Caroline Pounds

Caroline Pounds (née Elam) (fl. 1840–1880) was an Irish watercolour artist. She produced studies of plants and birds of New Guinea and Australia.

Life There is little known about Caroline Pounds. She was born Caroline Elam and a descendant of Yorkshire Quakers, the daughter of Lt. Joseph Elam (d. 1829). She married Dr James Baker Pounds, Protestant apothecary and entrepreneur, of New Ross, County Wexford (d. 1884). The couple's eldest son, Joseph Elam Pounds, was born in 1838 at Moathill, County Waterford. Most of Pounds' work is undated, but that which is marked 1846.

Artistic work Pounds produced a small number of plant and bird studies in Australia and New Guinea, which are believed to date from the 1840s to the 1880s. Subjects include Dianella, Rosehip, and Blackberry, as well as a New Guinea bird of paradise. They are painted in an oriental style, showing influence from Chinese and Japanese export art. This is possibly due to the fact that their youngest son served the Emperor of Japan and was a Government interpreter. The paintings are decorative, executed in a chinoiserie style on rice paper.