Started in 2012 by Gwenyth Jones in memory of her fiancé, Max Le Petit, the Max Le Petit and Gwenyth Jones Nicholson Collection Prize is awarded bi-annually for an essay or written work submitted as part of a student's coursework that engages with any aspect of the Nicholson Collection.
Congratulations to the winners of the 2024-25 Max Le Petit and Gwenyth Jones Nicholson Prize , Noam Antonir, Edward Goodman and Anson Lee. Their work on Promesse de mandat territorial (100-franc bank note) (NM2017.2) was presented as part of their advanced unit elective, LAWS6119 - The State And Global Covernance.
An excerpt of their winning entry can be found below, or you can read the full work at the link below.
This Promesse de Mandat Territorial, a French banknote carried to Egypt by Napoleon’s forces during his North African campaign, embodies the fraught entanglement between revolution and empire. Created to stabilise the economy of a revolutionary state born from monarchical autocracy, its value was secured by confiscated crown lands, serving as a token of liberation built upon dispossession, whose creation signified a new conception of popular sovereignty. Yet, in reaching Egypt, the promesse underscores a broader paradox – that the revolutionary vision of universal liberty gave rise to a civilising mission that cloaked imperial domination in the language of emancipation.
“Every empire … tells itself and the world that it is unlike all other empires, that its mission is not to plunder and control but to educate and liberate”. - Edward Said, 2003
Our chosen artefact is a promesse de mandat territorial, a French banknote issued in 1796 as part of an attempt to stabilise the economy after the French Revolution, with each note secured by land confiscated from the monarchy and the clergy.2 Originally from France, the note found its way into Egypt during Napoleon’s North African military campaign between 1798 and 1801.3 It was collected more than a century later by Sir Grafton Elliot Smith, an Australian Professor of Anatomy at the University of Cairo and a significant figure in Egyptology, whilst Egypt was under the ‘Veiled Protectorate’ of the British Empire,4 and later donated to the Chau Chak Wing Museum by Elliot Smith’s descendants and is currently housed in the Pharaonic Obsessions exhibit.
Although one of the lightest artefacts in the Nicholson Collection, it carries a weighty significance in relation to the history and evolution of global governance. The note compels us to consider two discrete but inextricably intertwined histories that have been pivotal in shaping how we understand international law. First, its genesis as a tool of state-sanctioned macroeconomic policy during the economic crisis compels us to consider the evolution of the nation-state in the wake of the French Revolution. Second, the promesse’s journey from France to Egypt to Australia reflects its colonial heritage and invites introspection into the status of the Third World within a Eurocentric world order.
Submissions for the Max LePetit and Gwnyth Jones Nicholson Collection prize are invited from all undergraduate students that have engaged with the Nicholson Collection as part of their undergraduate degree in during the specified nomination period. This includes work in traditional disciplines such as archaeology and ancient history, as well as non-traditional disciplines from all faculties including Arts, Architecture, Business, Education and Social Work, Engineering, Law, Medicine and Health, Music and Science. Nominations directly from faculty are also encouraged.
In 2012 Gwenyth Jones donated funds to create a prize to celebrate undergraduate student engagement with the Nicholson Collection. The Max Le Petit and Gwenyth Jones Nicholson Collection Prize is named in memory of Gwenyth Jones's fiancé Maxwell Le Petit who died suddenly in 1947, aged 24.
Max completed his undergraduate and master’s degrees at the University of Sydney and was a teaching fellow in the Department of Classics. Gwenyth had met Max Le Petit while she was serving in the Air Force. While Max had initially enlisted, he was discharged before entering service due to his history with pneumonia. The couple were engaged in 1945.
In 1946, Professor Trendall appointed Max as Assistant Curator of the Nicholson Museum, charged with academic tutoring, and the re-organisation of the Egyptian collection in preparation for the second edition of the Nicholson Museum Handbook (1948). Max was a beloved colleague, teacher and friend who was described by Professor MacDonald as "possessing great humanity". In his memory, Professor Trendall, with contributions received from staff and students, purchased a white-ground funerary lekythos by the Athenian 'Thanatos Painter' for the Nicholson Collection (NM47.20).
To be eligible for the Max Le Petit and Gwenyth Jones Nicholson Collection Prize, students must:
All nominations for the Max Le Petit and Gwenyth Jones Nicholson Collection Prize must include:
Submissions and nominations should be sent to directly to the prize co-ordinator, Candace Richards (candace.richards@sydney.edu.au) prior to the submission deadline.
Note: Direct nominations from faculty members are encouraged. If you have any questions, please reach out to Candace Richards well in advance of the deadline.
The successful work will is chosen by a selection committee comprised of:
The submissions are anonymised prior to review. The decision of the selection committee is final. If no nominations or no suitable nominations are submitted then the prize may not be awarded in that year.
2023
2021
2019
2017
Not awarded
2015
Featured image: Max Le Petit and Gwenyth Jones, Sydney, 1945. Photographer unknown.
Phone: +61 2 93512812
Email: ccwm.info@sydney.edu.au
Chau Chak Wing Museum
University Place
Camperdown NSW 2050
