Summary

Black & white engravings and text from The Australian Sketcher, 18 June 1881, pp. 197-98, published by Alfred May and Alfred Martin Ebsworth for Wilson & McKinnon, Melbourne.

The two pages of this newspaper extract discuss the Emperor of Germany's Prize awarded at the 1880 Melbourne International Exhibition.

The Emperor of Germany's prize was awarded to Messers Hubert De Castella and Andrew Rowan of St. Hubert's vineyard in the Upper Yarra Valley. The vineyard, still in operation in 2010, had been founded in 1862 by Hubert de Castella, eight years after he arrived in the colony of Victoria. Andrew Rowan had joined the business as a partner in 1879. One of the adjudicators of the award, Professor Reuleaux, noted that 'The Australian wines possessed many important qualities, and he expected that in time German vignerons would be quite shut out of the colonial market' (Argus, 26 April 1881, p.6).

The prize itself was made up of seven pieces of highly ornate silverware, including two candelabra and an epergne with a figure of Cupid holding his bow, all produced in Renaissance design. The silverware was offered by the German Emperor, and was earlier referred to as the Emperor William's Prize, to be awarded 'to an exhibitor of one of the Australian colonies as an acknowledgement of the efforts in promoting art and industry shown by the high quality of goods manufactured by such exhibitor' (Australasian Sketcher, 18 June 1881, p.198). From the 1 October 1880, it was on display to the public in the Imperial German tent in the Exhibition Building's northern transept.

Physical Description

Page 197 consists of two engraved images, the upper being of the 4th Earl of Clanwilliam, Richard James Meade (1832-1907), while the lower image depicts 'The Emperor of Germany's Prize'. Page 198 consists of three columns of news and articles, one of them being devoted to 'The Emperor of Germany's Prize' at the 1880-81 Melbourne International Exhibition.

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