This series relates to the registration for copyright of works of fine art.  It contains registers, negatives and reference prints as outlined below:
C2229/7: preservation master set of negatives and transparencies
C2229/8: duplicating negatives and transparencies
C2229/9: reference copy prints
C2229/10: nine Registers of Copyright
The reference print copies (C2229/9) and negatives and transparencies have been created by the National Archives for preservation and copying purposes, as a result of the contents of the first register of copyright (B1) of C2229/10. Some of the exhibits from register B1 have been individually described as sub-items on RecordSearch and digitised for online access.
This first volume (B1) contains examples of works glued underneath the registration details. The exhibits include a colour set of Australian floral cards designed by Helena and Harriet Scott, among which are some Christmas cards likely to be the first produced in Australia. The Christmas cards were published for sale by the National Archives in 1989.  The rest of the exhibits in Register B1 comprise black and white photographs (see further below).
The reference print copies of the photographs and Scott cards have been listed individually in the RecordSearch item database.
Legislative Background:
The Copyright Act 1879 (NSW) Part II included provisions relating to works of fine art. Section 25 of the Act provided that the authors of new and original paintings, drawings, works of sculpture, engravings and photographs had exclusive reproduction rights for a specified number of years. Section 27 further provided that there should be kept a book or books entitled "'The Register of Proprietors of Copyright in Paintings, Drawings, Works of Sculpture, Engravings and Photographs' wherein shall be entered upon payment of the fee provided by virtue of this Act in that behalf a memorandum of every copyright to which any person shall be entitled under this Part of the Act". 
The NSW Government Gazette (No. 259, 22 Jul 1879) notified that "in pursuance of sec. 52 of the `Copyright Act, 1879', that the Office of Copyright Registry shall be established".
The Commonwealth Constitution in 1901 provided that the Commonwealth have the power to make  laws with respect to copyright. The Commonwealth Copyright Act 1905 provided for the establishment of a Registrar of Copyrights and a Copyright Office with the transfer of the administration of the State Copyright Acts and associated records to the Commonwealth. The transfer was proclaimed to take effect on 1 February 1907.
The Registers of Copyright (C2229/10):
C2229/10 comprises nine large volumes registering copyright in paintings, drawings, work of sculpture, engravings and photographs. Entries are recorded by single number and run from volume to volume, with a year prefix (from 79/1 to 06/2006). Entries were recorded as one registration per page, except for the last pages in B9 which have multiple registrations.
The NSW Gazette (No. 259, 22 Jul 1879) specified the register contents. Pages were divided into columns with the following headings: number; date; name (or names) and address of proprietor or author; description of work; date of first publication; and, under the heading assignment or transfer: date of registration; name and address of assignor; name and address of assignee; remarks. These headings appear in the first volume only of the series (B1). 
Later registers (B2-B9) are titled and set out slightly differently to Register B1 but all the volumes record registrations of copyright in paintings, etc. In the later volumes the type of work is not always stated and information given in the ‘Deposited’ column can be misleading – eg. the registrations 1148-1151 by Eccleston Du Faur, are for paintings purchased by the Art Gallery of NSW, as shown on the corresponding application forms in series SP1006/1, with photographs of the paintings having been deposited.  Throughout the registers there are several blocks of registrations by Du Faur for Art Gallery of NSW purchases and it is possible the originals are still in the Gallery’s collection.  It is also possible that the photographs lodged of these and other works are held in the Australian Research Collection in the Mitchell Library.
As mentioned above, Register B1 contains some black and white photographs.  The subjects include: governors of NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, 1879; a photograph entitled "Garden Palace"; a number of Australian aboriginal photographs; the policemen who captured the "Moonlight" gang; the Outer Domain, Sydney; a view from Coogee; the Botanic Gardens; Willoughby Falls; the view from Mount Victoria; Manly Beach fishing rock; and Government House looking over Farm Cove.
The registers held are as follows:
1. 22 Sep 1879-2 Dec 1881   79.1-81.232 
2. 4 Apr 1882-10 Aug 1886   82.233-86.521 
3. 10 Aug 1886-28 Nov 1890  86.522-90.719 
4. 16 Dec 1890-18 Jun 1896  90.721-96.918 
5. 7 Jul 1896-3 Nov 1900    96.919-1900.1116 
6. 3 Nov 1900-13 Oct 1903   1900.1117-03.1315 
7. 9 Oct 1903-25 Apr 1905   03.1316-05.1514 
8. 25 Apr 1905-30 Oct 1905  05.1515-05.1714 
9. 21 Oct 1905-12 Nov 1906  05.1715-06.2006 
 
Administrative information: 
C2229/10 was previously series SP1006/8.  SP1006/8 was converted by the National Archives to C2229/10 because series C2229 originally had the same series title as SP1006/8 and related to the same volumes.  Confusion arose because of the different series numbers imposed on the same material. Consequently conversion of SP1006/8 to a consignment of C2229 was undertaken to clarify arrangement and control of the volumes.
The negatives of the black and white photographs in Register B1 were previously held in series C3215 and C3216 until they were moved in March 2001 by the National Archives, into consignments C2229/7 and C2229/8. The reference prints of C2229/9 were previously held in series C3217.




Controlled series unregistered
1879-1908: Applications for entry of Proprietorship of Copyright