Of Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England. She had formerly been employed as a companion to a descendant (a great-niece) of S. C. Brees, Miss A Brees, in Sussex.
The Alexander Turnbull Library purchased 18 watercolours by S. C. Brees from her in 1947 and a further group of watercolours by Brees in 1954. she also offered the Library a copy of S. C. Brees' Pictorial illustrations of New Zealand (London, 1847) along with 4 watercolours by Nora Gardner and others, on 30 March 1957.
Date: 1945 - 1955
By: Webb, Esther M, active 1938-1957; Gardner, Nora Marris, 1913-1984
Reference: A-176-009
Description: Shows a gabled house with its surrounding garden. The house has a striped verandah roof with climbing roses on its verandah posts. A path leads to the front door and there is a circular flower bed to the right, trees behind the house Inscriptions: Recto - bottom left - Nora Gardner [in pencil]. Title in pencil on verso Quantity: 1 watercolour(s). Physical Description: Watercolour, 165 x 228 mm
Date: 1945 - 1955
By: Gardner, Nora Marris, 1913-1984; Webb, Esther M, active 1938-1957
Reference: A-176-007
Description: A river flanked with toetoe, forest and high hills in the background Inscriptions: Recto - bottom right - Nora Gardner [in brown brushpoint] Quantity: 1 watercolour(s). Physical Description: Watercolour 152 x 228 mm
Date: 1938-1969
Reference: MS-Papers-0854/1
Description: Material from Turnbull Library and National Archives files; includes letters and notes by A G Bagnall, J S Hornabrook; notes by A A St C M Murray-Oliver; letters by Jessie H Webb, Esther M Webb, and A E Fieldhouse relating to Brees. Also notes on Henry Melville and his son Harden S Melville. Quantity: 1 folder(s) (43 leaves). Physical Description: Ms, typescript, and printed matter (some photocopies)
Date: 1843
By: Brees, Samuel Charles, 1810?-1865; Webb, Esther M, active 1938-1957
Reference: B-031-009
Description: Shows The Thistle Inn and the Courthouse (which doubled as a church) on lower Mulgrave Street, close to the water's edge. There is a horseman, with lawyers and other people outside the courthouse. A European home with two chimneys is below the road on the left. Original of Plate 19 no 57 in Pictorial Illustrations of New Zealand by S C Brees, London, 1847 Quantity: 1 watercolour(s). Physical Description: Watercolour 215 x 305 mm
Date: 1843 - 1845
By: Brees, Samuel Charles, 1810?-1865; Webb, Esther M, active 1938-1957
Reference: B-031-005
Description: Shows the windmill, looking south towards Mount Cook (with the barracks on top in the distance), Brooklyn hills and Te Aro from the foot of Mount Victoria where Oriental Bay Road begins. There is a sandy beach in the left foreground, with a man sifting sand or shells, probably for construction. The man is being watched by three children. Bullock carts are visible at the foot of the windmill and there are several other buildings close to it. There are two hens in the yard close to a house in the right foreground, and a square wooden construction in the right foreground, possibly a small lime-kiln. The windmill, or flourmill, was built in March 1843 at the foot of Marjoribanks Street and Kent Terrace junction, the present site of the Embassy Theatre. It was the only open-structured mill in New Zealand. Quantity: 1 watercolour(s). Physical Description: Watercolour 181 x 370 mm
By: Brees, Samuel Charles, 1810?-1865; Webb, Esther M, active 1938-1957
Reference: B-031-018
Description: Shows pa in Palliser Bay, with Cape Palliser in distance. In the foreground, a European rowboat is being launched from the beach with two other canoes with sails already in the water. Maori canoes are drawn up on the shore. Other Titles - Sailors launching a boat near a pa, Palliser Bay Cf similar view sold McArthur's auction, 4 August 1987, Lot 51, with Brees' title: Palliser Bay and Cape [ca 1843]. This work is housed at C-126-019. Quantity: 1 watercolour(s). Physical Description: Watercolour 224 x 380 mm
Date: 1842 - 1845
By: Brees, Samuel Charles, 1810?-1865; Webb, Esther M, active 1938-1957
Reference: B-031-014
Description: A carefully-detailed Maori carved handle with wooden inserts and a European axe-head. Quantity: 1 watercolour(s). Physical Description: Watercolour 127 x 356 mm
Date: 1842 - 1845
By: Brees, Samuel Charles, 1810?-1865; Webb, Esther M, active 1938-1957
Reference: B-031-016
Description: Two Pakeha beaching a rowboat on the shore in the foreground, watched by a Maori man, a small child and a dog. Two further Maori and a dog are walking away in the distance. The view is from the western shore of Wellington Harbour, possibly close to Kaiwharwhara, looking towards Petone in the distance. The western hills are shown covered in bush Other Titles - View of Petone Inscriptions: Recto - bottom left - title in brushpoint Quantity: 1 watercolour(s). Physical Description: Watercolour 228 x 470 mm
Date: 1843
By: Brees, Samuel Charles, 1810?-1865; Webb, Esther M, active 1938-1957
Reference: B-031-007
Description: Probably shows Wellington Heads from Houghton Bay or environs. In the foreground are a group of two elegantly dressed women and a girl with parasols, with three top-hatted men. Beyond them is a fenced area, where a crop is being cultivated by a number of gardeners. There is scrub to the right outside the fence. A large sandy beach is beyond with waves breaking on a rocky headland, with a single large house on the skyline in the middle distnace on the far left. In the background is another bay with a distant headland, probably the entrance to Wellington Harbour. Quantity: 1 watercolour(s). Physical Description: Watercolour 203 x 348 mm
By: Brees, Samuel Charles, 1810?-1865; Webb, Esther M, active 1938-1957
Reference: B-031-011
Description: Three men fishing on a riverbank, alongside a narrow stream running into the Hutt River. They have bags and a bottle with them Quantity: 1 watercolour(s). Physical Description: Watercolour 228 x 381 mm
Date: 1842 - 1845
By: Brees, Samuel Charles, 1810?-1865; Webb, Esther M, active 1938-1957
Reference: B-031-032
Description: In the foreground a man on horseback is herding cattle. Beyond him is a valley with farmland and Mount Victoria in the middle distance, Wellington Harbour just visible beyond that Quantity: 1 watercolour(s). Physical Description: Watercolour 216 x 366 mm
Date: 1842 - 1845
By: Brees, Samuel Charles, 1810?-1865; Webb, Esther M, active 1938-1957
Reference: B-031-030
Description: View looking south along Paekakakariki Beach. A sandy beach with a line of hills in the distance and the sea to the right. Four small rowboats or canoes are pulled up on the beach in the foreground and there are groups of men attending to the boats, walking along the beach and seated. Mana Island can be seen on the horizon in the distance on the right. Compare the shape of the line of hills in the background with those in B-031-004 "Group of Maori and Pakeha near beach ..." Other Titles - Mana Island and Pukerua Inscriptions: Recto - bottom left - MANA, POKARUA Quantity: 1 watercolour(s). Physical Description: watercolour 178 x 368 mm
Date: 1842
By: Brees, Samuel Charles, 1810?-1865; Webb, Esther M, active 1938-1957
Reference: B-031-028
Description: Shows Maori gathering shellfish on the rocky shore. There is a single-sailed canoe in the water at the right, and several canoes are drawn up on the shore around the bay at the left. In a similar work (identical shoreline in the foreground) at C-126-025, and the engraving (Plate 3, illustration 8) in "Pictorial illustrations of New Zealand", it is thought that the view is from the Whitireia side, looking northeast towards the entrance to Paremata Harbour. In contrast, this view shows a continuous shoreline at the left, suggesting that it is a view from Mana or Plimmerton, looking south-east towards the narrow entrance to Paremata Harbour. Similar to: Porerua Bay (Porirua), plate 3/8 In: Pictorial Illustrations of New Zealand, by S C Brees, London 1847 (but see notes above). Dated because of similarity to a dated work, at C-126-025. Quantity: 1 watercolour(s). Physical Description: Watercolour 210 x 342 mm
By: Brees, Samuel Charles, 1810?-1865; Webb, Esther M, active 1938-1957
Reference: B-031-019
Description: A view from a high standpoint, looking down into Palliser Bay, with Okorewa Pa faintly indicated at the mouth of the Ruamahanga River, with the sandbar beyond it. A Maori family, dressed in traditional Maori clothing, and two redcoats in the foreground Original of no Plate 15, 44 in Brees' "Pictorial Illustrations of New Zealand" (London, 1847). The Pa is much more clearly drawn in the engraving than in this watercolour. The soldiers have been removed in the engraved version. Other Titles - sand bar Quantity: 1 watercolour(s). Physical Description: Watercolour 203 x 368 mm
Date: 1842 - 1845
By: Brees, Samuel Charles, 1810?-1865; Webb, Esther M, active 1938-1957
Reference: B-031-026
Description: Carved prow of a Maori canoe (waka) with a (disproportionately small) man standing in the prow. In the background is another canoe with three sails Prow, but not figure and background canoe, used as original for engraving illustrating page 1 (the half title page) of Pictorial Illustrations of New Zealand by S C Brees (London, J. Williams, 1847) Quantity: 1 watercolour(s). Physical Description: Watercolour 152 x 229 mm
Date: 1842 - 1846
By: Brees, Samuel Charles, 1810?-1865; Webb, Esther M, active 1938-1957
Reference: B-031-013
Description: A waka huia, or carved box for treasures. Includes paua shell inserts Quantity: 1 watercolour(s). Physical Description: Watercolour 127 x 356 mm
Date: 1844
By: Brees, Samuel Charles, 1810?-1865; Webb, Esther M, active 1938-1957
Reference: B-031-025
Description: Buildings shown are the whaling station at Te Kopi, Palliser Bay. See similar view, with title, reproduced in McArthur's auction catalogue for sale 4 August 1987, lot 52. Shows a high rock, being climbed by three Pakeha men, on the right, a cluster of several low buildings near the shore and a path through low scrub in the foreground. A Maori woman [?] is walking away from the viewer and further along the path is a European man and another person. Date of 1844 is suggested because Brees' watercolour entitled Cape Palliser is dated 1844, and this view is likely to have been taken on the same exploratory trip. There are faint map outlines in pencil on the verso. Other Titles - Whaling station, Te Kopi, Palliser Bay, 1844? Inscriptions: Recto - bottom right - title in brushpoint Quantity: 1 watercolour(s). Physical Description: Watercolour & gum arabic 223 x 378 mm
Date: 1842
By: Brees, Samuel Charles, 1810?-1865; Webb, Esther M, active 1938-1957
Reference: B-031-022
Description: View up Hawkestone Street, looking towards Tinakori Road and Tinakori Hill, with the artist's two-storied house on the left in a fenced garden, a large kahikitea tree in the centre and Alfred de Bathe Brandon's house in the distance on Tinakori Road. A third house can be seen on the hill beyond Brees' house, that of John H. Wakefield. Three people are on horseback on the road in addition to two women standing and talking, a small child and two dogs Original of Plate no 28 (Mr Brees' cottage, Karori Road) in Brees' Pictorial Illustrations of New Zealand (London, 1847) Quantity: 1 watercolour(s). Physical Description: Watercolour 216 x 380 mm
Date: 1844
By: Brees, Samuel Charles, 1810?-1865; Webb, Esther M, active 1938-1957
Reference: B-031-010
Description: A front view of the artist's house and garden, with a man greeting two women on the front path to the left. Two greyhounds are on the front lawn. The house is wooden and two-storied, with a verandah at the front. The garden is enclosed with a wooden paling fence. Other houses and tree stumps can be seen on the hill behind Brees' house. Quantity: 1 watercolour(s). Physical Description: Watercolour 215 x 356 mm
Date: 1842 - 1845
By: Brees, Samuel Charles, 1810?-1865; Webb, Esther M, active 1938-1957
Reference: B-031-023
Description: A bullock team and its driver, a Maori family, settlers, houses of Nathaniel W. Levin (later the site of Premier House, in the foreground) and A Holroyd (more faintly drawn, behind Levin's house); also Mr (William) Dorset's house in the distance against the bush-line. The view looks up to the cleared area below the bushline, with the dirt track of Tinakori Road bisecting the foreground diagonally Original of no 60 in Brees' "Pictorial Illustrations of New ZeaLand" Other Titles - Tinakori Road Quantity: 1 watercolour(s). Physical Description: Watercolour 228 x 305 mm