Australiana

Skinner Prout in Australia 1840-48

If you want to collect Skinner Prout you may be too late his works are fetching big prices.

This is the best “get to know him” book put together by Tony Brown and Hendrik Kolenberg to accompany a tour of Prout’s work held in 1987.

Squarish format, perfect bound, 80 pages, with many illustrations of the works … super biographical outline of the master. Very good if not better condition.

Sought after reference to Skinner Prout.

$38.00

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The Story of Port Dalrymple [Tasmania] – L.S. Bethell

A first printing of this full history of Port Dalrymple and by Oxford educated Bethell.

Published by the University in 1957. Pink card cover, 193 pages, illustrated plus voluminous index at rear. Slight chip to top left otherwise very good, very clean internally.

A well received history at the time and still the “go to” reference. Worthy, relevant illustrations help with the comprehensive text.

Port Dalrymple not just any old harbour.

$25.00

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Tasmanian Rogues & Absconders 1803-1875 – Graeme-Evans

This is volume II and our favourite the middle years, being 1821-1836 … so a subset of the main title.

Self published by Alex Graeme-Evans of Launceston in 1994.

Larger soft cover format, perfect bound. 104 pages, nicely illustrated throughout.

What is it that makes rogues and absconders interesting … a rhetorical question. Much better reading than “everyday folk” … apologies. One thing for sure there were plenty of them … threaded intimately through the history of the Apple Isle.

For every rogue there seems to have been at least one absconder

$25.00

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James Fenton of Forth – A Tasmanian Pioneer 1820-1901 – One of 100 special bound, signed and numbered copies.

This magnificent and substantial book was complied and edited by the subjects descendant Paul Fenton as a celebration of the 100th year of the great man’s death. Effectively self published with no cost spared.

Limited overall to 800 copies. This part of a special first 100 copies specially quarter bound in Buckram with Brillianta spine and signed and numbered by Paul Fenton – this number 48.

Folio, 454 pages, profusely illustrated. A fine, as new copy, in a fine protected dust jacket. A heavy book that will require a distance postage supplement.

James Fenton was not only a pioneer and traveller through unmapped territory in Tasmania he penned some interesting accounts of his travel and one of the few dependable histories of Tasmania, still very much collectable and referenced by all serious historian.

Signed limited numbered edition – we cannot find another one.

$160.00

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The [Sir] Rex Nan Kivell Collection – Paradise Possessed

Some of us will have bought collectable Australiana with Rex Nan Kivell’s bookplate and wondered who was the man with the rather odd name.

And he was odd. Born in New Zealand in the late 1800’s as Reginald Nankivell he went off to Europe to WWI. After that he reinvented himself as Rex de Charembac Nan Kivell and developed a career as an upmarket London art dealer. He began collecting almost everything he could find concerning post settlement Australia and New Zealand. Paintings, photographs, manuscripts, key published accounts, objects of interest, government reports etc … Very oddly he never ever came to the Antipodes. His collection came to the attention of the Australian Government at the highest levels. Senior curators labelled it the most important collection yet formed in private hands and, more so, never to be surpassed in terms of its decorative and scholarly qualities. It was bought – it cost a knighthood.

Softcover, square form, perfect bound published by the National Library of Australia. Profusely illustrated in colour over 78 pages. Scholarly narrative shared among a number of relevant experts. Both super and surprising.

Rex Nan Kivell – Cannot be repeated.

$25.00

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The Convict King (Jorgen Jorgenson) – James Francis Hogan – Rare Walch of Hobart issue 1891.

Rather scarce and no wonder given the paper wrappers. The long title worth detailing

The Convict King being The Romantic Life and Adventures of Jorgen Jorgenson who was for a time Monarch of Iceland, helped to Discover Bass Strait, was at the Founding of Hobart etc etc. and Closed His Extraordinary Career in the Hobart Hospital in 1845.

Published by J Walch & Sons, Tasmania. No date but 1891. Authority Ferguson 104889.

Interestingly for a book published by the famous Hobart printing firm – this book was actually printed by Kelly of London and Kingston on Thames, England.

Octavo, 235 pages, with advertisements for other contemporary Walch publications in the ends and on the back cover. Splitting a bit down the spine edge, now repaired and secured with acid free archival Japan paper.

Published as part of Walch’s Series of Books on Old Van Diemen’s Land – No 3. A very good copy despite any deficiencies given its rarity and obvious vulnerability.

The story of Jorgen Jorgenson is a full and strange one – at first hid life appears surely a fiction … but no this man was out for adventure and mixed with many who were making their own mark on the World and its History.

The Convict King a scarce edition for sure.

$180.00

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Skinner Prout in Australia 1840-48

The Story of Port Dalrymple [Tasmania] – L.S. Bethell

Tasmanian Rogues & Absconders 1803-1875 – Graeme-Evans

James Fenton of Forth – A Tasmanian Pioneer 1820-1901 – One of 100 special bound, signed and numbered copies.

The [Sir] Rex Nan Kivell Collection – Paradise Possessed

The Convict King (Jorgen Jorgenson) – James Francis Hogan – Rare Walch of Hobart issue 1891.

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