Foreign Field Sports, Fisheries, Sporting Anecdotes, &c. &c. from Drawings by Messrs. Howitt, Atkinson, Clark, Manskirch, &c. Containing One Hundred Plates. With a Supplement of New South Wales
London, Published and sold by Edward Orme, 1814 and 1813.
Quarto, [ii] (title, verso blank, bound without the half-title, as often), [iv] ('Sketch of the Manners, Pursuits, &c. of the Natives of New South Wales', misbound here instead of with the supplement), [158] (text to 'Foreign Field Sports') pages plus 100 hand-coloured aquatints; and [iv] (original 1813 title and dedication to the 'Field Sports &c. &c. of the Native Inhabitants of New South Wales', both versos blank), [10] (letterpress to accompany the plates), [2] (index to both the main work and the supplement) pages plus 10 hand-coloured aquatints.
Contemporary straight-grained tan morocco elaborately bordered with gilt and blind rolls, later rebacked to style (retaining the original marbled endpapers, with later cloth hinges); covers a little rubbed and marked; occasional foxing and light offsetting; some fingermarks about the edges, and few other minor signs of age and handling, but overall in very good condition, with the plates crisp and bright.
The 'Supplement of New South Wales' ('Field Sports &c. &c. of the Native Inhabitants of New South Wales, with Ten Plates, by the Author, dedicated, by permission, to Rear Admiral Bligh ...') is described by Jonathan Wantrup as 'the very first book on the Australian Aborigines, a fact not often acknowledged. The plates represent in vivid style and good detail various aspects of Aboriginal life in the Port Jackson region. Some of the plates show hunting scenes such as kangaroo hunting, fishing, bird hunting, and smoking out possums. Other plates represent aspects of tribal life such as a corroboree, trial by spear, a war party, and a night scene in a camp. The plates are justly celebrated and are without question the most attractive and sympathetic of the early British depictions of the native inhabitants' (Wantrup 2023, page 368). While the plates are attributed to jobbing artist John Heaviside Clark for the designs, Wantrup argues convincingly that his contribution was limited to working up existing sketches by an artist active in Australia, and offers John William Lewin as the most likely contender. This slim work was issued separately in wrappers in October 1813, and as a supplement to Orme's larger collection of hunting and fishing scenes with text by Captain Thomas Williamson, which was issued in parts between January and September 1813. 'All eleven parts were subsequently issued together in one volume, with the main title-page dated 1814, although the "Supplement" retained its original title page dated 1813. Since the practice of postdating a book published in November or December was commonplace in British publishing, it is more than likely that the complete work was issued late in 1813 once the parts issue of the main work and the separate issue of the "Supplement" were concluded' (Wantrup, page 368). The present copy is a later issue, with some of the plates in the main body of the work bearing watermarks dated 1818. The plates to the supplement are not watermarked, and the only watermark to the text leaves is for 1810, consistent with the original issue. Wantrup 213b; Abbey 2 (his copy also having 1818 watermarks and no half-title); Tooley 224. Provenance: Mary Patterson Davidson, with her personal pictorial bookplate (with the printed date MCMXXI in the bottom margin, and the artist's initials MPM in the design) on the front pastedown.
Item #141374
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