Royal Commonwealth Society : [Spinebill honeyeaters]

Bartlett, Violet Artah (fl 1919-1930)

Royal Commonwealth Society

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This is a collection of 53 watercolour bookmarks sold by John Sands of Sydney, one of Australia’s pioneering printing and bookselling firms. In 1881 it produced one of the country’s first sets of Christmas and New Year cards. The watercolours are of Australian birds, with the exception of two koala bears, two kangaroos and one opossum. The vast majority are the work of three artists, signed Artah, M. Simpson and Koddi. Artah is Violet Artah Bartlett, an artist specialising in ornithology who worked in Sydney during the 1920s. It has proved impossible as yet to gather information about the other two artists, so we would be very grateful for help in identifying them.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>See Janus record <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0115%2FRCMS%20278%2F2'>here</a></p>