Old Colonist Festival Dinner Drawn on stone by S.T.Gill Printed and Published by Penman & Galbraith, Adelaide.  

Held at the Rear of the City Bridge Hotel, Morphett Street, Adelaide, South Australia on Thursday the 27th March 1851 in Commemoration of the First Sale of Town Land  27th March 1837.

Conservation Limited Edition Giclee of the rare original lithograph by Samuel Thomas Gill (1818-1880).

He and his family arrived int he Colony 1839.His observations of the scenes of everyday life that make him an invaluable pictorial chronicler of life in the Colonies in that he captured the character and atmosphere of this frontier life. In 1846 he joined the ill-fated John Horrrocks’ Expedition to the Spencer Gulf. In 1851 saw an opportunity to record the Gold rushes in Victoria, with the mining activities, Chinese laundries, boxing matches etc. But, before he set off he was challenged to record some 600 colonists who came together to celebrate the first land sale in the new Colony of South Australia. Although individual portrait sittings would have been impossible he has surrounded the scene with vignettes of landscapes, maritime, & mining scenes, all sources of the colonists’ wealth.

The Dinner was held in a canvas-covered area between the City-Bridge Hotel and Holy Trinity Church in an area 120ft x 80ft. The Adelaide Amateur Band played music while two large emus, a kangaroo and a wallaby were allowed to roam amongst the highly spirited crowd enjoying over 20 toasts throughout the evening as those present celebrated the fourteen years of achievement since that first land sale. The interior was decorated with foliage and “lit by a fanciful and rich candelabra”     (The Adelaide Times, 28 March, 1851 p3)

Size of image = 53cm x 41cm