AustLit

The company's first known advertisements were in 1854, at which time it described its operations as a 'General Stationary Warehouse, and New and Second-hand Book Depot (Sydney Morning Herald 18 March 1854, p.10) and 'Booksellers, Stationers and Printers' (Empire 18 May 1854, p.1). In 1857 the company advertised itself as a 'machine and general printing office' (Empire 2 January 1857, p.1).

Of the ten known surviving publications printed by Paisey and Fryer, held in various Australian libraries, all have been catalogued as being published by the firm. Research into the firm now which indicates that in all instances this assignation is incorrect. The text for H.T. Craven's pantomime Harlequin King Blear and his Three Daughters (held by the State Library of New South Wales) has for example been catalogued as if it is a playscript when it was in fact included as part of the program (produced for an available during the pantomime's 1855-56 season). In this respect the publisher was the producer and lessee of the Theatre Royal at that time, Andrew Torning. The printing of the program was contracted out to Paisey and Fryer.

Another publication attributed to Paisey and Fryer as publisher is the Biography of Madame Anna Bishop; Containing the Details of her Professional Tour in England, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Russia, Tartary, Moldavia, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Havana, Mexico, America, and California, and also a Sketch of Bochsa's Life. Although printed by Paisey and Fryer, the publication was likely published either by Torning (who produced Bishop and Bochsa's Sydney season) or by Bishop herself - as part of publicity campaign for her Australian tour. Evidence for this comes from advertisements in several newspapers, including for example, Bell's Life in Sydney and Sporting Reviewer, which indicate that the publication could be bought for 1s 6d only from the box office or in the theatre (29 December 1855, p.3).

This entry has been sourced from on-going historical research into Australian-written music theatre being conducted by Dr Clay Djubal.