 Before Little 's purchase , the punchbowl had been the property of Sir Timothy Augustine Coghlan , New South Wales Agent @-@ General in London , who bought the bowl for ₤ 40 in 1923 from one Miss Hall for his own collection . The bowl was subsequently in the possession of Francis Edwards Ltd before Coghlan 's unexpected death in London on 30 April 1926 . Coghlan had personally collected the bowl from a Miss Hall at ' Highfield ' , 63 Seabrook Rd , Hythe ( Kent ) , England , a few months after she had decided to offer the bowl to the New South Wales Government for ₤ 50 . Earlier , a visit to Miss Hall by a Sydney schoolteacher , Jessie Stead , on 6 August 1923 , resulted in the proposal that the bowl ought to be the property of the City of Sydney . Jessie Stead later indicated that she was informed by Miss Hall that her father had acquired the bowl in the late 1840s – the earliest dating for the punchbowls ' provenance – and that Miss Hall believed the bowl was commissioned for William Bligh , New South Wales 's fourth Governor ( in office 1806 – 1808 ) . In 2002 , the State Library of New South Wales digitised the punchbowl images with the support of the Nelson Meers Foundation , a philanthropic foundation supporting Australian arts , and the bowl became one of the 100 extraordinary library objects to be exhibited as part of Mitchell Library 's centenary celebrations in 2010 . 
