illustrator, engraver and clock-maker, was born in Edinburgh, son of William Bruce, a shoemaker. After serving his apprenticeship with an engraver named Douglas, Charles Bruce was convicted of housebreaking and transported to Van Diemen’s Land. He arrived at Hobart Town aboard the Georgiana on 18 April 1829. The following year he was assigned to Dr James Ross, the then editor of the Hobart Town Courier . Between 1831 and 1837 he worked as an illustrator and engraver on Ross’s Hobart Town Almanack . Clifford Craig lists Bruce’s engravings in the almanacs for 1831, 1832, 1833, 1836 and 1837; they include maps, views and vignettes and are, as Craig notes, of a consistently high standard.
Records show that Bruce committed several offences during this period but he was nevertheless granted his freedom on 15 December 1841. The following year he set up as a clock and watch maker, later establishing an engraving and copperplate printing business in the Argyle Buildings, Argyle Street. Billheads with vignettes of the premises being advertised are known, such as one advertising the home-brewed ale and beer of the Jolly Hatter showing Bacchus overlooking hatters at work. In 1847 he had the convict engraver Thomas Robinson working for him, but the following year Robinson was found guilty of robbing his master and sent to Maria Island. In an 1847 advertisement Bruce offered a wide range of services, including clock and jewellery repairs, visiting and trade cards, bookplates and metal engraving.
Bruce died at his home in Argyle Street, Hobart Town, on 1 November 1851, aged forty-four. His best-known print is undoubtedly Hobart Town Chain Gang (c.1831), subsequently re-engraved in London and mistakenly reproduced in James Backhouse’s Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies (London 1843) as a chain-gang in New South Wales after a drawing by Backhouse (the location error was corrected in a later edition). However, several of Bruce’s independent prints are known (ML, Crowther Library, p.cs). One is annotated: 'This is not otherwise curious than as a specimen of the first efforts at Engraving in Van Diemens Land’ and 'Sent home from Vandiemen 1831’ (p.c. Tas.), the annotated date confirming that it was produced years before Backhouse , Walker and Wheeler came to Tasmania.
As government convicts were rarely depicted this chain-gang image has since been well circulated, but its artist-designer has never been identified (it is usually given to Backhouse). It is most improbable that it was Bruce. Even his minor engravings were normally after sketches by other artists. Natives of Van Diemen’s Land , engraved in France, was acknowledged as after a sketch by Robert Neill , who seems the most likely candidate for authorship of this quite different subject drawn in a comparably sharp outline style.
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
