Otago University [opened 1879].

[ca. 1877]

1877

Hocken Pictorial Collections - ?

a1597

We can assume that this work, by being one of two elevations of the west wall of the clocktower building, was effectively commissioned by the University in 1877 when they asked Bury, the winner of the competition for a new university building, to provide a gothic Design The final contracts for which Maxwell Bury was employed were let in 1884, after which Bury no longer maintained a practice in Dunedin and so it looks as though, from the mid-1880s until until ca 1908, this drawing, along with the other Bury drawings, was the property of the University. In 1908 Edmunde Anscombe was contracted to design the School of Mines and by degrees became the University architect. Besides being commisioned to design new buildings, he also designed the Oliver and Physics wings of the clocktower building. It seems likely that while he was in charge of the university buildings and thought of as the University architect, he and his associates (H. McDowell Smith & L.D. Coombs), came into possession of these drawings. The firm of Miller and White inherited one half of Anscombe's practice (the McDowell Smith half was inherited by the firm that is now Oakley Grey but was for a while Pinfold, Oakley & Turvey). Miller & White became, post WW2, Miller, White & Dunn, then Miller, White & Dalziel, and finally Dalziel Architects It seems that this work was retained by these firms as part of their property, and lent to the University of Otago in 1969 for 100 years celebrations.

Upper left (u.l.) in pencil: E. Bury, Architect; l.c. in ink: Otago University; l.r. in pencil: Architect Bury.

Architectural drawings

745 x 1545 mm (irreg); on paper: 845 x 1675 mm (attached to calico)

ink & watercolour on paper

Deposited by the University of Otago & Miller White & Dunn, Dunedin, 1966 in Hocken, placed initially in archives and then in pictures - claimed by and returned to Dalziel Architects, 1995; deposited with archives of Dalziel Architect Ltd April 1997.

Deposited by Dalziel Architects Ltd, 1997.