[Binding]

Acts of the Parliament of South Australia. Anno Quadragesimo Quarto et Quadragesimo Quinto Victoriae Reginae [In the forty-fourth and forty-fifth year of Queen Victoria], A.D. 1881

Adelaide, E. Spiller, Government Printer, 1881.

Quarto, 8 pages (last blank) and 52 separately-paginated Acts (in all, approximately 500 pages).

Contemporary full morocco; spine tooled in gilt; front cover extensively stamped in gilt, with the design repeated in blind on the rear cover; all edges gilt (and lightly marked); slight wear to the extremities (now expertly conserved); marbled endpapers and adjacent leaves a little creased and marked; paper a little tanned; trifling signs of age and use; in excellent condition.

The elaborate binding was likely executed by Emanuel Spiller, the South Australian Government Printer at the time. Spiller's name appears as exhibitor and jury-member of competitions and exhibitions of binding and printing throughout the 1880s. The 'Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser' for 27 March 1880 carries a lengthy article by John Plummer on colonial bookbindings displayed at the Sydney International Exhibition, noting that '... in the South Australian Court, Mr. E. Spiller, the Government printer, of Adelaide, occupies the foremost rank'.

Although offered primarily as a fine example of colonial binding, the Acts contained in this volume (numbers 196 to 238, as well as nine Private Acts) are not without interest. There are numerous railways and tramways acts, as well as acts on subjects as diverse as Chinese immigration, the Adelaide Synagogue, mining, inebriates, and the substantial 'No. 237. Marine Board and Navigation Act' (143 pages).

Item #136694

Price (AUD): $750.00
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