John Batman, the Founder of Victoria
Melbourne, Fergusson and Moore, 1868 (second edition)/ 1867.
Duodecimo, xii, [iii]-iv, 106 (last blank), [2] (review notices of earlier publications) pages. The preliminaries comprise a new 12-page section tipped in before the original preface and text (title leaf, index leaf with verso blank, 7 pages with additional information and some corrections, with 'Opinions of the Press' of the first edition on the last page).
Blind-decorated green stippled cloth (lettered in gilt on the front cover) slightly bumped at the extremities; stitching strained but strong (a production flaw we have noticed with other copies); spine slightly canted (ditto); a near-fine copy with the small paper binder's ticket of William Detmold on the rear pastedown.
The front flyleaf is inscribed to 'The Hon. W.M.K. Vale with the Author's kind regards'. Provenance: William Mountford Kinsey Vale (1833-1895), politician and bookseller. As 'a liberal with a keen interest in protection, Vale represented Ballarat West in the Legislative Assembly from November 1864 to August 1865 and from September 1865 to April 1869. He was vice-president of the Board of Land and Works and commissioner of public works from July 1866 to May 1868 and commissioner of trade and customs from July 1868 to May 1869, when he resigned on principle ...' ('Australian Dictionary of Biography'). The book later entered the collection of Edward Edgar Pescott (1872-1954), horticulturalist, naturalist, book-collector and author (he compiled the Bonwick bibliography); his 1914 wattle-motif bookplate is mounted on the front pastedown. Ferguson 7231 (incorrectly calling for xiv preliminaries in total); Pescott 58.
Item #127736
Price (AUD):
$450.00