A large panoramic bird's-eye view of Dunedin, together with the scarce key plate that identifies the major topographical features of the city.
From time to time, it was normal for the illustrated newspapers to include large birds-eye views of topical cities and towns.
By 1875, the central Otago Gold rush had pushed the rapid expansion and commercialization of the new colonial settlement of Dunedin.
This is reflected in the substantial civic and private buildings portraying the general prosperity of what was then New Zealand's largest city. The large port is depicted in the foreground with the Octogon in the centre of the engraving.
Very rare.
 
Published in The Illustrated Australian News. 1875.
 
Artist. Albert Cooke. 1836-1902.
 
Wood engraving with the two folds.
 
352 x 650 mm.
 
Wood engravings were first produced in Europe in the fifteenth century. During the late eighteenth century the process was reintroduced and used for inexpensive illustrated books. The nineteenth century publishing phenomena of the illustrated newspaper was made possible by use of the technique. The process allowed for the illustration and the text to be printed by a single pass through the printing press using the letterpress method.  It also made it possible for several engravers or even a team to produce and work on a single illustration at the same time.
 
All the major artists of the period contributed to the illustrations. Some papers acknowledged the artists on the plates but The Australasian Sketcher appears to have had a policy of anonymity. Where known, we have included the artist’s name.