Primary Artist

J.W. Lewin (1770–1819)

Title

Birds of New South Wales with their natural history.

Physical description

A bound book of 18 etchings and 18 leaves of descriptive text

Source

Lewin, John. Birds of New South Wales with their natural history. Sydney: G. Howe, 1813

Page or Plate number

collection record

Date made

1813

Place made

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia View on map Close map

Category

Illustrated book

Print types

intaglio | relief

Matrix size

28.0 x 21.4 cm (page)

State

published state

Edition information

print run unknown

Collection

State Library of New South Wales

Accession number

Dixson Library copy at SAFE/Q81/9

Accession method

Purchase

Provenance

Anna Josepha King. inscribed on free end paper '18 plates' and 'A.J.King recd. [received?] January 6th, 1817'.

Anna Josepha King, wife of Governor P.G.King, subscribed for 1 copy of the 1808 edition (Governor King subscribed for 2).

By decent through the King family, probably purchased by Sir William Dixson from A. C. Mc King, 13 November 1933 for £ 50.

Subject categories

Australia, Book arts: Illustrated book | Australia, Art period: Colonial, New South Wales | Australia, Animal: Bird

Country of context

Australia

Notes

Dixson Library copy at SAFE/Q81/9 is inscribed on front flyleaf: "A.J. King, recd. January 6th, 1817." Armorial bookplate of William Dixson on front pastedown of a former binding of kangaroo skin, with which the copy is boxed. Copy now bound in quarter leather and marbled boards, with earlier cardboard wrappers bound in. Copy contains a 19th plate without letterpress, showing a second picture of a mountain bee-eater (the subject of plate 18). Copy imperfect: letterpress to plates 9 and 16 are facsimiles, on heavier paper than the rest. Plates have neither printed labels nor inscriptions, "Published as the act directs".

Phyllis Mander Jones (p.181) notes
A collation made in the Mitchell Library about 1923 notes that this flyleaf 'has in MS the words 18 plates and three inscriptions of previous owners' Two erasions have since been made on this flyleaf.
There is evidence of a number of inscriptions in this copy, but these have been bleached, what remains readable are children’s tables, it is unlikely that any inscription would change the provenance.

Creators

Lewin, J.W. | (1770–1819) Australian | English | Male | artist

Last Updated

12 Nov 2024