An Australian birthday book / compiled by M.F. and J.B.S. Printed for private circulation only. (Presented by Mabel Fairfax Barr Smith and Jean Balfour St Clare Barr Smith to their younger sister, Joa

A$2,750 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Limited edition

Adelaide : George Robertson, 1883. Octavo (185 x 130 mm), original brown calf, upper board ruled and lettered in gilt (re-backed, boards scuffed and lightly marked); all edges gilt; original floral endpapers; title-page with presentation inscription by the compilers With Mabel Jean Barr Smith s Kind regards / March 2nd 1884 ; dedication with ownership signature of Joanna Fitzgerald Barr Smith, and beneath it her later married name Joanna Hawker; pp. 277 + [12] leaves with mounted albumen print photographs, some with later manuscript captions (one of the photographs is a stunning portrait of the beautiful Joanna herself); the printed text comprises verses for each day of the year facing a space for the owner s notes and autographs; the entries record many birthdays of family and friends, as well as events such as Joanna s wedding day on 13 July 1886 and the tragic death from rheumatic fever of her husband George Hawker after a fishing excursion at Port Victor on 15 February 1889; occasional light foxing, otherwise the contents, including the mounted photographs, are in good condition; loosely inserted is a later owner s manuscript note about the book and its contents. Rare privately printed and circulated book, with original photographs, created by members of the Barr Smith family for members of their own and associated families from Adelaide s social elite (Marryat, Giles, Bagot, Luxmoore, Gosse, Blakesley, Montgomerie, Sowerby, Cockburn, inter alia). This work is designed fo

• Binding: Hardcover

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