WALLIS, James. AN HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE COLONY 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. To which is subjoined an accurate map of Port Macquarie, and the newly discovered River Hastings, by John Oxley, Esq. Surveyor-General to the Territory.
Folio, with map, six double-page and six single-page engraved plates, tree-marbled boards with contemporary gilt-lettered red morocco label on the front board, rebacked and recornered in style, retaining the original endpapers (the front endpapers a little marked), an excellent copy. Rudolph Ackerman,1821.
Rare: the first book of general landscape views of early <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New South Wales, representing the first great celebration of the progress in the colony made under the civilising rule of Governor Macquarie. It is also the first plate book, properly so called, to consist entirely of plates engraved in the colony by a colonial engraver.
Engraved in <st1:city w:st="on">Newcastle, <st1:state w:st="on">New South Wales, where Wallis was Commandant, by the convict artist William Preston, who had earlier worked for Absalom West, the plates show scenes in <st1:city w:st="on">Sydney, <st1:city w:st="on">Newcastle and the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Hawkesbury <st1:placetype w:st="on">River, as well as an Aboriginal corroboree, and plates of kangaroos and black swans.
"Wallis's book has a most important position in a collection of Australian plate books. It is the first book of general landscape views of early New South Wales, representing the first great celebration of the progress in the colony made under the civilising rule of Governor Macquarie and, indeed, of Wallis himself. It is also the first plate book, properly so called, to consist entirely of plates engraved in the colony by a colonial engraver... Wallis's book of views should be in every serious collection of Australian plate books." (Wantrup). <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Ferguson, 842: Wantrup, 217a.
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