This definitive history of gold and silversmithing in Western Australia has been masterfully compiled by Dorothy Erickson, the first person to be awarded a PhD in Fine Arts from the University of Western Australia. Gold & Silversmithing tells the story of the Western Australia's many talented gold and silversmiths. It examines the stylistic, social, and economic milieu in which the works were created. Featuring over 500 full color photographs, Gold & Silversmithing is a beautiful coffee table book that merges fashion, history, and cultural identity.

Philip Noakes' questing mind and life's work have embodied his constant search for the refinement of his skills, leading him to become a renowned silversmith, goldsmith and jeweller. In 2016 he was recognised as a Fellow of the Institute of Professional Goldsmiths in the United Kingdom, taking his place among the most significant artists in the world. His work delves deep into his past and utilises the full range of his skills and imagination while keeping the continuity alive with historical references and contemporary concepts to achieve the innovation and excellence he pursues. Philip is a consummate craftsman and a highly original and innovative artist who refuses to be constrained by his history. He hovers on the cusp of endless possibility, searching always for something just beyond reach. The book celebrates Philip's achievements as a major Australian designer-maker and traces his evolution as a master craftsman, discusses the influences on his design concepts throughout his career, the people he has worked with, his working methods and values regarding art, design and skill, his role in education, and significant exhibitions and commissions.

This book considers the role played by co-operative agriculture as a critical economic model which, in Australia, helped build public capital, drive economic development and impact political arrangements. In the case of colonial Western Australia, the story of agricultural co-operation is inseparable from that of the story of Charles Harper. Harper was a self-starting, pioneering frontiersman who became a political, commercial and agricultural leader in the British Empire’s most isolated colony during the second half of the Victorian era. He was convinced of the successful economic future of Western Australia but also pragmatic enough to appreciate that the unique challenges facing the colony were only going to be resolved by the application of unorthodox thinking. Using Harper’s life as a foil, this book examines Imperial economic thinking in relation to the co-operative form of economic organisation, the development of public capital, and socialism. It uses this discussion to demonstrate the transfer of socialistic ideas from the centre of the Empire to the farthest reaches of the Antipodes where they were used to provide a rhetorical crutch in support of purely pragmatic co-operative establishments.

Throughout history, gold has been the stuff of legends, fortunes, conflict and change. The discovery of gold in Australia150 years ago precipitated enormous developments in the newly settled land. The population and economy boomed in spontaneous cities. The effects on both the environment and indigenous Aboriginal peoples have been profound and lasting. In this book, a team of prominent historians and curators have collaborated to produce an innovative cultural history of gold and its impact on the development of Australian society.

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