Gill Melbourne Exhibition Buildings 1854 {1868?} SLV [PR]

Gill, S.T. (1818-80; English/Australian)
The Melbourne Exhibition Buildings, N.W.Angle 1854
Lithograph, 15.6 x 22.2 cm (visible image), mounted
Acquired 1868 (gift of John Pascoe Fawkner?) 
State Library of Victoria (H2295)

This print, published by Blundell & Co., is inscribed on the mount: “Melbourne’s First Exhibition Building / on the present site of the / Royal Mint.”

The William Street building, apparently echoing London’s Crystal Palace (as David Dunstan observes) housed exhibitions in 1854, 1861, 1866, 1872 and 1875, before being superseded by the Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton (Reed & Barnes, 1879-80), built for the Melbourne International Exhibition of 1880-81.

The SLV also holds a second impression of this print (apparently acquired later), in better condition.

Refs.

Not listed in NGV 1894 or 1905 

For this impression, see http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/MAIN:Everything:SLV_VOYAGER2515949. Also listed in the NGV’s unpublished list of pre-1905 acquisitions, under 1868 (artist not named; with acc.no.p.250.28-1). The other impression mentioned (SLV H12607; accessioned 1934?) is reproduced in Grishin S.T.Gill (2015), p.103

For the exhibition buildings mentioned, see Brown-May and Swain Encyclopedia of Melbourne (2005), pp.251-52 (“Exhibitions”) and 620-21 (“Royal Exhibition Building”); both entries by David Dunstan, with further references