From Thomas Bewick to Botany Bay. The wayward career of Philip Slager, convict engraver.
Title
From Thomas Bewick to Botany Bay. The wayward career of Philip Slager, convict engraver.
Author
Tattersfield, Nigel; Butler, Roger (foreword).Details
Kent, England: The Florin Press, 2025Publication date
2025Physical description
pages: 132; illustrations: 35, 25 colour; endnotes,; index; dimensions: 24.5 x 17.5 cm.Type
Book
Language
EnglishCountry of context
Australia
Subject category
Australia, Art period: Colonial, New South Wales
Abstract
In 1800 the British prison system was bursting at the seams, and juries were reluctant to judge a man or woman guilty when they could be sent to the gallows. The British government concluded that transporting convicts to the recently established, labour hungry colony of New South Wales would solve these problems at a stroke.
As a result, between 1788 and 1868, some 162,000 convicts were delivered in manacles to the transport ships and despatched down-under. Amongst the petty thieves and habitual jailbirds were skilled tradesman who had been convicted of white-collar offences.
One of these artist-craftsman was Philip Slager. Until now nothing was known of his life prior to transportation. But a marginal note in a workshop record showed he pitched up in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1789, on the tramp and looking for work as an engraver on copper. Naturally he sought employment in the workshop of Ralph Beilby & Thomas Bewick, the most sucessful copper and wood engraving business in town.
[Publishers media, 2025].
Last Updated
25 Jun 2025