Rare and Curious

The Macquarie and Dixson collectors' chests hold tales of ambition, friendship and intrigue played out against the beautiful and confronting Australian frontier landscape. Commissioned by Governor Macquarie in the early 1800s, these cabinets of curiosities display exotic natural history including layers of jewel-bright preserved butterflies, insects and birds, seaweed specimens and shells, as well as beautifully painted panels believed to be by some of Australia's best early colonial painters. ""Rare and Curious"" tells the story of the chests and reveals much about the fledgling colony, Governor Macquarie and his vision and hopes, the convict artists and craftsmen who worked on the chests and the natural landscape and natural history of colonial Australia. The book also traces the journey of the chests, which have recently been reunited for the first time in nearly 200 years. The Dixson chest, which had been virtually stripped of its contents, was acquired by the State Library of New South Wales in 1937 and the Macquarie chest, which remained virtually intact, had languished in a Scottish castle until the late 1980s.