sketcher, illuminator, photographer, lithographer, carver, printer and stationery manufacturer, was born in Dublin, son of Ninian Niven and Agnes, née Gray, both Scots. Despite a good education in Dublin he ran away to sea at the age of 13, partly because of an unkind stepmother, he later claimed. He remained a sailor for five years and was promoted chief mate. In his leisure hours he made models of ships and on one voyage to Calcutta provided illustrations to sea stories told by some elderly whalers on board. He came to Melbourne in search of gold in 1852 and spent seven years at the Ballarat diggings during which time he married and began a family. Having had only limited financial success on the goldfields, Niven purchased a lithographic press from Alfred Ronalds for £40 – said to be the first such press in Victoria. Having no practical knowledge of printing, he taught himself from books. His first commercial productions were billheads, which he drew and printed himself. In 1855 this neophyte lithographer is said to have produced the first issues of Ballarat Punch (unlocated) on this crude press. (The second series of 1857-70, of which he was proprietor, had more sophisticated equipment.)

Aware of his own deficiencies, Niven apprenticed himself c.1862 to the Ballarat lithographer Herman Deutsch , but according to his biography in the Cyclopedia of Victoria (a book published by Niven) soon found that Deutsch knew even less of lithography than he did. Niven was responsible for designing and putting on stone a popular lithograph of the Welcome Nugget and a view of the place where it was discovered. Hundreds of copies were sold at a shilling each to Deutsch’s rather than Niven’s advantage, he stated. Purchasing the business from Deutsch in 1863, he subsequently published numerous views of gold claims and their underground workings. The large range of modern machinery he imported, including the first steam lithographic press in the colony (in 1873), contributed greatly to the firm’s immense success.

Some idea of the range of services Niven provided may be gathered from two advertisements published in his Ballarat District Directory for 1882. One offered 'Chromo Views of Ballarat, Mining Views, maps, plans etc. on sale, coloured ground plans for land sales, views of villas &c., lithographed with neatness and despatch’, while the other reads: 'F.W. Niven, mining and general stationer, bookbinding &c., complimentary addresses tastefully executed (a variety of hand painted borders to choose from)’. By 1900 the business was so extensive that a branch office was opened in Melbourne. The extent of Niven’s involvement in the production of the original art work cannot be estimated, for he naturally employed a large number of artists and engravers such as Edward Gilks and engaged in a great variety of work.

The firm illuminated the address delivered at the opening of the 1869 Ballarat Mechanics Institute Exhibition by the governor of Victoria, John Manners-Sutton: the 'body was in French round-hand, the address in an illuminated ornamented heading, and the whole was surrounded by an illuminated mosaic border’. Niven’s 'very neat and generally admired design’ was chosen for the award certificates at the 1878 Ballarat Juvenile Industries Exhibition and his firm printed the catalogues. Niven was one of the judges for 'Illuminating, ornamental penmanship and pen and ink sketches’ (with L.S. Christie ) and donated a special prize of £1 for the 'cleanest and best work printing from either type or stone’ in the printing, lithography and engraving section. At the 1879 Sydney International Exhibition F.W. Niven of Hunt Street, Ballarat, showed frames of lithographs, both frames and prints apparently being his own handiwork, together with two statuettes Rembrandt and Musidor .

For a time he was president of the Ballarat Amateur Photographic Society and his knowledge of photography helped him develop, with his employee Henry Crisp , the Crisp Photo Process of chromolithography (or 'Nature-printing’). The firm sometimes produced original photographs in their publications; an original photograph of Richard H. Hart by F.W. Niven & Co. forms the frontispiece to a memoir of Hart, Assiduity , published by Niven in 1886. He was also president of the Ballarat Chamber of Commerce and a member of the local Art Gallery committee. Late in life he appointed his eldest son, H.N. Niven, partner and manager of the firm. F.W. Niven died in Melbourne on 3 December 1905.

Niven is said by the Museum of Victoria to have designed the certificate for the Australian Natives Association. MoV has copy (no. 90 789).

Writers:

Staff Writer

Date written:

1992

Last updated:

1989