A Mother's Offering to her Children, by a Lady long resident in New South Wales
Sydney, printed at the 'Gazette' Office, 1841.
Duodecimo, [viii, last leaf blank], 216 pages.
Original quarter roan and marbled papered boards; covers a little rubbed, with minor wear to the corners of the boards; original endpapers a little tidemarked; minimal scattered foxing; leading edges protrude a little unevenly (but the stitching is very firm); overall an excellent copy.
Muir 559: 'the first book for children publ[ished] in Australia'. A fabulous rarity in appealing original condition, and, amazingly, the second copy we have had in less than eighteen months (the last copy selling at our July 2011 auction for just over $25,000). The thirteen stories in the book are drawn largely from recent colonial history, and include 'Port Essington', 'Loss of the Stirling Castle', 'Wreck of the Charles Eaton' and 'Anecdotes of the Aborigines of New South Wales'. Provenance: the contemporary ownership details of 'W.E. Weeden, Augst 1st 1856' in ink on the front pastedown (with the signature repeated in pencil above it). William Ed Weeden (December 1841-1927) was born in London and arrived in South Australia in 1846; ten years later, aged fourteen, he inscribed these details. The book has been in his family to this day.
Item #93389
Sold