Tracking A.B. Triggs and his collections - Arthur Bryant Triggs - Biography

MARGIN: Life & Letters in Early Australia, Nov, 2003 by Alan Ives

Arthur Bryant Triggs was born in 1868 at Chelsea, London, England. His family included his younger brother H. Inigo Triggs (1876-1923) the well known English landscape garden designer, architect and author; and the architect Inigo Triggs was also a family member. Triggs arrived in Sydney in 1887. He joined the Bank of New South Wales and moved to the Bank's branch in Yass in November 1888. He married first on 29 June 1892 in Yass. The first Mrs. Triggs died in 1897; and he married again in March 1901. Over time he owned or leased a considerable number of sheep stations across New South Wales from Fort Bourke in the far north-west to Talbingo and Wee Jasper in the south-east. At least one such property--Merri Merrigal on the Lachlan River--remains in family hands. That station passed from A.B. Triggs to his son Inigo; and in turn it passed to Jim Triggs and his wife Mary, and thence to their son. Triggs had a daughter by his first marriage and two daughters and two sons by his second. Their names were, respectively, Jessie, Annie, Dora, Inigo and Gordon. He died at his home 'Linton' at Yass in New South Wales on 9 September 1936. His funeral took place on 12 September 1936 under Presbyterian rites in Yass. Mrs. May Triggs died in 1945.

Triggs' obituary in the Sydney Morning Herald in September 1936 records that at one time he owned or leased the following properties: "in the Yass District they included Douro Plains, Otterbourne, Narrengullen, Blomfield, Sugarloaf, Wee Jasper, Taemas Vale and Beder. Properties in other parts of the State included Wirchillaba, Tara, Eremeran, Moonagee, Merri Merrigal, Yarrandale, Willie Ploma, Long Plain, Currangorambla, Uabba, North Merrowie, Noah Whoey and Ballandry". Another property that Triggs owned was Coan Downs in the Lower Darling Squatting District. He bought it in 1912, sold it to Robert McGeech in 1914, and McGeech sold the property back to Triggs in 1924. It then remained in his hands or those of his estate until 1953 when it was divided as part of a closer settlement scheme.

A. B. Triggs was a serious collector with many varied interests including art--both etchings and paintings, books--Dickens, Shakespeare and religious works especially early bibles were of much interest to him, coins, incunabula and manuscripts. Walter T. Spencer in his book (1923) records that Triggs had the idea of establishing a small Dickens Museum at Yass. While Triggs had some extraordinary pieces of Dickensiana nothing ever came of the idea --unfortunately.

In the 1920s--in 1924 in particular--at least three catalogues relating to different parts of Triggs' collections appeared. Two he seems to have compiled himself and had printed in Yass and one--the catalogue of his remarkable coin collection such as it then was--was produced for him in London. In 1938, after A.B. Triggs' death, Mrs. May Triggs presented his Greek and Roman coin collection to the Nicholson Museum at the University of Sydney.

In September and November 1945 two sales were held by James R. Lawson, the Sydney auctioneers. The first sale was held at 'Linton', the Triggs' home and lasted four days. The second sale was held in Sydney and lasted three days. The sales were held following the death of A.B. Triggs second wife who was also considerable collector in her own right especially of fine lace.

The title page of the September 1945 sale catalogue reads:

   "Catalogue/of/The Valuable Period Furniture/Rare Art Treasures/
   A Collection of Important Pictures/The Library of Valuable Books/
   Costly Household Appointments and Effects/ ... /and/the whole of the
   costly effects and domestic requisites/contained throughout the
   residence/ "Linton"/Yass--N.S.W./to be sold by public auction/on/
   Tuesday, 11th September, 1945/and the three following days/ ...".

The catalogue has an introduction. Of the books the following is stated:

   "The Library of Books is most exstensive and contains many rare
   volumes, including magnificent 14th and 15th century Illuminated
   Manuscripts, Rare Old Bibles, including a copy of the Nuremberg
   Chronicle [certified complete by Bernard Quaritch], the "She"
   Bible, the first edition of the Bishop's Version, fine examples
   of chain binding, and many others, together with Dickensiana,
   Shakespeariana, Australiana, Incnabula, Numismatica, finely
   bound editions of the Standard Authors, Dictionaries,
   Encyclopaedia[s], and general literature on many subjects".

The section of the September 1945 catalogue listing the books begins with lot 806. The listing is very brief in each case--usually recording only the author's surname and a 'short' title. Often lots contain more than one item. Lots 806 to 1029 are listed under the heading 'general'. Lots 1030 to 1063 are 'Australiana'. Lots 1064 to 1110 are again 'general'. Lots 1111 to 1146 are 'Incunabula, Manuscripts and early printed and extra illustrated books'. The descriptions in this section of the catalogue are more substantial than for other parts of the library, presumably because of the complexities of describing them at all. Lots 1146a to 1197 are 'Dickensiana'. Much of this material was acquired from Walter T. Spencer in London. A.B. Triggs is mentioned in Spencer's book "Forty Years in My Bookshop". According to James Tyrrell in his 1952 comments about A.B. Triggs, "Spencer once said to Sir Marcus Clark that his two best customers were A.B. Triggs and Fred Wymark [of Angus and Robertson] ...". Lots 1198 to 1217 are 'Shakespeariana'. Lots 1218 to 1299 are 'Numismatica', one of Triggs' major collecting interests as evinced by the 1924 (see below) printed catalogue of his coin collection as it then was. The coin catalogue was compiled by the firm of Spink & Son in London and printed at Macon in France. Mention is made of the Greek and Roman coins in Triggs' collection in the 1945 and 1948 Handbooks of the Nicholson Museum at the University of Sydney (see below). Mrs. May Triggs gave them the coins in 1938.