The Narrinyeri. An Account of the Tribes of South Australian Aborigines inhabiting the Country around the Lakes Alexandrina, Albert, and Coorong, and the Lower Part of the River Murray: their Manners and Customs, also an Account of the Mission at Port Macleay. By the Rev. George Taplin, Missionary to the Aborigines, Point Macleay, South Australia
Adelaide, J.T. Shawyer, Printer, 1874.
Octavo, iv, [ii], 107 pages plus an original albumen paper photographic frontispiece (184 × 113 mm).
Flush-cut black cloth marked and a little rubbed at the extremities, with slight loss at the head and foot of the spine; cloth on the front joint split, but the joint is firm (with minor conservation to one early opening); large printed paper title-label on the front cover has some loss to the bottom half, mainly marginal but with the loss of one word and some letters of a few others in the bottom right-hand corner; minimal foxing; a very good copy (internally excellent).
The frontispiece, a Townsend Duryea photograph, is a composite of five numbered oval portraits; the identification key is printed on the verso of the title page. Ferguson 16706 (not identifying the photographer, and not indicating that the five photographic portraits are in fact one composite photograph). The revised second edition of this work (Ferguson 16707) does not retain the photograph; it contains six tinted lithographs, as does the version published in the 1879 collection of reprints, 'The Native Tribes of South Australia' (Ferguson 13095). Loosely inserted is a lengthy cutting from the South Australian 'Register' of 24 April 1889: 'An Australian Native Fifty Years Ago' [By the Late Mr F.W. Taplin]', introduced thus: 'Subjoined is the lecture which was delivered by Mr Taplin before the Australian Natives' Association three nights before the author's tragic death in the Coffee Palace fire'. Frederick William Taplin (1853+-1889), a son of George Taplin, had succeeded him as superintendent of the mission ('Australian Dictionary of Biography').
Item #81902
Price (AUD):
$1,250.00