Hordern House

BARRINGTON, George An Account of a Voyage to New South Wales... [and] The History of New South Wales... London, Jones, 1810

Two volumes, octavo; a fine pair with both works completely uncut in original boards, later paper title-labels; handsome matching slipcases.

A beautiful uncut set of Barrington's famous pair of works, rare in this condition. The History, with its seventeen full-page plates, is the first book on the new colony to contain coloured illustrations of Sydney; these are also among the earliest engravings to show proper settlement - only Collins' Account of the Colony (1798) having any earlier depictions. Despite questions about its actual authorship, this is a substantial and important account of early Sydney. The preface claims with some justice that 'no prior attempt has been made to produce a complete history of the Country itself, from its discovery, and an account of its inhabitants, their customs and manners...'.

The matching Voyage volume provides considerable detail on eighteenth-century New South Wales not available elsewhere. It too is illustrated, with twelve full-page coloured plates, and a portrait of the notorious "author". Barrington had been transported on the Third Fleet of 1791, already a legend as a rogue, and over the next decade English publishers used his notoriety to produce books on transportation and the new colony for a public eager for information.

$A10000

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