Tasmania

[‘The Sicilians are not quite so well disposed towards us’: Edward Foord Bromley, Royal Navy surgeon and source of Tasmanian scandal.] Autograph Letter Signed to Sir Sidney Smith, from HMS America at Palermo, describing the unsettled state of Sicily.

Author: 
Edward Foord Bromley (1776-1836), Royal Navy surgeon and Naval Officer at Hobart Town, Tasmania, putative embezzler [Sir Sidney Smith; HMS America; Sicily; Sicilians]
Publication details: 
‘H M Ship America Palermo. / Septr 11. 1813.’
£180.00

An excellent letter, describing the state of affairs in Sicily during the period of British occupation, 1806-1814. The recipient Sir Sidney Smith (see Oxford DNB) was second in command to Sir Edward Pellew, head of the Mediterranean squadron which included Bromley’s ship HMS America, a 76-gun third-rater, launched only three years before, in 1810. The present letter is written with the ship on the verge of a notable engagement (described in the European Magazine, March 1814, pp.245-247, quoting from the London Gazette). From Bromley’s entry by P. R.

[David Davies ('Dai'r Cantwr'), the Rebecca Riots and Transportation to Australia: Victorian Welsh street ballad.] Printed poem, titled: 'Can Hiraethlon David Davies (Dai'r Cantwr,) Pan yn Garcharor yng Nghaerfyrddin, am y Terfysg yn amser Becca'.

Author: 
David Davies (c.1812-1874), Welsh poet known as Dai'r Cantwr (David the Singer), transported to Van Diemen's Land after the Rebecca Riots [nineteenth-century Welsh street ballad]
Publication details: 
No place or date. [Welsh, late Victorian.]
£280.00

The full title reads: 'Can Hiraethlon | David Davies (Dai'r Cantwr,) | Pan yn Garcharor yng Nghaerfyrddin, am y Terfysg yn amser Becca. | Cenir ar y dôn “Roslin Castle.'” The title may be translated as 'A nostalgic song, written when a prisoner in Carmarthen, for the riot in Becca's time. | Sung to the tune of 'Roslin Castle'. 4pp, 12mo (15.5 x 9 cm). Paginated [1]-4. Disbound. A frail survival: aged and worn, with damp-stain along one edge. Beneath the title is a small vignette of a sailing ship, and at the end of the final page is another of a crown. Poem in four sixteen-line stanzas.

[ William Johnstone, General Merchant of Launceston, Van Diemen's Land [ Tasmania ].] Manuscript accounts of six Australian firms with him: William Bayles; Henry Burge; Westgarth, Ross & Co.; Lewis Cohen; Du Croz, Nichols & Co.; Moses Moss.

Author: 
William Johnstone (c.1819-1874), General Merchant, Launceston, Van Diemen's Land [ Tasmania ]; William Bayles; Henry Burge; Westgarth, Ross & Co.; Lewis Cohen; Du Croz, Nichols & Co.; Moses Moss
Publication details: 
[ Launceston, Van Diemen's Land [ Tasmania ]; and Sydney and Melbourne, Australia. ] Between 1853 and 1866.
£450.00

See William Johnstone's obituary in the Illustrated Tasmanian News, May 1874. He was born in England and left Somerset for Van Diemen's Land in 1841. He set up in business the following year in Launceston, which had been founded in 1806, and is said to be the third oldest colonial settlement in Australia, after Sydney and Hobart..As the years proceeded he prospered spectacularly, and by the time of his death he was so highly esteemed, that 'many places of business had the front windows partially closed while the shipping in port and the Town Hall had the Union Jack hoisted at half mast'.

[ Independent Tasmanian Ships Limited, State of Tasmania. ] Printed 'Prospectus of an Issue at Par of 496,993 Ordinary Shares of £1 each' (in order to set up a 'Tasmanian Shipping Line'), with two copies of a 'Form of Application'.

Author: 
Independent Tasmanian Ships Limited, State of Tasmania, Australia [ The Van Diemen's Land Company, London and Tasmania ]
Publication details: 
Independent Tasmanian Ships Limited [ c/o Messrs. Wise, Lord & Ferguson, 19 Stewart Street, Devonport, Tasmania. ] [ Chalcraft Press, 123 Regent Street, Sydney. ]
£80.00

[28]pp., 4to. Stapled into grey printed wraps. Illustrated with photographs; centrepage spread of matching tables giving 'Weekly Potato Shipments' from Tasmania to Sydney, in 1937 and 1956. On glossy art paper. Both prospectus and inserts in fair condition, on lightly aged and worn paper. Stamp of the Van Diemen's Land Company on front cover, with ownership inscription 'C. C. Carter'.

[ Sir John Eardley-Wilmot, Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land. ] Autograph Signature ('Eardley Wilmot') as frank, on cover of envelope addressed to William Hulton at Leamington Priors.

Author: 
Sir John Eardley-Wilmot, 1st Baronet (1783-1847), successively MP for North Warwickshire and Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land [ Tasmania ]; abolitionist
Publication details: 
'Coventry September thirty 1836'.
£28.00

On the front cover of an 8 x 13 cm. envelope. With intact small seal in red wax at back. Aged and worn. Reads: 'Coventry September thirty 1836 | William Hulton Esq | Leamington Priors | Eardley Wilmot'.

[ Mrs Humphry Ward, English novelist. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('Mary A. Ward') to 'My dear Violet'

Author: 
Mrs Humphry Ward [ Mary Augusta Ward, neé Arnold ] (1851-1920), English novelist, born in Tasmania
Publication details: 
On letterhead of Stocks, Tring. 12 March 1895.
£38.00

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium with mourning border. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. She apologises for the delay in writing, explaining: 'my hand has been dreadfully lame, & I have no secretary'. She explains that she has spoken to 'Mr. Craufurd' regarding the cottage, but that there is 'an old lady here, the widow of a farmer, a certain Mrs. Mead, who is supposed by Mr. Craufurd to have a prior claim'. She discusses whether Mrs Mead truly wants the cottage, and the possibility of making alterations to it, ending with remembrances to the recipient's father and mother.

[Pamphlet] [Letter] To the Chairman and Directors of The Van Diemen's Land Company

Author: 
[Van Diemen's Land] James Bailey
Publication details: 
[Letter headed] Penrose, Penrose Junction, Auckland, New Zealand, 10 August 1881.
£85.00

Eight pages, 4to, unbound as issued, fold marks (sl. grubby), mainly good condition. A report of the Company's properties in Tasmania. Copies held by several Australian libraries.

Engravings of New Zealand, Australia, Tasmania, etc., from De Sainson, and two maps, in Vol.3 [Tomo III] of the Spanish edition of Dumont D'Urville's 'Voyage Pittoresque' ('Viaje Pintoresco al Rededor del Mundo').

Author: 
M. Dumont D'Urville, Capitan de Navio [Louis Auguste de Sainson (1801-1887), official artist on board Dumont D'Urville's L'Astrolabe, during its three months' tour of New Zealand in 1827]
Publication details: 
Barcelona. Imprenta y Libreria de Juan Oliveres, Calle de Escudellers, Núm. 53. 1841.
£350.00

The 77 plates (uncoloured steel engravings) are in 4to format, in good condition, on lightly-aged paper, in the third volume of the work ([4] + 318 + [1]pp., 4to), which is in a worn contemporary brown leather half-binding with marbled paper covers. Most of the plates carry two half-page illustrations. 28 of the plates (between pp.66 and 167; and carrying 52 illustrations, 48 of them half-page and 4 full-page) concern New Zealand, Australia and Tasmania, with the majority relating to New Zealand. These show views, fauna, inhabitants, atrefacts, and incidents on D'Urville's voyage.

[Tasmania.] Long Autograph Letter Signed from Hamilton S. Dove ('Hamilton') in Tasmania to 'Kate' [Miss M. K. Dove of Wandsworth, London, England], discussing a variety of topics, including the 'roasting weather'. With two newspaper cuttings.

Author: 
Hamilton S. Dove (b.1861) of Tasmania [Australia]
Publication details: 
Devonport, Tasmania. 31 January 1930.
£120.00

4pp., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. In stamped and postmarked envelope addressed to 'Miss M. K. Dove | 3 Brodrick Road | Wandsworth Common | London S.W.17'. Topics include the 'roasting weather' ('many of the paddocks are covered in cornstacks, but people with lawns are sighing, as the grass is brown & parched'), with the whole of the last page (dated 4 July) discussing it; his friends the Luttrell family ('You remember my telling you about Ed. Luttrell's brother, a retired farmer who lives at Sheffield near Mt. Roland'); Rev. Jennings-Smith, 'who came from England to N.S.

[Alexander Hattrick, carpenter, or R. Turnbull.] 28 illustrations: depicting Australian scenes (panoramas of North Head Quarantine Station; Farm Cove, Sydney; Hobart, Tasmania) and a narrative of an excursion to Nurstead Woods, Kent.

Author: 
[Alexander Hattrick or R. Turnbull; Alexander Hatrick (1857-1918), New Zealand merchant; Pacific Steam Navigation Co.; North Head Quarantine Station, Sydney; Nurstead Woods, Kent; 'Swift Sure' whaler]
Publication details: 
One item with date 'May 1893'. All twelve items on stationery of the Pacific Steam Navigation Co., including eight 'Soundings' forms, filled in 'For Chief Engineer', signed 'Alex Hattrick', and dated 25 March and 2, 7, 8, 11, 18, 24, 29 June [1893?]
£850.00

28 illustrations: 3 of which depict Australian scenes (panoramas of North Head Quarantine Station; Farm Cove, Sydney; Hobart, Tasmania) with a cartoon/narrative of an excursion to Nurstead Woods, Kent. One item with date 'May 1893'. All twelve items on stationery of the Pacific Steam Navigation Co., including eight 'Soundings' forms, filled in 'For Chief Engineer', signed 'Alex Hattrick', and dated 25 March and 2, 7, 8, 11, 18, 24, 29 June [1893?] One item with date 'May 1893'. The twelve items in fair condition, on lightly aged and worn paper. Charmingly-executed in a naive style.

[Sir George Grey, Whig Home Secretary.] Autograph Letter in the third person to Rev. Reginald Smith, regarding 'the selection of a gentleman to fill the office of Chaplain at the Portland Convict Depôt'.

Author: 
Sir George Grey (1799-1882), Liberal Home Secretary, 1846-52, 1855-58, 1861-66 [Reginald Southwell Smith (1809-1896), Canon of Salisbury; Portland Convict Depot; transportation; penal servitude]
Publication details: 
Whitehall. 22 July 1847.
£180.00

2pp., 12mo. In fair condition, on aged paper, with traces of mount adhering at head of reverse of leaf. Regarding Smith's 'note with reference to the selection of a gentleman to fill the office of Chaplain at the Portland Convict Depôt', he writes that he must 'defer the consideration of this question, as it must necessarily be yet some considerable period before the works at the Island are sufficiently advanced for the reception of Convicts'.

The Deportation of the Norfolk Islanders to the Derwent in 1808. I. The Settlement of Norfolk Island. II. The Deportation to the Derwent.

Author: 
Jack Backhouse Walker [Norfolk Island deportation, 1808; Derwent; Tasmania; Van Diemen's Land]
Publication details: 
Tasmania: William Grahame, Jun., Government Printer, Hobart. 1895.
£75.00

12mo: 26 pp. In original printed wraps. Stapled pamphlet. Unopened. The only copies on COPAC at the British Library and Oxford. For more information about Walker (1841-1899) see his entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Oliver A. Fry') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Oliver Armstrong Fry (b.c.1855), editor of 'Vanity Fair' from 1889 to 1904
Publication details: 
20 April 1898; 141 Portsdown Road, W. [London], on 'Vanity Fair' letterhead.
£35.00

12mo, 1 p. On first leaf of a bifolium. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. In reply to the recipient's note, by which he is 'much worried', Fry does not know that he can offer him 'any more than the few short notes <?> for us in "Men & Women of the Times". Little is known about Fry, apart from the fact that he was born in Van Diemen's Land, the son of the Church of England clergyman Henry Phibbs Fry (c.1807-1874).

Offprint titled 'Observations on the rearing, migration, transport, feeding, ages, and growth of eels. By Mons. Coste.'

Author: 
Jean Jacques Marie Cyprien Victor Coste (1807-1873) [eel fishing; eels; farming; farms; piscatory; angling; anglers]
Publication details: 
(From THE FIELD, June 19, 1858.)
£25.00

12mo bifolium: 4 pp. Printed on grey paper. Very good. Small print.

Autograph Letter, third person, to a Miss Maxwell

Author: 
J.E. Bicheno,
Publication details: 
(2 May 1830)
£30.00

Colonial secretary , Van Diemen's Land. 1.5pp., 8vo. He discusses the physical composition of a necklace. (Bicheno's works on Law and the Irish economy are listed on the reverse in a different hand.)

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