Print: Baxter CL 196 – A companion to No. 195 Australia News from Home which had been published a short while earlier.  Signed on the hearthstone "Published May 10th, 1854, by G.  Baxter, Proprietor and Patentee, London,"
 
Courtney Lewis in The ‘Picture Printer’ 1924 describes the scene as “An old cobbler and his wife listen whilst their daughter reads the ship letter, which has enclosed them a £100 note, sent, no doubt, from the boys at the gold fields in the colony.”
 
An interesting feature is the poster pinned to the cottage wall – Emigration to Australia in the ship ‘Hope’ and you can see the word Melbourne.” Looking at shipping records online I can find the ship ‘Hope’ arriving in Melbourne in Nov 1852 carrying 389 unassisted passengers, again in March 1853 carrying 191 and then in January 1854 carrying 72. Unassisted passengers were the ones that paid their own fares.
 
For the fullest detail read HERE
 
This was produced from twelve blocks, and originally sold at 1s. 6d.
 
Date: 1854
 
Approx. size (cm ht x w): 11 x 15 (print) 18.4 x 25.4 (mount)
 
State: On stamped mount as issued by Baxter – a stamp ‘GEL’ on the reverse being the stamp of Mr G Lambert, the well known Baxter collector of the mid 1900’s.
 
Condition: Pristine colours, odd marks to mount