After training as a Cartographic Draftsman within the mining industry, I worked as a property illustrator for real estate firms in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne for 23 years from 1983. I initially photographed houses with a Polaroid camera and made a 'thumbnail' sketch while there. The photos were used to scale off a sketch in pencil and then that sketch was overlaid with drafting film and the 'pen and ink' completed. The pens I used were the Rotring ‘Rapidigraph’ drafting pens. The ink was also made by Rotring (German).The film was ‘Rapidraw’, polyester drafting film, double matte. It takes a very fine line and doesn’t bleed. As well as house sketches, there were often floor plans and site plans ordered. Aerial sketches were ordered when the property needed an overall view. (Margaret Picken, 2020)This drawing is one of a series created by Margaret Picken for a range of real estate agents in Melbourne between c.1983 and c.2005. Each work is signed and dated by the artist.Gift of Margaret Picken, 2020Pen and ink architectural drawing on drafting film of 4/159 Cotham Road, Kew by Margaret Picken.4/159 COTHAM RD., KEW / MARGARET PICKEN ~92 / WOODARDS ~ KEWartist -- margaret picken 1950-, architectural drawings -- houses -- kew (vic.), 4/159 cotham road -- kew (vic.)

After training as a Cartographic Draftsman within the mining industry, I worked as a property illustrator for real estate firms in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne for 23 years from 1983. I initially photographed houses with a Polaroid camera and made a 'thumbnail' sketch while there. The photos were used to scale off a sketch in pencil and then that sketch was overlaid with drafting film and the 'pen and ink' completed. The pens I used were the Rotring ‘Rapidigraph’ drafting pens. The ink was also made by Rotring (German).The film was ‘Rapidraw’, polyester drafting film, double matte. It takes a very fine line and doesn’t bleed. As well as house sketches, there were often floor plans and site plans ordered. Aerial sketches were ordered when the property needed an overall view. (Margaret Picken, 2020)This drawing is one of a series created by Margaret Picken for a range of real estate agents in Melbourne between c.1983 and c.2005. Each work is signed and dated by the artist.Gift of Margaret Picken, 2020Pen and ink architectural drawing on drafting film of 4/272 Cotham Road, Kew by Margaret Picken.4 / 272 COTHAM RD., KEW / MARG. PICKEN ~87 / WOODARDS ~ KEWartist -- margaret picken 1950-, architectural drawings -- houses -- kew (vic.), 4 / 272 cotham road - kew (vic.)

After training as a Cartographic Draftsman within the mining industry, I worked as a property illustrator for real estate firms in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne for 23 years from 1983. I initially photographed houses with a Polaroid camera and made a 'thumbnail' sketch while there. The photos were used to scale off a sketch in pencil and then that sketch was overlaid with drafting film and the 'pen and ink' completed. The pens I used were the Rotring ‘Rapidigraph’ drafting pens. The ink was also made by Rotring (German).The film was ‘Rapidraw’, polyester drafting film, double matte. It takes a very fine line and doesn’t bleed. As well as house sketches, there were often floor plans and site plans ordered. Aerial sketches were ordered when the property needed an overall view. (Margaret Picken, 2020)This drawing is one of a series created by Margaret Picken for a range of real estate agents in Melbourne between c.1983 and c.2005. Each work is signed and dated by the artist.Gift of Margaret Picken, 2020Pen and ink architectural drawing on drafting film of 294 Cotham Road, Kew by Margaret Picken.294 COTHAM RD., KEW / MARGARET PICKEN ~91 / WOODARDS ~ KEWartist -- margaret picken 1950-, architectural drawings -- houses -- kew (vic.), 4 / 298 cotham road - kew (vic.)

'Sunninghill' at 228 Cotham Road (Kew) is an historically significant building due to its associations with Joseph Thomas (Bland) Holt (1851-1942), theatre entrepreneur and actor who lived at the house following his retirement in 1909. Sunninghill (aka Sunning Hill) was one of his residences in Victoria (also 'The Anchorage' at Sorrento). Following Holt's death at Sunninghill on 28 June 1942, the house was left to his wife. After her death the house was bequeathed to Lucy Coppin, daughter of George Coppin. The 'Shakespeare Window' in the State Library of Victoria was at one stage installed in the house. References 'Death of Mr Bland Holt: Great exponent of melodrama', The Argus, 30 June 1942, p. 3. Shoesmith D, 'Holt, Joseph Thomas (Bland) (1851-1942)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol 4, 1972. 'The Shakespeare Window', State Library of Victoria website.Exterior photographs (digital) of Sunninghill, 228 Cotham Road, Kew VIC 3101. sunninghill - 228 cotham road - kew (vic), joseph thomas (bland) holt, lucy coppin

This mounted and framed photograph of a group of friends punting on the River Yarra has a number of historic and artistic associations. The photograph is primarily important as an informal photograph of the Australian baritone John Donald Mackenzie Brownlee (1900-1969), whose international career at the world's major opera houses from 1927 until his retirement in 1958 included singing at Melba's Covent Garden farewell in 1926, to recordings in the 1930s of a major series of Mozart operas in Glyndebourne Festival productions, conducted by Fritz Busch. Brownlee, born in Geelong, won the gold medal as champion vocalist at the South Street competitions in Ballarat in 1921. Moving to Paris in 1923 he began study with the French baritone, Dinh Gilly, making his operatic debut at the Trianon Lyrique in Montmartre in 1926. The most significant periods of his operatic career were with the Paris Opera from 1927 to 1936, and at the Metropolitan Opera from 1937 to 1957. After his move to Paris in 1923, he is recorded as revisiting Australia in 1928 as a member of the Melba-Williamson Company, and 24 years later in 1952. The photograph of Brownlee and the Gardners in a punt on the Yarra, while putatively dated to 1925, must be from earlier in the 1920s before his move to Paris, or later during the Melba-Williamson Company season. Before his move to Paris in 1923, Brownlee had lived in Belmont Avenue, Kew, where he must have developed a friendship with the Gardners. The photograph has additional artistic significance as it was produced at 'The Artorium', James Beament's design studio next to the Hawthorn Town Hall at 362 Burwood Road. With a home at 33 Uvadale Road (designed by Eric Nicholls, who managed the architectural practice of Walter Burley and Marion Mahony Grifffin from 1924 to 1932), Beament painted a number of significant murals for the Griffin practice, including those at the Capitol Theatre in Melbourne.A photograph of recreational activities on the River Yarra. The photograph is historically significant as a professionally produced photograph of the Australian operatic baritone John Brownlee, either before his move to Paris in 1923, or in 1928 during the Melba-Williamson Company operatic tour of Australia. The photograph has additional aesthetic significance as it was produced in James Beament's Hawthorn Studio - The Artorium - at 362 Burwood Road, next to the Hawthorn Town Hall.Framed photograph of John Duncan Brownlee, the Australian tenor, with Enid Gardner and friend in a punt on the Yarra River. Brownlee was born in Geelong but before his move to Paris in 1923, he lived for a period in Belmont Avenue, Kew. Three labels on reverse. 1. "John Duncan Brownlee, Operatic Star, originally of Geelong later resident of Kew at Belmont Av, on the pole. Also in the punt - Edith Gardner a friend. The Gardners lived on the east corner of Edgevale Rd. & Cotham. Approx. 1925." 2. "This picture is the property of Kew Historical Society 1/4/79". 3. Tel. Hawthorn 842 THE ARTORIUM ...."john brownlee (tenor), punting, recreation - yarra river (kew), james beament, the artorium -- 362 burwood road -- hawthorn (vic.)

Although probably built some time earlier, the first mention in the Rate Books of the property later known as 'Wimba Lodge' appears in the entry for 1870 when the property, owned by John Sharpe Denbigh, a civil servant, was given an N.A.V. of £72. Denbigh did however occupy a house in Cotham Road in 1863, and it is possible that was the same premises'. The house was occupied by Sharp until at least May 1876 when the 'family residence ... was auctioned' to Carlington George Edmund Marston, a chemist of Smith Street, Collingwood. At the time of the auction the house was described thus: The residence and grounds of the late J.S. Dendigh, situate in the most elevated part of Cotham Road Kew. The grounds comprise an area of 4a Or 29p or thereabouts, and have a frontage to Cotham-road of 4 chains. The house has two large rooms in front, with 6ft hall built of brick, bay and side windows (plate glass), four rooms of wood behind with slate roofs, bathroom and closets, detached kitchen and servant's room, large shed with washing boiler, pantry and cellar under, brick and cement tank, and the Yan Yean laid onto house and grounds, cowshed, pigstye, &c, the whole securely fenced. First class orchard and flower garden. The paddocks laid with English grasses and drained... .' (Sanderson P. Kew Conservation Study Vol 2)'Wimba' is a single storeyed rendered house. The front entrance is flanked by two polygonal bay windows, and a verandah with a concave corrugated iron roof returns around three facades, and accentuates the projections of the windows. The solid render parapet is very ornate and tall for the date of construction. It has panels of decoration along it and is surmounted by a number of render urns. (Sanderson P. Kew Conservation Study Vol 2)Reverse: "JOHN COLLINS / 11 Anderson Road / Hawthorn East, 3123 / Film 395 Exposure 15A / Kew / Wimba / Front verandah from east / 7-4-79wimba lodge, 235 cotham road -- kew (vic.), john s denbigh, carlington george edmund marston