Cirrus@Austlit

'Collectors are particular kinds of people; Sir Russell Grimwade (1879–1955) was no exception. For twenty-five years, he carried a handwritten list in his wallet: ‘West Engravings 1813–14 Missing Numbers’, referring to an obscure print series, Absalom West’s Views of Sydney and Surrounds. These are the first landscape engravings produced in the colony of New South Wales in 1813–14. Grimwade’s list (May 1930) is of thirteen of the twenty-four prints, known by number, still to be collected. As each one was acquired, it was crossed off. This small archival fragment gives an insight into how Grimwade, a collector of Australiana, operated. He was Melbourne’s version of Sydney’s famed David Scott Mitchell and William Dixon. Grimwade’s extraordinary collection is of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century books, prints, watercolours, drawings, photographs, maps and other objects amassed between c.1920 and 1955. His wife Mab (Lady Grimwade) added a few contemporary paintings after he died, and in 1973, following Lady Grimwade’s death, their home Miegunyah and its contents were bequeathed to the University of Melbourne. This is what is known as the Grimwade collection. It is vast and includes 100 volumes held in Special Collections and 700 artworks in the University’s Art Collection. Pride of Place: Exploring the Grimwade Collection turns the microscope on selected items in this collection.' (Introduction)