Restored Inveresk farm paintings on display

South Otago Museum curator Gary Ross with the Lawes Challenge shield and  six restored paintings...
South Otago Museum curator Gary Ross with the Lawes Challenge shield and six restored paintings of scenes of farming property Inveresk. Photo by Helena de Reus.
A restored collection of paintings depicting unique farm buildings and practices in South Otago is on display in Balclutha.

The South Otago Museum last year started a collaboration to fund the restoration of six watercolour paintings depicting Inveresk, a property near Stirling that was established by settler George Hay Gilroy.

The restored paintings arrived in Balclutha last week and have been installed alongside the Lawes Challenge shield.

Museum curator Gary Ross said it was exciting to see the paintings restored.

The project cost $1700, paid for by the owner, South Otago Museum, the Balclutha Genealogy Society and the Clutha community.

Mr Gilroy arrived in New Zealand in 1862 and opened the first of his many blacksmithing businesses in Bluff, before moving and continuing this trade in Stirling, South Otago, in 1864, Mr Ross said.

He operated similar businesses at various locations across the district. An active member of the community and the business sector, he went on to become a respected, award-winning farmer, Mr Ross said.

The most significant of these awards was the Sir John Bennett Lawes Challenge shield for the best-managed farm in Otago and Southland. It was presented outright to Mr Gilroy after he won it four times from 1894 to 1897.

Mr Ross said the six Inveresk paintings were created by R. Harrison in 1897 to mark the achievement.

The shield stayed in the family until 1987, when it was given to the South Otago Museum.

It was an ''amazing opportunity'' to display the paintings with the shield. The Inveresk paintings depict the historic outbuildings, which are still standing today, as well as the first of the two wooden structures owned by Mr Gilroy.

Mr Ross said both were replaced with some of the most significant structures still standing in the district today.

The first is on the Inveresk property and was built in 1909, of Benhar salt-glazed conduit pipes, which give it a distinctive glass-like finish, and the second is the stone house erected on nearby Inch Clutha one year later.

The paintings also show farm buildings, agricultural machinery and animal breeds on the farm, and are owned by Mr Gilroy's granddaughter.

Mr Ross said there was little information about the painter R. Harrison.

Anyone who has any information about R. Harrison is asked to contact the South Otago Museum.

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