AN HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF NEW SOUTH WALES AND ITS DEPENDENT SETTLEMENTS; IN ILLUSTRATION OF TWELVE VIEWS, ENGRAVED BY W. PRESTON, A CONVICT; FROM DRAWINGS TAKEN ON THE SPOT, BY CAPTAIN WALLIS OF THE FORTY-SIXTH REGIMENT....
Wallis, James:
London: Printed for R. Ackermann, 1821. [4],42,[2]pp. Six double-page engraved views and six single-page views. Map of Port Macquarie and part of Hastings River (by John Oxley). Folio. Original blue paper wrappers, backed with cloth, original black morocco label on front wrapper. Some slight wear to wrappers, but overall a fine copy. The plates in this copy are unnumbered. In a handsome half morocco and marbled boards clamshell box, spine gilt. A beautiful work of engraved views of the colony of New South Wales. The famous series of views engraved for Wallis' book follows the Absalom West engravings as the next important set of scenes in the colony; the two are also connected by the fact that the convict-engraver, Preston, worked on both publications. The tradition is that he engraved Wallis' views on the common sheet-copper used for the hulls of ships, no other material for plates being available in the colony at the time. Wallis was the first of a number of military officers with a talent for drawing to come to the colony. He arrived with his regiment, the 46th, on the same ship which brought Joseph Lycett as a convict. The two men were also together in Newcastle where Wallis ran the penal settlement between 1816 and 1818. Wallis returned to England in 1819 and organized the publication of his book, which includes a short history of the colony, by the reputable London firm of Ackermann, who would have seen a ready market for it with the growing popular interest in far-flung places and exotic scenery. This series of beautiful engravings provides an admirable visual summary of the appearance of the colony under Macquarie. Below is a list of the views: "View of Hawkesbury and the Blue Mountains." "View of the Cove and Part of Sydney." "Sydney from the North Shore." "Sydney from Bennelong Point." "Newcastle, Hunters River." "Corrobboree or Dance of the Natives of N.S.W." "Black Swans of N.S.W." "Kangaroos." "View of Hunters River." "North and South Heads in Port Jackson." "Vaucluse Bay, Port Jackson." "View of Dawes Battery at the Entrance of Sydney Cove." FERGUSON 842. WANTRUP 217b.
(Item ID: WRCAM27476) $47,500.00