illuminator, engrosser and clerk, designed, executed and signed ('E. Myers’) what is thought to be the earliest surviving illuminated address in colonial Australia, the delicate Recueils Choisis (Mitchell Library). Formally ornamented with floral decorations, it was presented to Lady FitzRoy, the wife of the Governor of New South Wales, in September 1846. The artist was evidently the 'linguist’ Edward Myers of 8 Bridge Street listed in Francis Low’s City of Sydney Directory for 1844-45. Later he seems to have moved to Melbourne. A Mr Myers was mentioned in the Port Phillip Herald of 18 January 1848 as having made a pencil drawing of the proposed synagogue in Bourke Street.
By 1854 Edward Myers was working in Tasmania, primarily as a storekeeper and clerk at the Prisoners’ Barracks in Hobart Town, but also as an illuminator and engrosser of testimonials for presentation to respected personages. The Allport Library holds his signed illuminated address presented to departing Governor Sir William Denison by the citizens of the City of Hobart Town on 12 January 1855 and he was reported as having made another for Denison from the inhabitants of Campbell Street. Referring especially to the testimonial which Myers illuminated and engrossed in September for presentation to Mr H. Jones, 'Reader of the Hebrew Congregation’ (unlocated), the Hobart Town Advertiser of 11 October 1854 stated: 'for elegance of penmanship [his work] surpasses anything that has ever appeared in this colony’. 'E. Myers’ signed a vignetted north view of Hobart for a music cover, The Delacourt Bouquet , dedicated to Lady Denison and published in Hobart Town by Huxtable & Deakin (Crowther Library).
Edward Myers then disappears from Tasmania. He just might have changed his name, place of residence and religion and become the illuminator Maximilian Emmanuel Meyers .
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
