Summary

Prize certificate awarded to Lloyd Tayler at the Sydney International Exhibition in 1879 for services in exhibiting design for the Melbourne International Exhibition. Tayler was awarded second place in the competition to design the (Royal) Exhibition Building in Melbourne in May 1878. Tayler was one of the most successful colonial architects of the period and his design for the Exhibition Building gives a vivid sense of the grandeur associated with the International Exhibition movement and the Colony of Victoria at the time.

Physical Description

Printed monochrome certificate with a stylised floral boarder surrounded by imagery relating to the British empire and the colony of Sydney. The imagery includes native flora and fauna, including an emu and kangaroo,

Significance

This prize certificate from the 1879 Sydney International Exhibition adds an additional dimension to the narrative told by the presentation watercolour of Lloyd Tayler's second prize design for the (Royal) Exhibition Building, Melbourne held by Museums Victoria. It also illustrates the strong connections between the 1879 Sydney and 1880 Melbourne International Exhibitions, with exhibits, exhibitors and officials travelling from Sydney to Melbourne. The Sydney International Exhibition is poorly documented in public collections due to the fire that engulfed the Garden Palace in 1882 destroying many of the artefacts from the exhibition that had remained in Sydney. To hold both an object exhibited at the Sydney International Exhibition and its corresponding prize certificate adds considerable research and display value to the Museum's collection of International Exhibition movement material. Tayler was one of the most successful colonial architects of the period and as such the certificate also provides a point from which to explore the pubic architecture of late 19th Century Melbourne, offering a contrast to the Museum's collection of 20th Century architectural models.

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