Sydney Illustrated

Editio princeps. In exceptionally rare original colour. The author's copy, with his signature [John Rae]. With the original watercolour drawing for the title page, signed by the artist [John Skinner Prout]. Sydney Illustrated by J.S. Prout. With letter press description by J. Rae. M.A. Sydney and Hobart, [1842-1844] (see note below) Prout’s earliest Australian book: one of the rarest and best Australian view books. The beautiful seminal work is the freest and most artistically successful of all depictions of the city of Sydney. Condition First edition, Quarto (355 x 245mm.), lithographed pictorial title page with a vignette of “The Tombs, Garden Island” and 14 plates, all but 3 coloured by hand, 2 double-page, and a double-page map, all backed on linen, 42 pages of text, modern green half morocco. A rare coloured copy. With the ownership entries of John Rae (the author of the text), Gladys Hill, and Cecil A. Holland. “the metropolis of a new world” : Prout’s marvellous views of Sydney Ferguson notes that "the plates are sometimes found coloured'', citing a presentation copy from Rae. This copy bears his signature on the upper free endleaf, and in addition on the opposite paste-down contains a watercolour by Prout, signed, which has been mounted into the binding. The watercolour is reproduced as the pictorial title to this work. The main difference in the two is that a figure in the foreground of the watercolour is omitted in the printed version. "John Skinner Prout was the nephew of the more famous Samuel Prout. He was born in England in 1806 and went to Australia in 1840. He returned to England in 1848, where he died in 1876. He was the first artist of any merit to go to Australia, and by his teaching, and by his endeavours to foster an interest in art, he had considerable influence on early Australian painting". (Abbey) Abbey devotes some space to a discussion of the date of the work, which was issued in parts, as "the title-page is very difficult to read'' - quite true. He eventually plumps for 1844 (as does Ferguson), though it is clear that the date given on the title-page in this copy ends either with a 3 or 5. John Skinner Prout was the first important colonial artist to produce a series of fine plate books since the departure from the colony of Augustus Earle. In June 1842 Prout advertised for subscribers to a series of lithographed views of Sydney to be published in parts and to be accompanied by letterpress descriptions by John Rae, the first full-time town clerk of Sydney. Although virtually the entire work (including the tinted lithographed title-page) was printed in Sydney by “J.S. Prout, Australian Lithographic Establishment”, the last two plates and the map were printed in Hobart by Tasmanian engraver and printer Thomas Bluett. Bluett also printed a plain lithographed title-page with his imprint that is found in the collective issue of the complete work. Prout had visited Tasmania in January 1844 and determined to settle there. While in Hobart he had decided to conclude his obligations to his Sydney subscribers as quickly as possible. Completing the Sydney series on the spot, he made use of Bluett’s recently arrived press to print the final plates and double-page map in Hobart. “Artistically and historically John Skinner Prout played a most important part in the development of Australian art and of the Australian plate book. Where earlier colonial topographical art had been constrained by the paramount demands of topographical accuracy in the representation of scenery, Prout was more concerned with painting and lithography as a form of art free of the restrictions of topographical convention. Furthermore, his enthusiastic advocacy of the arts helped to educate taste and to spread the popular acceptance of art in the colonies.” (Wantrup) Literature Ferguson 3891; Abbey, Travel 576; Wantrup, 227a (requiring revision).