The Lorgnette

In order to promote forthcoming productions as well as providing up-to-date theatre news and current programmes, a great deal of its content was reprinted from one issue to the next, perhaps a unique characteristic of this magazine, while some features changed with every issue, notably the illustrated biographies, a list of which forms a large part of this article.

A sheet called The Lorgnette made its first appearance in Melbourne in July 1865, "a local Punch" without pictures"[3] and was hailed by The Argus for its "considerable spirit".

Those involved included George Coppin, the Majeronis, J. C. Williamson, Richard Stewart, Grattan Riggs, Fred Maccabe, Alfred Dampier, Henry Harwood, and Bland Holt.

[11] A feature of issues from 11 May 1889 to 6 December 1890 was a biography of a prominent artist,[12] accompanied by a photo-engraved (perhaps leggotype) portrait, a list of which appears below.

[17] Photographic copies of The Lorgnette from 1 July 1878 to 1 December 1898 have been digitized by the National library of Australia and may be accessed via Trove.