The Old Curiosity Shop was q house was built by bricklayer James Warwick, and his wife Caroline, with construction beginning around 1863. It was opened to the public in 1895. What is significant? Construction of the house later known as the Old Curiosity Shop commenced about 1863, the year bricklayer, James Warwick obtained a miner's right for a residential block on the edge of the exhausted Eureka diggings in the newly proclaimed municipality of Ballarat East. James built a modest 4-roomed timber and brick house for his expanding family and continued in the bricklaying trade until retiring around the early 1880s. By then he was pursuing his gardening interests in the local Horticultural Society and was supervising the gardens of many East Ballarat residents. It was during these years that his gardening and building interests converged to find expression in the marvellous permutations of decoration that extend over the house and garden. Using cast-off crockery, glass, ceramic figurine and mirror shards, shells, wallpaper samples, architectural ornament and slag, a place was found for all manner of things, large and small. Children would bring broken china dolls and bits of crockery, and the patient mosaic work preoccupied James and his wife Caroline for the rest of their lives. The work has its origins in the grottoes and shellhouses that ornamented the gardens of large English estates from the 1730s. In the few years before James' death in 1898, the house had become known as the 'Old Curiosity Shop', inspiring associations with the Charles Dickens novel of the same name. By then professional photographs had also been taken and thousands of tourists were visiting it yearly. Caroline obtained copyright for 2 of the photos and began issuing her own postcards before she died in 1903. The Shop passed to their son Charles and then to a succession of owners who added their own mythology to the story of the Warwicks and their work. After attracting tourists for more than 100 years, the Shop closed to the public in 1999. (Vitorian Heritage Database)Brochures on the Old Curiosity Shopold curiosity shop, warwick, ballarat east, james warwick, caroline warwick

Born in Scotland, Allan Mann studied at the Glasgow School of Art, and worked in many tertiary institutions in Great Britain and Australia. Allan Mann arrived in Australia in 1987, lecturing at the Darling Downs Institute of Advanced Education, Queensland, then the Riverina-Murray Institute of Higher Education Wagga Wagga, NSW, in 1981. He returned to the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee, Scotland between 1984 and 1985. Allan Mann was appointed to the University of Ballarat (then Ballarat College of Advanced Education) in 1987. He retired as an Associate Professor of the University of Ballarat Arts Academy in 2010.Black, hard-covered artist's book produced in a limited edition of 22 (of which this one is number number 6). The images contained in the book were first created in pastel then scanned and computer manipulated before being Laser copied and Intron transferred onto Indian Khadi Hot Press Natural Off-white 210 gsm paper, in an edition of 22.Signed an numbered by the artist on the ISBN page.allan mann, jeff zilles, artist's book, cpfvs

The texts were set in Fairfield and Century Expanded by Jeff Zilles and printed using the Letterpress process by Berry Anderson, Ballarat, Victoria. The binding is by Ristori Bookbindery, Allendale, Victoria This item is part of the Federation University Art Collection. The Art Collection features over 2000 works and was listed as a 'Ballarat Treasure' in 2007. Black hardcovered artist's book. The images in the book were first created in pastel then canned and computer manipulated before being laser copie and Intron transferred onto Indian Khadi Hot Press Natural Off-white 210 gsm paper. ISBN 0 646 20268 46/24 Signed on last page "A. Mann"art, artwork, allan mann, printmaking, artist's book