illustrator, engraver and publisher, was born in Hobart Town on 6 January 1847, a son of the portrait painter Thomas Bock and Mary Anne Cameron. He was taught drawing and engraving by his father and became known locally as a designer of illuminated addresses, crests and seals. In 1868 William Bock went to New Zealand, where he apparently spent the remaining 64 years of his life. He set up as a publisher and printer in Wellington, both on his own and in partnerships, his best-known work being done in partnership with Cousins in 1879-89, notably the printing and publishing of Sarah Ann Fenton’s Art Album of New Zealand Flora , the first fully-coloured book to be printed in New Zealand (1889). He designed crests, seals and illuminated manuscripts but no surviving Australian work is known. The Wellington firm he established, W.G. Bock and Sons, was being run by his great-great grandson in 1988.
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- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 1989
