This is a collection of 5 captioned postcards, each depicting the "Murrayfield" property, and in particular the cider works, and apple and apricot orchards. The printing credit on the rear reads: F.W.N. & Co. Printed in Melbourne.

The rear of one of the cards has the number '1920' written in pencil (year 1920?).

The cards measure 140 x 90 mm (5.5 x 3.5 inches). The postcards are reproductions of apparently hand-painted photographs. The rear of the postcards is printed in green ink.

F.W.N. & Co Melbourne was likely, I believe, the photolithography business at 40-42 Flinders Street Melbourne of Francis Wilson Niven. Niven was born in Dublin Ireland in 1831 and arrived in Melbourne in 1852. He went to the Ballarat goldfields and it seems that after venturing his hand at mining, established a lithographic business by about 1859, and later expanded to Melbourne around 1901. Niven died late 1905, and the Melbourne business was carried on by his son Henry Ninian Niven and eventually sold.

Source:

"A Seed of Consequence - Indirect Image Transfer and Chemical Printing - The Role Played by Lithography in the Development of Printing Technology", © David Bryans 24 Oct 2000 - Chapters 7 & 8.

Swinburne University of Technology, Victoria Australia