The Builders of Melbourne: The Cockrams and their Contemporaries

Good. Some rubbing damage to dustcover.

Publication number 192 of 720 Hardcover limited edition.

Mary Turner Shaw is by profession an architect, and by inclination a social historian.
This happy coincidence made her a `natural' for the enjoyable task of chronicling the activities of the long-established family firm of master builders, T. R. & L. Cockram, who have been connected with the Melbourne and Victorian scene since 1853. Miss Turner Shaw's book, as a result, is not just another work on the architecture of Melbourne,:but something different.
The author's intimate knowledge of the builder-architect-client relationship and her keen interest in materials and design have enabled her to write with authority on the work of the firm in school, terrace house, hotel, church, theatre and hospital construction, and the mark Cockram buildings have made on the fabric of Melbourne. Her interest in social history has enabled her to place in the context of their times the great developments in buildings practises and traditions.
Her meticulous history is a pioneering work; it is the first serious attempt to describe the contribution of Victoria's builders to the visual history of Melbourne. Many firms of master builders, often family businesses, have become part of the building tradition dating back to gold rush and 'Marvellous Melbourne' days and some have continued to the present time.
A fascinating section of this book which helps best to capture the feeling of 'building in the blood' is where some of the elder builders discuss on tape the founding fathers of the industry, and names of David Mitchell, J. C. Taylor, A. R. P. Crow, Emil Goette, Lauritz Hansen, Otto Yuncken, Clements Langford and those of greater and lesser men, enter these pages and receive their due place in a broad canvas.
136 pages, Crown quarto, nearly .so plates, plans and sections, bibliography, index.
720 numbered copies, cased, and simultaneous limp edition.
Also (in the separate Cypress Historical Backgrounds series) a range of Historical Backgrounds to the Central Goldfields, the Aboriginal People, the Ovens Valley, Convict Letters and Geelong. Illustrated brochure available on request.