Name/TitleA Panoramic view of Sydney
About this objectJames Taylor, of the 48th Regiment, made the original drawings for his aquatints in around 1820, claiming he hoped the prints would be “of service to the Colony” (Taylor to Alexander Berry, 28 Feb 1820). From the vantage point of Observatory Hill, the plates offered “the magnificent Harbour of Port Jackson its rocky and picturesque shores its numerous Islands and inlets the Town of Sydney the beautiful and Romantic Scenery of the Vicinity…”.
Drawn from a point on Observatory Hill, the panorama provided a rather idyllic view of Macquarie’s Sydney for its London audience. In this detail, the laundry hangs out to dry as chooks feed in the yard, a kangaroo or wallaby wanders in the garden where exotic flowers grow, a man tends the vegetable garden behind the neat cottage where a lady talks to officers while further to the left convicts quarry sandstone for use in the construction of the colony’s new buildings.
MakerJames Taylor - Artist
Maker RoleArtist
Date Made1823
Period19th century
Medium and MaterialsLithograph. Paper, pigment and ink.
Place MadeSydney, Australia
Place NotesOriginal drawings made, c1820.
Place MadeLondon, United Kingdom
Place NotesEngraved and printed, c1823.
Measurements470mm x 620mm
Object TypeLandscape Paintings
Object numberSF000737
Copyright Licence
Attribution - Non-commercial - No Derivatives (cc)
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The mug is decorated with an underglaze and a blue transfer print. On the body, it is titled ‘Emigrants to Australia’. This type of body and glaze was discontinued by 1840. Comparison of the handle shape and the profile of the foot, point to the attribution of manufacture by the Davenport Factory.
Delta was a ship-rigged vessel with two decks and three masts. It was built in Dordrecht, Netherlands in 1839 at the shipyard of Jan Schouten and registered in the same port. Its hull was constructed of oak and sheathed in ‘yellow metal’. Delta was owned by H. van der Sande at the time of its loss and was engaged as a cargo trader.
The Delta carried 29 crew and passengers, while sailing from Melbourne to Batavia in ballast when wrecked at Kenn Reefs on 30 May 1854 whilst under the command of Captain J.G. Kunst. This vessel loss supports the pattern of shipwrecks located on a well-travelled shipping route that was poorly charted until the mid-nineteenth century. The crew of the Delta could see four other shipwrecks at Kenn Reefs at the time of their vessel’s loss.
Important image of a ship associated with Matthew Flinders, that would shortly become one of the most famous early shipwrecks in eastern Australian waters. This is a fine ship’s portrait, by one of the great exponents of the art