John Philemon BACKHOUSE,  (1845 -1908):

BACKHOUSE was a New Zealand artist, born in Ipswich, England. By 1865 he was in the Auckland district. He served in the Armed Constabulary.

He did oil paintings of the thermal region and pencil, wash and watercolour sketches of the Onehunga area and other parts of Auckland. By the 1890's he was a fulltime artist and sketched scenes of New Zealand and Australia, as well as making studies of birds and insects. Some of the paintings he sold were on shells, or on small postcard-sized board.

These cards probably date circa 1880's. The artist's initials may be seen on three of the cards, on the Kiwi card and on both Tomtit cards -- bottom right.

It is not known who HNW is. (HNW might be Henry Winkelmann)