The first settler in Western Victoria was Edward Henty and his porperty near Coleraine was called Muntham. Originally it was 57,000 acres, nowadays it and the homestead remain although the property is much reduced in size.

The Henty flocks are observable and the clear land the Henty's settled shows in the painting. This area has more trees on it today than it did in Henty's time when the Aboriginal tradition of burning the landscape to manage it minimised the number of trees. The cleared land meant the area became productive quickly and was the foundation for the agricultural wealth of Western Victoria.

Consisting of three sugar vases with their spoons, this set is one of the finest examples of English Rococo silver in Australia. The Shaw Bequest was particularly rich in English silverware and these three vases are the gem of the bequest.

We take sugar for granted now but in the 18th century it was a rarity that only the wealthy had access too, hence these expensive containers. The spoons are pierced to allow the sprinkling of sugar on fruit, just as we would use them today.

The 18th century 'Father of watercolour' Paul Sandby was a prolific artist and his grandest work is Windsor Forest. He had access to this area through his brother, who was Keeper of Windsor Great Forest and Paul Sandby often stayed there with him.

At the time this painting was created Windsor Forest was the King's hunting reserve and consequently populated with deer, that are obvious in this work, and no doubt other wild animals. Queen Elizabeth II is a great collector of Sandby's work because many show the environs of Windsor Castle, which is one of her homes.

This dramatic painting was created by Australian artist Kate Benyon and incorporates elements of traditional Chinese painting – the identifying seals of the artist appear in the top left of the painting while the tattoo incorporates peony flower decoration.

Kate was born in Hong Kong to a Chinese-Malaysian mother and Welsh father before her family immigrated to Australia when she was four. The artist says her works explore “...the multi-layered experiences of people negotiating ‘hybrid’ or ‘mixed’ identities produced by a nexus of cultural influences such as heritage, family histories, travel, language, paths of migration and a sense of belonging”.

This work plays an important role within Hamilton Art Gallery’s collection, bridging its historic Asian collection to its contemporary Australian collection.

This seven piece garniture is the last one in existence.

Consisting of very early English porcelain made at the Bow Factory near London, it imitates Japanese porcelain shapes but is decorated in Chinoiserie style. The gilding was probably done outside the Bow Factory by gilders located in Battersea, where enamelling was traditionally undertaken at that time.

Kondo Yuzo (1903 - 1985) has a distinguished career on many front but his ultimate achievement was to be nominated as a Living National Treasure in 1977 as the great master and innovator of underglaze blue decoration.

This is a rich and impressive work, consistent with the richly embellished work that often came from Kyoto, influenced as it was by the presence of the Imperial Court. This, together with Yuzo's hallmark underglaze blue painting and its size make it a truly superb example of his work. This work is an important addition to the gallery's collection of Asian ceramics, which features items dating back to the Song Dynasty (960 - 1279AD).

Sidney Nolan did a number of works based on primitive Calabrian wayside crosses, initially as a response to his travels through the Italian countryside. Later he was to live on the Aegean Islands when the backgrounds of these paintings moved away from suggestions of a classical landscape to one inspired by the whitewashed villages of the Greek Islands. Consistent through this group of paintings though were the outlined tools of the crucifixion and the face of Christ.

These paintings were some of the last created with Nolan's favoured medium of Ripolin, as the light he wished to convey in these and later works was hindered by the inherent opacity of the medium and he moved to acrylic as a replacement.

Hamilton Art Gallery has record of four other images of Crucifixion paintings by Nolan, one of which is now in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, but this remains the most consolidated version of them all.

Funerary ceramics constitute a sizeable portion of what remains of early Chinese ceramics and this covered jar is a prime example.

This work is covered with the archetypal celadon glaze and has come from the Longquan kilns in Zhejiang Province of China.

Rosanjin Kitaoji (1883 - 1959) was one of the greatest Japanese ceramicists of the twentieth century. His deep understanding of traditional types and styles enabled him to reassess Japanese ceramics and modernise them within the tradition of their origin.

This piece, based on a Shigaraki platter, has Rosanjin's hallmark edge and turned up corners as well as the sgrafitto decoration and residual ash glaze that combine to make a useful modern platter with many historic overtones.

Originating during the Tenpo era (1830 - 1844) this piece is late Edo period but it depicts a Japan before the reforms of the Meiji era that followed it.

The first full mapping of Japan occurred in 1822 and as this information was considered strategically significant it was held by the Shogunate along. Being aware of the outline of Japan would have been seen as very avant garde when these plates were designed. However the artist who created this design left Hokkaido off the map and the Daimyo domains are named but shown as the same size.

This plate represents the state of general knowledge when it was made and as such is a marker of the development of Japan and the gradual realisation within the country that they were indeed part of a larger world.

Christopher Dresser was the first person to be known as a "designer". Trained as a botanist he went on to establish a career as a designer for industry and work with over fifty different companies in England.

Among these companies was the porcelain manufacturer Minton and the designs he produced for them were undoubtedly the richest works he was responsible for. This vase illustrates a design done in the so-called cloisonne technique. These items were not true cloisonne, only influenced by the technique that was used in the production of enameled wares. Japanese cloisonne was popular in Europe at the time and this interest in Japanese applied art was fostered and stimulated by Dresser who had visited Japan.

Pavel Hlava was one of the great Czech glass artists who came to prominence after 1945. His output is diverse and rich, but none is quite as unique as the pieces produced during the brief time he experimented with "garnet" glass.

This glass was one of a number of experimental glasses that resulted from the addition of trace rare earth elements that gave the glasses very exotic properties. "Garnet" glass, as this type became known, changed colour each time it was heated. Initially the piece was yellow, which on the first re-heating became red and then it went to black. These properties were exploited by indenting the glass while it was still soft with red hot rods. This created the 'spines' reminiscent of those on a hedgehog, with the glass turning black a as the rod reheated it for the third time.

Today Italian architect Carlo Scarpa is probably best known for the glass he designed for Venini. It is highly sought after and considered the ultimate embodiment of Italian modernist design.

None of his pieces were large but their quality, innovation and originality have made them highly desirable for museums and collectors alike. At the 1940 Venice Biennale, Carlo Scarpa designed Venini's contribution which consisted of a number of pieces of glass with 'hammered' surfaces. This technique was invented by Scarpa with the intention that the surface looked like beaten silver ('bees nest' hammering) or of worked stone (horizontal or vertical hammering). Of the eighteen pieces exhibited at Venice only three had the 'bees nest' surface and they were either in red or blue glass and all around 18cm tall.

Melbourne born Howard Arkley first came to prominence during the 1970s and has been described as Australia's only true proponent of Pop Art. He quickly gained international acclaim as an artist who celebrates the rich tapestry of Australian suburbia.

In the 1997 publication Spray, Arkley reflects that, "Australian art has been dominated by the rural landscape and I think there is something false and overrated - it's romanticised or, at the very least, lopsided. Most of the population live in an urban environment."

This iconic work articulates Arkley's vision and firmly establishes the 'Australian dream' of the 1950s at the centre of contemporary Australian art. Purchased in 1994 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Hamilton Art Gallery Trust Fund, the inclusion of this work in the collection is testament to the foresight of those involved in its purchase.

More sculpture than ceramic and yet both at the same time!

This example from Kishi Eiko's famous series is based on Japanese Noh dancers in their richly brocaded costumes, masks and fans. Technically the production of this work is complex. Intimate viewing reveals as surface of great complexity, more like a woven fabric than ceramic.

Kishi Eiko is one of a small group of Japanese women ceramicists who have taken the world by storm. This is an important contemporary addition to the gallery's collection of Asian Ceramics.

The first tapestry by John Wolseley, brings together a series of local feature that appealed to John on this visits to the Hamilton district in 2010.

John's work has always shown sensitivity to nature and ecology of places he has chosen to depict and this work follows that approach. John's extensive research of the region surfaces in the choice of moths and butterflies he has included - species many locals would not realise are endemic to the area but in their own way are as symbolic as the better known profiles of the mountains and caves also depicted.

In some ways Surge 15.2 marks a departure from the functional to the more sculptural in the gallery's growing glass collection.

Asaka's powerful work embodies strong contrasts. Surge 15.2 highlights extreme tensions in the medium of glass - between a sense of repose and of dynamism, yin and yang, smoothness and sharpness. The work has a compelling sense of flow and movement.

This bronze figure would have been made in China for a Tibetan Buddhist sect or temple.

It is stylistically Tibetan however the Buddha's characteristics belie its Chinese origins. The mudra (hand gesture) of this figure is that of Man La, the Buddha of Medicine, with the left hand symbolising mediation and the right hand giving.

Dean Bowen's work takes children's perceptions of the world as its starting point, giving them a naive quality that belies a greater depth. His paintings are depicted as whimsical, quirky, joyous and eternally optimistic - all complimentary assessments of his repertoire of subjects.

This painting is the culmination of a series of paintings based on houses depicted at night under starry skies. Its small, evenly distributed windows and similarly diminutive entry suggests its dysfunctional nature and references the meaning of its title. Closer observation indicates a human presence as the lights are on in all the windows and light streams from the doorway. These characteristics all signify the security and significance that a house represent in most people's minds and what starts in the painting as a simple house becomes a signifier of deeper emotions.

Wada Morihiro (1944 - 2008) spent time in the United States of America and while there picked up some of the experimentation with various forms of abstraction that were occurring at that time.

Unlike most Japanese potters who look to nature as a source of decoration, Wasa was one of the few Japanese artists of the twentieth century who decorated his work with abstract patterns. In earlier work such as this, they were dominant patterns but later he moved to smaller units that gave a softer looking decorative surface to his work.

Daniel McOwan, the Director of Hamilton Art Gallery discusses the Shaw Bequest which led to the establishment of the gallery in 1961 and takes us on a tour of the gallery’s diverse collection, spanning watercolours to decorative arts.

See work from the finest European silversmiths; ceramic masterpieces from England, China and Japan; as well as paintings by Australian contemporary artists Howard Arkley and Kate Beynon.