PROVENANCE Collection of the late Professor Colin Durning, Dunedin by descent

Through his involvement with Dunedin's Globe Theatre, Colin Durning and his wife Eve, became good friends with many artists and writers - amongst them Ralph Hotere, James K. Baxter, Hone Tuwhare, Marilyn Webb, Janet Frame, Peter Olds and Marti Friedlander.

In 1969 Colin Durning, then a lecturer at the Dental School, received from James K. Baxter who was living at Jerusalem on the Whanganui River, a batch of sonnets with the suggestions that they should be printed. Dr Maslen, founder of the Otakou Press and renowned historian, offered to produce Jerusalem Sonnets using the Bibliography Room imprint, and to begin with at Durning's expense.

Initially, 500 copies were printed and sold in January 1971. Demand was so great, that within 18 months, two more undifferentiated impressions were produced totaling 2,000 copies. Ralph Hotere provided the cover art work.

The present work was purchased directly from the artist in 1982 and has remained in the Durning family collection since.