Online Catalogue #40

Online Catalogue #40

Some genuine treasures have come our way since we prepared our recent book fair catalogue: Strehlow's Songs of Central Australia (a superb copy); Kempe's Galtjintana-Pepa Kristianirberaka Mbontala (the first Aranda book of Christian instruction and worship, 1891); and Giles’s Australia Twice Traversed (Jimmy Andrews’s set – he was one of only three companions with Giles on his second expedition in 1873-74, on which Alfred Gibson lost his life).

Important Australian colonial art includes Mann’s Present Picture of New South Wales (1811, with the 1884 facsimile plates); Maclehose’s Picture of Sydney (1838); Gill’s Diggers & Diggings of Victoria as they are in 1855 (1856); and a series of four superb original watercolours depicting a kangaroo hunt, executed by John Eden Savill in 1876.

There are numerous signed items by a diverse range of important figures, including Laurence Sterne; Hallam, 2nd Baron Tennyson (Australia’s second Governor-General); D.H. Lawrence; Herbert Hoover; Birdwood of Anzac; Sir Ronald Storrs; Joe Darling; Ion Idriess; and Don Bradman.

Ornithology is well-represented this time: Broinowski’s Birds of Australia (1890-91); the facsimile edition of Gould’s Birds of Australia (1972-75); and numerous scholarly press publications of more recent vintage.

And there’s plenty more!