“England-V-Australia” Chess Set Ephemera
1978–1979. Six items comprising artwork for five exhibition posters: one with C-type photograph; two with screenprint of which one is hand-coloured; two in pen and ink; plus one magazine article, one poster signed and dated “1978” in pencil lower right, many captioned with exhibition details, 25 x 27.5cm to 54 x 33.9cm. Pinholes, creases, slight foxing, scuffing and minor tears, one with missing portion to lower left corner. Provenance: Hogarth Galleries. The group consists of the following six items (1) Exhibition poster showing Prince Philip and Dame Edna Everage as chess pieces, for “Peter Kingston’s Chess Set” at Hogarth Galleries, Paddington, in September and October 1978; (2) Exhibition poster artwork showing Prince Philip and Dame Edna Everage as chess pieces, with caption “Souvinir [sic]. Our son Kenny was an argonought [sic]. Soon at Hogarth Gallery”; (3) Exhibition poster artwork showing a photograph of Peter Kingston and his chess set, including caption “Australis’ ‘zanniest’ [sic] chess set—Jill Bowen, Aust. Women’s Weekly”; (4) Poster artwork with collage for The Chess Set Show, acknowledging exhibition and chess set construction work by seven artists (including Martin Sharp) and several organisers, and shows two process screen images: one with Dame Edna and Queen Elizabeth, the other with Dame Edna and the Bee Gees; (5) Exhibition poster artwork in pen and ink for “Drawings and etchings by Peter Kingston at the Hogarth Galleries”, December 1979; and (6) Illustrated magazine article from The Australian Women’s Weekly, June 7, 1978, titled “Anyone for chess with Corgi and Bess?” The chess set is held in AGNSW, with the comment “Created between 1976 and 1978…‘England-v-Australia’ chess set features a menagerie of characters representing the colonial and the colonised. Cuddlepie and the corgi, the Queen Mother and the Opera Diva Dame Joan, each figure is carved meticulously from Oregon and lovingly hand painted in enamel. The pieces cavort across a table flanked on four sides by the laughing, benevolent face which graces Sydney’s Luna Park.”
Item #CL199-134
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