Giclee, Limited Edition, S.T. Gill, Samuel Thomas Gill, Old Colonist Festival Dinner

"Old Colonist Festival Dinner"

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

The rare original lithograph was printed by Penman & Galbraith, Adelaide.

Size of image = 53cm x 41cm 

Scene description: The Old Colonist Festival Dinner was held in a canvas-covered area between the City-Bridge Hotel and Holy Trinity Church in an area 120ft x 80ft. We can see 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. His honest record shows the spirit of the celebrations, especially as it progressed; men are seen staggering between the tables clutching bottles of alcohol, one lady is seen with her head resting on her arms, presumably the effect of what she has consumed etc. The interior was decorated with foliage and “lit by a fanciful and rich candelabra” (The Adelaide Times, 28 March, 1851 p3). 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.

Samuel Thomas Gill (1818-1880)

He and his family arrived in the Colony of South Australia in1839. 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 S.T. Gill and the 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. Certainly the lure of recording a gold rush would have been of more interest to him than toiling away attempting to find gold. He left that up to his brother...who apparently was none too pleased.