London or Tasmania?
Posted: December 23rd, 2012, 7:46 am
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.
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.