London or Tasmania?

[Robert J. Baran]

Can someone tell me "definitively" where this sale took place: http://www.phoenixbonsai.com/1900Refs/Mercury1900.html (an unofficially published page of ours). IF this was in Tasmania, then that would push the earliest documentation of what we know as bonsai in Australia from 1903 ( http://www.phoenixbonsai.com/1900Refs/Argus1903.html ) back three years.

Though the article comes from a Tasmanian paper in 1900 and includes "here" and "in this country," the reference to "Willis's Rooms" seems to place this sale of tiny Japanese trees in London. I have not been able to locate an Australian locale named "Willis's Rooms."

However, the reference to "Royal Botanic Gardens" could be either in Hobart or Kew. While the Hobart location of what is called the Royal Tasmanian Botanic Gardens was established in 1818, only in 1856 was Van Diemen's Land renamed Tasmania, and thus the RTBG could have been termed the RBG for some time -- at least my across-the-sea research suggests that possibility.

Any help is very much appreciated.

Thank-you.

[MattA]

Hey Robert, From my own research, between 1892 & atleast 1900 Willis's Rooms(Almacks) was an auction house run by Messrs Fisher & Robinson so is the most likely place for your sale.

Series 22. Scrap book re Willis's Rooms 1892-1900. 1v.
[Willis's Rooms was an auction house in St. James's Square, London, run by Messrs Fisher and Robinson]

http://www.adelaide.edu.au/library/special/mss/fisher/