South Australia Illustrated

London: Thomas M'Lean, 1847. First Edition. Hardcover. London, Thomas M'Lean, 1847. Imperial folio, [12] pages, comprising a superb hand-coloured pictorial lithographed title page dated 1846 (verso blank); letterpress title page dated 1847 (verso blank); lithographed dedication (verso blank); Preface; 'General Remarks on the Aboriginal Inhabitants of South Australia' (3 pages); 'Subscribers to South Australia Illustrated' (2 pages, with 243 copies accounted for), plus 60 hand-coloured lithographs, each with accompanying descriptive letterpress (usually one leaf, occasionally more). Contemporary (if not original) half dark green morocco and matching cloth, the spine lettered and ruled in gilt, the front cover lettered in gilt; leather lightly worn at the corner tips, with the corner pieces slightly marked with minor surface loss; surface cracks to both joints, a little more pronounced on the front joint; slight damage to a small section of the front joint near the title; cloth slightly scuffed and marked; slight surface loss to silverfish to the marbled free endpapers, with a crease to the top corner of the front one; old conservation work to three leaves (the leading edge of the pictorial title leaf is neatly stabilised with a thin strip of tissue paper; ditto the leading and top edges of Plate 33, with tiny pieces of infill, and some short sealed tears to the top edge, well clear of the illustration; the lithographed dedication leaf has a vertical crease right of centre, and two short sealed tears to the leading edge); inconspicuous tiny tears to the edges of six leaves recently sealed; scattered foxing throughout, affecting most leaves of text and the plates (of the latter, 10 are moderately foxed; 20 have light to moderate foxing; 20 have minimal to light foxing; and 10 are unfoxed); overall, this is still a very appealing copy, foxing notwithstanding - and we have more than compensated for that when it came to determining a price ... The book is housed in a later plain Solander box; albeit more functional than decorative, it has certainly been up to the task of protecting the valuable contents. '"South Australia Illustrated" is without question Angas's greatest and most accomplished work. His views of towns and scenery, of the Aborigines and of the flora and fauna offer an outstanding - if romantic - interpretation of the Australian landscape. It is a very scarce book ... and one which has always been held in the highest esteem and is in great demand. It must be considered one of the fundamental works in any collection of Australian plate books' (Wantrup: 'Australian Rare Books, 1788-1900', second edition, 2023).