Browne Thomas Aexander (1 results)

[Melbourne, ca. 1895]. Manuscript in ink on section of grey notepaper with letterhead of 'Raveloe, South Yarra', mounted on card, 80 x 115 mm;signed by Browne ontwo lines with his real name,"T A Browne" and with his nom de plume below, "Rolf Boldrewood"; small old glue mark at right edge, not affecting the signatures, else fine. The rare signature(s) of writer, pastoralist and gold commissioner Thomas Alexander Browne (1826-1915). Browne, best known by his pen name Rolf Boldrewood, was the author of the classic Australian novelRobbery Under Arms, which wasfirst published in the Sydney Mail betweenJuly 1882 and August 1883. The novel was based largely on Browne's experiences as a police magistrate and gold commissioner at Gulgong on the New South Wales goldfields during the 1870s. Earlier in his career Browne had spent time as a squatter in the Port Phillip district, his father having been one Port Phillip's pioneer settlers. He retired to Melbourne in 1895, around which time these signatures were obtained by Jane Emma Murphy (Balcombe), evidently at a soiree at her sister Alice's house, Raveloe, in Domain Road, South Yarra. Alice and her husband, wealthy lawyer Harry Emmerton, were prominent figures in Melbourne's high society of the time. Their only child, Mabel (Dame Mabel Balcombe Brookes, 1890?1975), was born in Raveloe in 1890. Provenance: Autograph album compiled by Jane Emma Murphy (Balcombe) (1854?1924), "The Briars," Mornington, Victoria (Australia); àBeckett family, Melbourne (by descent).