Queensland

Silvester Diggles – Australian Birds – Pied Honey-eater, Slender-billed Spine-bill and the White eye-browed Spine-bill

Rare original hand-coloured lithograph by Queensland naturalist Silvester Diggles. Published as part of his magnificent work “”The Ornithology of Australia” between 1866 and 1870 in twenty-one parts by Pugh of Brisbane, in a very limited edition. By the time part sixteen was published there were only 92 subscribers. The original plates were executed by Diggles and his niece, Rowena Birkett.

The work measures 38cm by 27cm, good hand colouring pretty clean with just the odd surface mark. A really scarce item.

Silvester Diggles (1817-1880) artist and musician born in Liverpool, England. He came to Australia in 1853 settling in Brisbane where he taught music and drawing. Diggles was a founder of the Brisbane Choral Society in 1859 and the Philharmonic Society in 1861 known as “the father of music in Brisbane”. Diggles was also a founder of the Queensland Philosophical Society and helped establish the Museum. His greatest work was The Ornithology of Australia. However it nearly sent him broke. His health deteriorated worry about finances being a factor. He died at Kangaroo Point in 1880.

Price $240.00 unframed

An opportunity to own a rare original bird print by Queenslander Silvester Diggles

$190.00

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Geological Survey Cape York, Horn Island, Possession Island Queensland etc – C.F.V Jackson 1902 – Excellent Maps

Queensland Department of Mines Geological Survey Report No 180.

Report on a Visit to the West Coast of the Cape York Peninsula and Some Islands of the Gulf of Carpentaria also, Reports on the Horn Island and Possession Island Gold Fields, and the Recent Prospecting of the Cretaceous Coast of the Cook District.

By C.F.V. Jackson, Assistant Government Geologist.

Octavo, staple bound. 23 pages with images from photographs and four maps, a broader map of the regions and three folding coloured maps of the South Wellesly Islands (Bentick, Fowler and Sweers); the Horn Island Goldfield and Horn Island. Slight browning to map edges, still a very good copy of a scarce item. Good maps.

As often the geologist travels significant ground taking in Cox Creek, Wilkinson range, Mitchell River, Wellesly Islands, Horn Island, Possession Island etc with good detail on the topography of the land and various anthropological finds along the way. He discovered aboriginal middens of enormous proportions estimated to have taken several hundred years to form. He mentions bauxite at Weipa … to become one of the world’s largest deposits of that mineral.

Clements Frederick Vivian Jackson (1873-1955) was a very talented engineer, initially in the Civil file and then Mining. He designed an built bridges over the Bremer River near Ipswich and received the London Institute of Civil Engineers Prize for his bridge over the Burdekin an Charters Towers. He moved into the geology / mining filed and after conducting the work subject to this reports was involved in the geological survey of Western Australia. Returning to Queensland he rose to the highest position, that of State Mining Engineer

Scarce report on important locations with excellent maps.

$90.00

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Report on Australian Languages and Traditions (Parts I and II Complete) – Rev William Ridley MA – 1872/3

An original extract from the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 1872/73 pages 257-291. Octavo, soft modern wraps for protection, very good copies.

William Ridley (1919-1878) a supporter of the aboriginal community and compiler of languages .. a talented linguist. He arrived in Sydney in 1850 at the request of Rev J.D. Lang. Ordained and went to the New England are which he expanded into Moreton Bay and the Darling Downs. For financial reasons he later took on the roles of pastoralist and Journalist. He continued his interest in the aboriginal people and was the author of a landmark book on the Kumilaroi, Dippil and Turrubul people published in 1866.

These significant papers start with the detail of a thousand plus mile tour around outback NSW. This report is notes to be supplementary to the aforementioned book. Lists “new words” of Paces, with their meaning; Additional Words and Phrases in Kamilaroi, Wailwun etc; Pikumbul – spoken on the Macintyre. He goes on to deal with Social Classification, and Laws of Marriage and Descent; Religious and Mythical Traditions; The Bora; Funeral rites; the Krodjis and their Enchantments; the Recollections of Billy Murri Bundar; Traditions Concerning the Stars [especially interesting to Voyager].

In Part II, Ridley presents his own work on the Kamilaroi, Turrubul and Dippil alongside Gunther and Watson’s on the Wirradhurri, Daniel Bunce in Victoria and Hume on the West Coast. Presenting key words in tabular form.

Rare publication of supplementary work on aboriginal languages and customs by authority William Ridley

$60.00

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Queensland Branch of the Royal Geographical Society – Proceedings 1887 – Interesting Papuan Expedition, Queensland Mountains etc

Vol II part 2 of the 1886-8 Proceedings and Transactions of the Society. Extremely scarce.

Octavo. Printed paper wrappers as issued pages 76-126 after preliminaries, notices etc. Interesting to see Tenison-Woods in attendance at the Meeting. Printed by Watson, Ferguson $ Co of Queens Street, Brisbane. Still surviving Watson Ferguson commenced in 1871 and are Queensland oldest printing business.

A few edge chips and a reference label top front left otherwise very good condition

The journal contains some interesting reports including C.T. Bedford surveying trip from Boulia to the South Australian Border, the Mountains of Queensland by N. Bartley (author of Opals and Agates and his Reminiscences).

The highlight though is the Journal of Mr George Hunter on an Expedition from Kappa Kappa to the Heads of the Kemp Welch River, British New Guinea with a good folding map illustration the journey. Anyone who has been to this part of Papua will remember the beautiful beaches around the Kappa Kappa area.

Early Queensland Geographical Society Publication – Interesting Explorations and Observations on the People of Papua and the Kappa Kappa / Rigo Region

$90.00

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The Magnificent Rifle Bird – Lesson -1838

Original hand coloured engraving for Rene Primevere Lesson (1794-1849) and his extension of the great natural history work originally produced by Count Buffon. Published in Paris in 1838.

Thick cream paper 26cm by 16cm … external framed dimensions approximately 38cm by 28cm … nice for the study ….

This beautiful bird inhabits Papua New Guinea and the Northern tip of Australia around the Cape.

Lesson participated as doctor and naturalist in the Duperry voyage round the world on board La Coquille (1822-1825).

Price Framed in Voyager Natural History style – $240.00 or unframed $130.00

Striking original image of the beautiful Magnificent Rifle Bird

$130.00

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A Journal of the Endeavour Voyager – James Magra

This is a fine facsimile published by Israel Amsterdam in 1967. Note titles “Cook” by Israel but not the author.

The original account … A Journal of a Voyage Round the World in His Majesty’s Ship Endeavour, in the Years 1768,1769,1770 and 1771 etc published by Becket and Hondt in the Strand in 1791. Quarto, 130 pages plus 3 pages of vocabulary of the language of Otahitee.

Published two years before the official Hawkesworth account in 1793 and now generally attributed to James Magra.

James Magra was a New Yorker and American sympathiser and accordingly to James Cook a man of dubious quality. Almost impossible to find in original form … this was the first published book describing the East Coast of Australia and includes for example reference to Stingray Bay the name given to Botany Bay by James Cook before the latter was adopted sometime before Hawkesworth.

Magra’s account and essential Cook ingredient

$80.00

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Silvester Diggles – Australian Birds – Pied Honey-eater, Slender-billed Spine-bill and the White eye-browed Spine-bill

Geological Survey Cape York, Horn Island, Possession Island Queensland etc – C.F.V Jackson 1902 – Excellent Maps

Report on Australian Languages and Traditions (Parts I and II Complete) – Rev William Ridley MA – 1872/3

Queensland Branch of the Royal Geographical Society – Proceedings 1887 – Interesting Papuan Expedition, Queensland Mountains etc

The Magnificent Rifle Bird – Lesson -1838

A Journal of the Endeavour Voyager – James Magra

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