from the special collections of the Fryer Library
Gleanings from Australian Verse

In late 2009, a manuscript titled Gleanings from Australian Verse was purchased for the Fryer Library collection, thanks to a Sydney book dealer and money from the Hadgraft Memorial Fund. The manuscript was commissioned by Father Leo Hayes in 1940, and he referred to the manuscript in an interview he did with staff of The Bulletin, which was published on 26 November 1947:

    ’Look at this work. A Queensland woman did it. A Manchester woman really, but she’s been in Queensland quite a while now. I got her to do the work for me. It’s in the manner of the illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages. See, black-letter work with picture initial letters. One book contains my favourite Australian poems . . . Look at those tiny water colours. Less than an inch square, yet look at the detail. See, here's Mary Hannay Foott's "Where the Pelican Builds".’

This unique volume, and its sister volume of English verse which Hayes also mentioned to The Bulletin staff, were not part of the vast Hayes collection donated to the University in 1967. The Queensland/Manchester woman referred to by Father Hayes was artist Ella Lillian Pederson. Born Ella Lilian Glover in 1898, she completed a Diploma of Arts and Crafts at the Manchester College of Arts in 1918. She moved to Queensland after marrying pastoralist Andrew Pedersen in 1921.

Pederson worked with a variety of media throughout her life — including textiles, weavings, pottery, embroidery and paintings in oil and watercolour — but it is her skill with illumination and calligraphy which is evident in this book. Each of the 17 poems chosen by Father Hayes has been written in beautiful calligraphy by Pederson, and the accompanying illustrations depict the location or subject of each poem.

[1.] Left: The tooled leather cover of Gleanings from Australian Verse F3453, Fryer Library

Zoom  Click to view inside

[2.] Inside: The title and facing page of Gleanings from Australian Verse F3453, Fryer Library, University of Queensland.

 

[3.] Detail of poem The Old Salt
by Lydia M.D. O'Neil

[4.] Detail of title page

[5.] Lilian Pedersen's book-binding tools
 

An article profiling Pedersen’s work, including this book, appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald in November 1940. In it, the book is described as being ’bound in calf with a large oval inlay of beaten pewter studded with precious stones’. The stones were collected by Father Hayes around Crows Nest, where he was parish priest. Unfortunately the original cover did not survive intact. The central panel was replaced by book restorer Anne Cloonan in the early 2000s, with the one remaining gemstone, a chrysophase, set in. The tooled leather surrounding the panel is the original Pedersen cover — her bookbinding tools are also held by Fryer Library.

Penny Whiteway, Fryer Library

 
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