3-017-047 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Casket presented to the Princess of Wales by the ladies of New South Wales, 1864. Engraving from a photograph by Mr. Hetzen, published in the Sydney Morning Herald, of a '...beautiful casket, made of the pure gold of New South Wales, which the ladies of that colony...have sent as a nuptial gift to the Princess of Wales...The artist and manufacturer [is] Mr. Julius Hogarth...The principal portion of the front is occupied by a classical bas-relief, after Thorwaldsen, the Danish sculptor, representing Hymen and Cupid spinning the thread of life. To the right and left are the Royal arms of Denmark and England...Underneath...is an exquisitely-finished bunch of fern-leaves in frosted gold, and above it...is the waratah. Next to the arms of England...is the figure of a native woman carrying a basket and a spear...Under her feet...are the leaves and flower of the native honeysuckle...The other front corner consists of an aboriginal male, in the act of throwing the boomerang...the crowning point of all [is] the apex of the lid. In the majestic figure of the old emu which surmounts the work the artist has even excelled himself...The inside of the box is lined with crimson velvet'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.