Ham (T.) Post Office, Melbourne {1868} SLV [PR]

Ham, Thomas (1821-70; English/Australian)
Post Office, Melbourne
Engraving, 11 x 13 cm
Acquired 1868 (donated by John Pascoe Fawkner?)
State Library of Victoria (H2142) 

Two different images of this building are listed among the considerable number of works acquired for the Melbourne collection in 1868 (many of them donated by Fawkner).

One, listed as by an unknown artist, is provisionally identified here as the SLV engraving by Thomas Ham, catalogued as “added to collection c.1931.” The date 1841, added in pencil, probably refers to the date of the building, which replaced an earlier structure from the 1830s.

The other print acquired in 1868, listed as by S.T.Gill, is identified in this catalogue as * Gill Post Office, Melbourne 1856 (?) {1868} Loc? [PR], a lithograph possibly also donated by Fawkner.

Refs.

Not listed in NGV 1894 or 1905; NGV’s list of pre-1905 acquisitions (PF), no.406 (as by an anonymous artist; donated in 1868) 

For further information and references on Melbourne’s first post offices, see the Gill print mentioned above