Wallingford/Jarlov Family Trees

Cousins, Alfred Ernest 1852 - 1935
Engraver, stamp designer

Alfred Ernest Cousins was born in the Channel Islands at St Helier, Jersey, on 24 October 1852, the son of Elizabeth Coutanche and her husband, Peter Cousins, a carpenter. From 1868 he served as an apprentice in London with Samuel Stevens, an engraver and brass plate manufacturer, until May 1874 when he sailed to New Zealand on the Conflict .

Arriving at Wellington in August, Cousins worked there as an engraver for Robert Burrett for 18 months, and for Lyon and Blair for 6½ years. He then joined Bock and Elliott for 18 months, before entering into partnership with William Rose Bock. In 1883 he exhibited with the Fine Arts Association of New Zealand designs for a membership card and a certificate of merit. At the New Zealand Industrial Exhibition in Wellington in 1885 Bock and Cousins were awarded a silver medal for engraving, gaining first prize in both engraving and die-sinking, and lithographic and ornamental printing. However, the partnership was dissolved in 1889 under the financial strain imposed by Bock's pioneering chromolithographic production of Edward and Sarah Featon's Art album of New Zealand flora .

During his time with Bock, Cousins was introduced to work on postage stamps. In 1886 he engraved Tonga's first stamp issue and an issue for Samoa. In 1890 he entered a public design competition to produce two stamps to meet new postage rates on New Zealand's admission to the Universal Postal Union. Cousins's well-executed, large-scale watercolour designs stood out from a very ordinary field. One was accepted, and Cousins was given the task of engraving both values. It was a difficult task, since the design involved engraving Queen Victoria's head, for which previous dies used in the colony had been obtained from London.

This success opened up new horizons for Cousins. Between 1891 and 1895 he produced a set used by the Government Life Insurance Department, stamps for Samoa, Tonga and the Cook islands, a new New Zealand halfpenny stamp design, a letter card and a £1 postal note. By 1894 he had decided that his future lay in postage-stamp design. However, he was comparatively unsuccessful in the major stamp competition of 1895, winning only one first prize and one honourable mention. His hopes for furthering his career in this direction were dashed when the 1897 Tongan and 1898 pictorial New Zealand sets were sent to Britain for engraving.

Disappointed, Cousins tried his luck in Sydney, before returning in 1905 to Wellington, but success eluded him. Until his retirement in 1922 he worked as an engraver for Whitcombe and Tombs. Cousins had married Isabella Agnes McIlvride, the daughter of a farmer, at her home in Wainuiomata near Wellington on 22 May 1890. He died at Days Bay on 25 June 1935, survived by his wife and two sons.

Alfred Cousins was a competent craftsman, but he never greatly surpassed the assessment of his first reference: 'a steady, sober and industrious workman'. Lacking Bock's artistic grasp of the problems of design in miniature, he was unable to progress in his chosen field. He fell victim, too, to New Zealand's close relationship with Britain and that country's superior craftsmanship. His lasting disappointment is evident in a letter he sent to the Post and Telegraph Department as late as 1931, asserting that he could have produced dies for recent stamps and complaining that it was unjust 'to send work out of the country which could be done equally as well in NZ'.
ROBIN GWYNN

Collins, R. J. G. The postage stamps of New Zealand. Vol. 5, The stamps and postal history of the Pacific Islands under New Zealand administration, Samoa and the Ross Dependency. Christchurch, 1967

Gwynn, R. 'New Zealand stamp production comes of age: the contribution of W. R. Bock & A. E. Cousins'. In Catalogue of Palmpex ’82 national stamp exhibition. Palmerston North, 1982.

Stanley, M. Alfred Ernest Cousins. Auckland, 1980

HOW TO CITE THIS BIOGRAPHY:
Gwynn, Robin. 'Cousins, Alfred Ernest 1852 - 1935'. Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, updated 22 June 2007
URL: http://www.dnzb.govt.nz/

The original version of this biography was published in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography Volume Two (1870-1900), 1993
© Crown Copyright 1993-2009. Published by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, Wellington, New Zealand. All rights reserved.

Information from:
Nineteenth Century New Zealand Artists: A Guide & Handbook
by Una Platts
Publication details: Avon Fine Prints, 1980, Christchurch

Exhibited with Fine Arts Assoc, Wtn 1883.

From:
The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Wellington Provincial District]
Author: Cyclopedia Company Limited
Publication details: The Cyclopedia Company, Limited, 1897, Wellington

Cousins, Alfred E., Postage Stamp Die Engraver, Die Sinker, Medallist, Copper and Brass Plate Engraver, National Chambers, Grey Street, Wellington. Private residence, 82 Taranaki Street. Mr. Cousins was born in Jersey, and served an apprentice-ship to Mr. Samuel Stevens, engraver, Featherston Street, City Road, London. He arrived in Wellington in 1874, per ship “Conflict,” and was employed at his trade successively by Mr. R. Burrett for eighteen months, Messrs. Lyon and Blair for six years and six months, and for Messrs. Bock and Elliott for a year-and-a-half. On the retirement of the latter, Mr. Cousins joined Mr. Bock, under the style of Bock and Cousins, which partnership continued for over six years, during which time Mr. Cousins engraved five of the large beer duty stamps, a set of four postage dies for Tonga, with the profile of King George in each, and a set of postage stamps for Samoa, with a cocoa nut palm in the centre. In July, 1889, Mr. Cousins commenced in business solely. He engraved six postage dies for the Government Insurance Department, bearing a lighthouse scene. His design for a twopence-halfpenny stamp secured the bonus, and he was then employed to engrave the die for this and for a fivepenny stamp. He was afterwards entrusted with the engraving of a new twopence-halfpenny stamp for Samoa, with King Maletoa on its face, taken from a photograph, and also a fivepenny bearing the Samoan flag. The five new Tongan and five new Cook Island stamp dies were executed by Mr. Cousins, and bore a three quarter face of King George and Queen Makea respectively. The one pound New Zealand postal note is also from Mr. Cousins' design and graver, for which he secured a bonus. It was cut on a large steel die in relief, and the department was highly pleased with the work. The three-halfpenny die for the new letter card and the new halfpenny postage die with a representation of her Majesty, taken from the last issue of coinage, are Mr. Cousins' latest productions, and these have excelled his previous work. Mr. Cousins has a splendid collection of specimeus of arms, crests, monograms, and medals, which he has executed, including a very fine New Zealand arms for the Premier, and a medal for the New Zealand Industrial Exhibition. He is competent to undertake every class of work pertaining to his trade, and has a complete plant for the purpose.

Plot Public 16D.

Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 151, 28 June 1883, Page 3

NOTICE is hereby given that the Partnership hitherto subsisting between WILLIAM ROSE BOCK and HENRY ELLIOTT, as Engravers, Lithographers, and General Printers, under the style or firm of "Bock and Elliott," has been this day dissolved by mutual consent The said business will be in future carried on by the said William Rose Bock, to whom all tho book debts of the late firm have been and are hereby assigned, and who will receive all moneys due to and pay all moneys due by the said firm.

Dated at Wellington this 23rd day of June, 1883.
W. R. BOCK, HENRY ELLIOTT.
Witness— John G. Collins, Barrister, Wellington.

With reference to the above I beg to announce that I have this day taken into partnership Mr. Alfred Ernest Cousins, Engraver, and the business will be carried on henceforth under tho style and title of BOCK & COUSINS, Engravers, Die-sinkers, Lithographers, and General Printers.

Dated this 23rd day of June, 1883.
W. R. BOCK.

Marriage Register St Johns Presbyterian Church, Willis St, Wellington
From transcript at www.stjohnsinthecity.org.nz

Date: 22 May 1890
Place: Mr McIlvride
Bridegroom: Alfred Ernest Cousins, 36yrs, Engraver, b St Heliers Jersey
Usual residence: Wellington
Son of Peter Cousins, settlers and Elizabeth Cousins (nee Couetaush?)
Bride: Isabella Agnes McIlvride, 23yrs, b Wainuiomata
Usual residence: Wainuiomata
Present residence: Wellington
Dau of John McIlvride, farmer and Isabella McIlvride (nee McGregor)

from Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 120, 22 May 1915, Page 1:

MARRIAGES

COUSINS— McILVRIDE.— On the 22nd May, 1890, at the residence of the bride's parents, by the Rev. J. Paterson, Alfred Ernest, second son of Mr Peter Cousins, Wellington, to Isabella Agnes, third daughter of Mr. John Mcllvride, Post Office, Wainui-o-mata. (Silver Wedding.)

Alfred and Agnes spent a few years in Australia, probably between 1898 and 1905.