modeller, Gore and her sisters Martha (1859-1940) and Wilhelmina (1861-1952), came from a family of nine children of Irish immigrant farm workers in the Uralla district, New England region (NSW). The three produced some dozens (perhaps many more) of wax-implanted, hair-coated papier-mâchè models, predominantly of cattle but also of sheep and kangaroos. Mary Jane married James Johnston in 1881 and continued to live in the Armidale district; Martha married Gustav Drabsch in 1878 and lived near Guyra, later moving to Queensland; and Wilhelmina married John Jurd in 1886 and lived in Sydney.
The sisters were the middle children of the family and their modelling gift was not shared by their siblings. Nor is there is other evidence as to where or how they learned their techniques. Women’s magazines seem a likely source, but the fine detail of hair set in the wax to form a sleek hide suggests knowledge of expensive doll production. They were serious about their craft: Wilhelmina described her occupation on her wedding certificate as 'modeller in wax’. Nonetheless, she refused paid commissions after her marriage and made groups of cows only for friends, eg triad of cows, now MAAS. Mary Jane practised the art all her life as a hobby, making individual and group works for her family and friends as well as for herself. After her marriage she also operated a dairy herd and business in and around Armidale for 30 years. Martha’s work is lost. Having married a farmer near Guyra, her collection was burnt with her home in a bushfire.
The sisters exhibited model cows in a number of international exhibitions: at Sydney in 1879, at the Melbourne Centennial International in 1888, probably at the 1886 Colonial and Indian, London, at the 1888 Glasgow International and at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. They were Highly Commended by the judges of the Ladies’ Court at the Sydney International Exhibition who noted kindly, 'the modelling shows a great deal of natural talent, worthy of encouragement’. Similarly recognised by the Sydney Morning Herald , they were rather romantically described as 'the untaught daughters of a shepherd’. They also entered model cows in local shows, such as the Exhibition of Women’s Industries in Sydney in 1888 and that held by the National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland in 1912. Examples of models by Mary Jane Gore and her sisters are to be found among the families and friends of their descendents in New England, in the Powerwhouse Museum and at Saumarez, near Armidale.
- Writers:
- Young, Linda
- Date written:
- 1995
- Last updated:
- 2011
