PHILLIP, Governor Arthur

The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay.

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John Stockdale, London, 1789. Quarto, portrait and engraved title, seven folding engraved charts and 46 engraved plates, engraved title-page in first state (with "H. Webber invt."), with the list of subscribers and terminal advertisements, earlier state 'Kangooroo' and later state 'Vulpine' plates, page 122 misnumbered 221, titlepage neatly repaired along gutter, and some foxing; overall, an excellent copy in period-style tree calf, gilt, with morocco spine label. A wonderful copy, with superb original colouring, and with the title in the first state. One of the most beautiful eighteenth-century Australian books, this and the coloured White of the following year must be counted the two most significant books of the early settlement, and both are now very scarce indeed; for some reason, coloured issues of Phillip's journal have proved very much harder to come by than the coloured issue of White.

Phillip's book provides the official account of the first settlement of Australia. Based on the governor's journals and despatches and assembled into book form by the London publisher Stockdale, this is - as the official record - the single most important book to describe the journey to Botany Bay and the foundations of modern Australia. It describes the events from March 1787, just before the First Fleet sailed from the Isle of Wight, up to September 1788. There is a chapter dealing with the fauna of New South Wales, appendices detailing the routes of various ships to Botany Bay, from Botany Bay to Norfolk Island and from Port Jackson to various other ports, and finally a list of convicts sent to New South Wales. The book also contains some excellent maps by John Hunter and William Dawes, including the first of the Sydney Cove settlement, which shows in detail the buildings and "progress" which had been made by July 1788.

Davidson summarises the importance of this volume: 'Being the authentic record of first settlement the work's importance cannot be over-emphasised, and no collection [of Australiana] can be complete without a copy', and Wantrup notes that 'as a detailed and officially sanctioned account of the new colony, the first edition of Stockdale's Phillip is a key work and essential to any serious collection of Australian books'.

• AUD 68,000.00 > 其他币种价格
• 订书号：: 701_774

• 书商: Hordern House (AUSTRALIA)