Port Nicholson ... - Panorama plate [l] In: ILN 16 Jan. 1847 . Panorama of Wellington [c] Wellington - Te Aro flat. - Panorama plate [2] ‘ In: ILN 11 Sept. 1847 Te Aro flat . . . > . [3] One engraving in the Illustrated London News for 11 September 1847, has no counterpart in Pictorial Illustrations of New Zealand, nor does it correspond with any watercolour held by the Alexander Turnbull Library. It is titled: Banks of the River Hutt. ."/> [4] Plate xii of the Illustrations to *.Adventure in New Zealand’ by E. J. Wakefield, London: 1845 is titled Porirua Harbour and Paramatta Whaling Station in Novr. 1843’. It corresponds to Plate 5/12 in Pictorial Illustrations of New Zealand, ie Porerua Bay. It is interesting to note that although these two engravings have obviously been taken from the same original, the version in Illustrations to ‘Adventure

in New Zealand ’ was published two years before Pictorial Illustrations of New Zealand. Also in the volume is a three-part panorama after Brees, ‘Plain of the Ruamahanga opening into Palliser Bay near Wellington . . .’ A small part of this is reminiscent of, although differing from, scene 4 plate 10 in Pictorial Illustrations riQL’ ‘The Great Wairarapa District and Lake’. Hand-coloured editions of Pictorial Illustrations ..v : V; iszilbT [q] At the present time there are no more than half a dozen known copies of the Pictorial Illustrations which have been tinted by different artists and thus all vary in colouring. No record of any commercial issue in colour has so far been traced but the best examples in the opinion of experts are contemporary with the issues of Pictorial Illustrations ... ;

(ii) Notes on the plates in Guide and Description of the Panorama of New Zealand. . . [by] S. C. Brees . . . London [1849] The Guide . . . was published in 1849 to coincide with the exhibition of S. C. Brees’s Panorama of New Zealand which opened on 24 December 1849. It was available in three versions. (a) In yellow paper wrapper and with one plate. This was not always the same plate. The copy held by the Alexander Turnbull Library has Plate 2/5: N’Houranga as a frontispiece, while the copy described in Hocken’s Bibliography . . ~ p 142, has Plate 13/39: View looking down Hawkestone Street, Wellington, with Mr Brees’ cottage.

(b) With ten! plates. 1 viEuneb hi 10'i iwM wiV.wA hi'unVaiiW ■aril (c) In soft yellow linen cover, blind stamped, with 54 plates. This version of the Guide .. . contains fifty-four of the engravings published in Pictorial Illustrations of New Zealand. The thirteen additional illustrations have been omitted for the following reasons: 1 \ The illustrated title page with two engravings, the three engravings which appear on the panorama plate;, plate 21/63: Messrs Clifford’s & Vavasour’s clearing *r. .; plate 14/42: Banks of the Hutt . . .; plate 12/36: The great Wairarapa district. . .; plate 8/25: Town of Kororarika . . .; plate 6/17: Port Nicholson . . .; plate 7/22: The Hutt Road . . .; have all. been omitted because they are too large for a page size of 22x15cm. It appears that the whole \of plate 7 has been omitted, as the two smaller engravings on this plate; plate 7/20: Residence of his Honor Major Richmond ~. . and plate 7/21: Residence of the Honble. Francis Moles worth ... are also missing from the Guide .V.' . :• io ir/ o; >: : \i \ The Library has also a set of twenty-two fine hand-coloured plates from the Guide and Description iin separate unbound sheets with loose title-page. f£ £lh sjWS. wM"\o khotVfli

UNPUBLISHED WATERCOLOURS BY S. C. BREES IN THE ALEXANDER TURNBULL LIBRARY

1 Baron Alzdorf’s on the Hutt, Wellington. b :iquo~u nkm c v 2 [Mr Brees’ cottage in Hawkestone Street, 1844] oxh 03 m h.h : i-3 Upper Hutt sW .zgmbspd ozorh tobmi bebivib zt xioimfaz gni :-41. [Hutt Valley? 1840s] zmsli vAlr.w? yumi hnxm oi aid 5 [Carved feather box] .bohaq 6 [Carved axe handle] 7 View of Petoni from [Western shore of Port Nicholson] 8 [Porirua Harbour? 1840s] qBB 1-4281 bmcilliV/ MAHOHIJ. 9 [Maori children beside canoe] jgcq £(> .4^Bl r ; tbion iqinzuncM 10 Palliser Bay \ .odclfl rnrilliW do zrnooq odi moil zloeuzH 11 [Turakirae Head, Palliser Bay coast. 1840s] 12 Mana, Pokarua 0 xyiol HOEH3CIM 13 1 Auckland Island iM ol p*»nv.ov gninib LWN sr.h no tqyd yxdU 14 [Looking towards Mt Victoria across the present site of Berhampore ~*- , 0 _ - , , .is.ui 10 rv . i■ t-dLfi . i and Newtown from below Kingston, ca 1843 .. Probably not New Zealand - ; ’ ! ■ ■ ‘ I MOZIEKMA 1 [Several ships off shore] 1 ; ' 1 " 2 [Group of natives and white men on beach] 3 [Scene on a farm] n2 HMWOHQ 4 [Group of people on path overlooking beach] 1

PICTORIAL WORKS AND TITLES WITH NEW ZEALAND CONTENT Pictorial illustrations/of/New Zealand./ . . . 1847. Hocken p 131-2 and text of part 111 of article for description of issues provisionally defined as iß47a-d, iB4Ba-c and 1849. Guide and description/of the/Panorama of New Zealand/ .. . [1849] Hocken p 142 and description of three variants in part ill of article.

The following guides to other panoramas have not been seen: Guide to the Panorama of New Zealand, Brazils, and Australia. Illustrated with one plate, 6d. [Advts. A key to the Colonies] i2 XC I Guide to thei Strand Panorama - Ceylon, Calcutta, and Wellington, New Zealand. n m. .idßi .ylleodiloq 10 yltaboz zwhmvir h 3xm£gic Illustrated with one plate, 6d. [lbid.].tr .3 .3 iQ :nobcnoO A key to the Colonies for,/Advice to the million/upon/emigration;/for the use oflall classes:containing/illustrations of the right kind of persons to) emigrate, and how they should/set about it,/with/anecdotes of the class that ought to stop/at home. /[rule]/ London:/ 393, Strand./ [rule] /Printed by J. Carrall, 275, Strand./1851. £f.cu~888i .snnofhfiX GJ3H2MAM i pi, 89 [l7] p. 14.2x9.4cm. .rm 2ogr.q 8?i .B<X>i~£4Ql ,doodqi.i:>B

NOTES 1 The Library is indebted to Mr and Mrs E. C. White of Matahiwi, Masterton, for giving the Library the opportunity some years ago of purchasing this copy. 2 As in numerous other research activities, I am grateful to Miss J. S. Hornabrook, National Archives for locating and in the present instance transcribing from the microfilm copy and other papers some of the New Zealand Company references. 3 Testimonials with New Zealand Company papers and in A Key to the Colonies, pp 82-7. 4 New Zealand Company micro ms CO 208/186 reel 1443; minute for 9 September 1841. 5 Agreement in New Zealand Company papers. 6 The vessel arrived on the 9th. New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator, 12 February 1842. 7 Brees to Principal Agent, New Zealand Company papers 16 February 1843. 8 Ibid, 1 August 1843. 9 Revans to H. S. Chapman, 3 June 1842. Chapman letter in Alexander Turnbull Library. 10 Edward Jollie, Reminiscences, 1872. Alexander Turnbull Library Manuscript.

11 Principal Agent to Sec. New Zealand Company, i May 1845; New Zealand Company despatch no 21/45; 45/865. 12 Barker was a leading English showman of panoramas. 13 New Zealand Spectator and Cooks Strait Guardian 3 May 1845. 14 H. S. Chapman to H. Chapman, 2 May 1845; 4 February 1846. 15 New Zealand Spectator and Cooks Strait Guardian, 1 March - 19 April 1845. 16 Ibid, 10 May 1845. 17 Diary of F. Bradey, Alexander Turnbull Library MS Typescript, p 60. 18 A key to the Colonies, pp 87-9. 19 New Zealand Company papers. Minutes of Committee of Management, 4 December 1845 (p 166). 20 Brees to Sec. New Zealand Company; papers 45/976. 21 New Zealand Company. Minutes Court of Directors, p 279. 22 Ibid, 31/4, p 401. 23 Ibid. 24 Illustrated London News, 16 January 1847. 25 Guide and description of the Panorama . . ~ p [ l3 ]. 26 A key to the Colonies, pp 75-81 from The Times, 26 December 1849. 27 New Zealand Journal, 26 December 1849 (p [3ol]). 28 Ibid, 4 May 1850 (p 107). 29 Ibid, 18 May 1850 (p 118). 30 Ibid, 1 June 1850 (p [l2s]). 31 A key to the Colonies, p 56. 32 Ibid, Inside front cover.

NOTES l ln 1952 the Library purchased 18 watercolours and two pencil drawings from a member of the family. Brees’s great-niece Miss Esther Webb. Two other paintings were presented to the Library in 1946 by Mr Roland Hipkins and a further two were donated by Mrs F. Mintoft in 1950. 2 Graves, A., Dictionary of artists . . . London, 1895. 3 Abbey, J. R., Travel in aquatint and lithography, 1770-1860 . . . London, 1957.