An Account of the State of Agriculture & Grazing in New South Wales…
An Account of the State of Agriculture & Grazing in New South Wales; including Observations on the Soils and General Appearance of the Country, and Some of its most Useful Natural Productions; with an Account of the Various Methods of Clearing and Improving Lands, Breeding and Grazing Live Stock, Erecting Buildings, the System of Employing Convicts, and the Expense of Labour Generally; Mode of Applying for Grants of Land; with Other Information Important to Those who are about to Emigrate to that Country: the Result of Several Years' Residence and Practical Experience in those Matters in the Colony. By James Atkinson, Esq. of Oldbury, Argyle County, New South Wales, and Formerly Principal Clerk in the Office of the Colonial Secretary at Sydney.
London: J. Cross, 1826.
Tall octavo, with the rare coloured folding frontispiece and four aquatint plates (three in colour), & large folding map by J. Cross, half-title, an excellent copy in the original full calf binding with the gilt stamp of the prestigous Signet Library on front cover.
With the rare Sydney panorama and folding map
A famous rarity: one of very few early colour-plate books on Australia, and an especially good copy, this is the special issue complete with the extra large folding map and the panoramic coloured view of Sydney. Copies were available with or without these (expensive) additions. The highly decorative map is dedicated to Captain Phillip Parker King, who had just completed his cartographic work on the vessels Mermaid and Bathurst.
A famous rarity: one of very few early colour-plate books on Australia, and an especially good copy, this is the special issue complete with the extra large folding map and the panoramic coloured view of Sydney. Copies were available with or without these (expensive) additions. The highly decorative map is dedicated to Captain Phillip Parker King, who had just completed his cartographic work on the vessels Mermaid and Bathurst.
The first book on Australian agriculture, it was written by a noted early settler, father of the novelist Louisa Atkinson, and first husband of Charlotte Barton, author of the first Australian children's book. Atkinson's account of the agricultural and pastoral frontier, based on several years' personal experience, is at once a practical guide and a descriptive survey of the agricultural districts and large establishments.
A remarkably attractive book, it is well illustrated with aquatints of very fine quality. The splendid folding frontispiece, one of the best early printed views of Sydney, is probably based on the painting by Richard Read now in the National Library of Australia. Another of the plates is important as the earliest published ground-plan of an Australian house, offered by Atkinson as appropriate to the requirements of a pioneering agriculturist. Broadbent (The Australian Colonial House) suggests that Atkinson's design was modelled on Oldbury, the house that he had built in the early 1820s. Rebuilt in 1828, it is now the oldest surviving house in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. The other three hand-coloured aquatints show scenes from an "exploring party" of two settlers and three Aborigines, one of the latter in European clothes.
Few people of this period were actively promoting farming in Australia. In 1826 Atkinson accompanied Charles Macarthur to Saxony to buy sheep -- and he anticipated "some future and not distant period, when these vast and in many places fertile plains, shall be covered by productive flocks and herds, and enlivened by the presence and industry of civilised men" (An Account, p.7).
Through his own farming endeavours as well as his writing — in particular this seminal work — Atkinson was "trying to raise the efficiency of farming in New South Wales; ploughing competitions, stock breeding, cheese making and dingo eradication all claimed his attention… The Agricultural and Horticultural Society regarded it as a judicious and ably written treatise, and awarded him a gold medal" (ADB).
Provenance: Signet Library, Edinburgh, with gilt stamp and internal shelf marking.
Abbey, Travel, 572; Ferguson, 1054.
Condition Report: Folding map and panorama of Sydney silked, some ageing to edges and early repairs to spine.
Price (AUD): $37,500.00
US$26,281.66 Other currencies