Summary

Copy of The Australasian Sketcher, Adelaide edition, 11 June 1881 (pp177-92), published by G.N. & W.H. Birks, Adelaide.

The front page illustration depicts the Exhibition Ball held on 1 June 1881 at the Exhibition Building to mark the close of the Melbourne International Exhibition. The newspaper contains illustrations and extensive text including articles about the Exhibition.

The Ball was attended by approximately 2,200 people, a figure lower than anticipated by the event organisers. While the Exhibition Buildings represented the largest such space to hold a Ball, the numbers meant that the floor was not particularly crowded, with no use being made of the northern transept. A stage for Allan's band, under the leadership of Henry Warnecke, was erected under the main dome. The interior of the hall itself was primarily decorated with ferns and flags.

The International Exhibition ran from 1 October 1880 to 30 April 1881. Over 1.3 million people visited the exhibition at a time when Melbourne's population was only around 282,000.

Physical Description

Copy of The Australasian Sketcher, Adelaide edition, 11 June 1881, pp.177-92, published by G.N. & W.H. Birks, Adelaide. Page 177 is the front page of the newspaper and has a highly decorative masthead and depicts the word 'Australasian' in an unfurling banner, with side foliate motifs, an artist's palette and brushes, and an ornamented 'Sketcher' with a winged female form emerging from the 'S'. The front page illustration depicts the Exhibition Ball held on 1 June 1881 at the Exhibition Building for the close of the Melbourne International Exhibition. The central figures are two men and one woman, all formally dressed in evening wear. One of the men is filling in the woman's dance card. He has a small sword in a scabbard attached to his belt. Men and women are dancing in the background.

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