Review of Charlotte Smith and Benjamin Thomas, 'Visions of Colonial Grandeur: John Twycross at Melbourne's International Exhibitions', Museum Victoria, Melbourne, 2014, pbk, ISBN 9781921833236, xv + 153 pp, $39.95.

Abstract

'Visions of Colonial Grandeur' is luscious in the images it offers of decorative and fine art items acquired by nineteenth century Melbourne merchant and collector, John Twycross, and in its detail about the 1880 and 1888 Melbourne exhibitions from which Twycross acquired many of his works. It also provides a detailed inventory of the nature and extent of the exhibits at both exhibitions, and locates those events within the broader phenomenon of international exhibitions and within the economic and social life of 1880s Melbourne. The book is prefaced by curator and author Charlotte Smith's commentary on her first contact with Twycross's great grandson, Will Twycross, and on her excitement as she realised the depth and extent of the collection being offered to Museum Victoria. She exudes that, at least until the date of that encounter (October 2008), "the museum had never been offered such a well-provenanced collection, nor one that illustrated so richly the fine and decorative art displays that dominated the foreign courts at Melbourne's two exhibitions" (p. ix). Here was a museum's delight: a well-provenanced collection, thematic, and connected to the nineteenth century exhibition buildings that now sit opposite the front door to Museum Victoria.