ALLCOT, John

John Allcot, Marine Artist

Sydney, Copperfield Publishing Company Pty. Ltd., 1978.

Folio (approximately 500 × 380 mm), [viii], xiii, 160, xiv-xxxv pages with numerous illustrations and 40 tipped-in colour plates with tissue-guards.

Full calf lettered and decorated in gilt on the spine and front cover; a fine copy in the slightly marked and scuffed gilt-decorated slipcase.

Number 204 of 500 copies signed by the artist's son, Rodney Allcot. John Charles Allcot (1888-1973), born in Liverpool and the son of a mariner, was apprenticed to a lithographer at the age of 14; five years later, he went to sea himself. 'Arriving in Sydney ... in 1909, Allcot signed on with the old clipper, "Antiope." He worked in coastal, island and intercolonial vessels out of Sydney before giving up the sea in 1912.... Supporting himself by painting theatre sets, he obtained commissions for ship paintings from Sydney photographers and toured the countryside, completing landscapes which he exhibited regularly with the Royal Art Society of New South Wales from 1920.... He gained widespread recognition in the 1920s with a series of oil paintings (on the founding of the Australian colonies) which were later acquired by the Australasian Pioneers' Club. Other commissions followed. Allcot also worked as an illustrator and wrote articles about the sea for the "Sydney Mail". In the 1940s he painted the seas for ship-models built by the sculptor Robert Klippel....

Painting to tried and tested conventions, with impeccable attention to detail, Allcot used water-colour and gouache, and oils. His work was prolific and romantic. At a time of great change in the shipping industry, he specialized in nostalgic views of sailing ships and steamers, and found an appreciative market of ship-owners, captains, crews and their families. While best known for his ships, he continued to enjoy painting landscapes' ('Australian Dictionary of Biography').